Travel Log
6/4/12
Arrival in Dublin
I began to
see differences between Ireland and America the second we stepped off the
plane. The first thing I noticed were signs.
The exit signs were green and white and the symbol looks like a person
jumping out a window. There were two
languages on every sign. One was English and the other we soon found out to be
Gaelic. More often than not in America, we see signs in both English and
Spanish, so this element of Irish culture was not a new concept to us; it was
only the Gaelic language that was unfamiliar.
Proceeding out of the airport we
realized that there were actually very few differences between Ireland and
home. Our guide, Ida had an accent but besides that she seemed just like anyone
you would meet in the states. She had a very sarcastic and grim sense of humor
and she asked us just as many questions as we asked her.
After we dropped our luggage off at
the hotel we had a short bus tour around Dublin and went to see The Book of
Kells at Trinity College. I, myself am not a religious person so the
significance was lost on me, but the library inside was incredible. After we
toured the exhibit, our jetlag began to catch up with us so we sat out on the
lawn in the courtyard and people-watched until it was time to leave. We noticed
no significant differences in behaviors. Kids ran and played as their parents
watched from a close distance. People talked on the phone and drank their
coffee and laid in the grass.
We then took a trip to St.
Patrick’s Cathedral. The history and architecture was incredible there. Ida did
inform us about the religious conflict in Ireland. There is a vast mix of
Protestants and Catholics. She told us that the Irish people have sort of
morphed their own religion by combining beliefs/rituals of both. This is a
definite difference from the U.S. because we have so many different religions.
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