It is crazy to think about how little time we have left in Ireland, and although the time has gone by so fast, when looking back on what we have done over the course of the trip it has felt like an entire summer, not just a little more than a month.
Something new that I experienced this past week was getting a tattoo. I had thought about getting one for a while, and I figured that getting one while I’m here would be a great way to remember the trip, and also to go to a more reputable tattoo artist in a big city instead of going in a more rural area back home or having to travel somewhere. I was really happy with how it turned out, it was incredible to see how skilled the artist was on such an unorthodox canvas, and I was honestly pretty surprised at how little it hurt. After the tattoo, we celebrated the 4th out on the town by only consuming American products.
The next day I went to the Hozier concert at Marlay Park, which is a massive outdoor venue on the outskirts of Dublin. It was so awesome being able to see a hometown show and crowd, and although I haven’t been to too many concerts, I think it is safe to say that it is one of the best shows I will see for a while. The crowd was insane, both in size and in passion, and it really felt like he was trying to put on an extra good show for his home country. The one issue with the size of the crowd was the difficulty associated with leaving Marlay Park, which took a really long time to leave, followed by a very long walk to a Luas stop that didn’t have a million people at it.
My eventful weekend continued on Saturday, when a few friends and I truly experienced the Gaelic Games with a trip to Croke Park, the premiere GAA stadium in Ireland. We got to see Clare take in Kilkenny on the Senior Hurling Championships Semifinals, and all week we had been hearing from locals that Clare would advance to the final in a hard fought battle, so I made sure to hit the Sportsbook and put a couple euro on a Clare victory. A hard fought battle it was, as Clare, after being down at halftime, clawed their way back to sneak out a victory within the last few minutes. Hurling is incredible, and the match was one of the best things I’ve done all trip.
Sunday, we went up to Belfast, Northern Ireland to see a museum in the shipyard where the Titanic was built. Later in the day, we went on a taxi tour of the city, trying to better understand the centuries of religious conflict that define the area. It was really crazy to see how segregated the two halves of the city are, and the remnants of defense measures and murals from when the violence between the IRA and the UDA was at its peak. Belfast felt a lot less welcoming and friendly than Dublin has, and it definitely has to do with their brutal history of political and religious turmoil. On Monday we saw some of the natural beauty that the North had to offer, including the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and the Giants Causeway. The latter was probably my favorite part of our trip to Northern Ireland, as we had an incredibly informative and charismatic tour guide show us around the stunning Basalt towers, while sharing the mythology, history, and geology of the area with us.
