Week 6: The Staples of Dublin

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Molly Pults

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Molly Pults

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hello :) <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> College of Saint Benedict <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2024 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Dublin, Ireland <i>Program provider:</i> FIE: Foundation for International Education <i>Major/minor:</i> Exercise and Health Science / Pre-PT <i>Demographics:</i> Caucasian/White <i>Future career aspirations:</i> After finishing my bachelor's at the College of Saint Benedict, I intend to earn my doctorate in physical therapy at another school (3 years). I'm not entirely sure which one yet, but hopefully one in Minnesota. Then I want to be a practicing physical therapist on a sports team, but if that is not possible, I'm perfectly happy working in a clinic! <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> 1. Walk and explore the city of Dublin as well as visiting Cork and Galway. 2. Go to a professional soccer game or as most Europeans call it: a football game. 3. Finally, try their coffee and a wide variety of food.

This week, my family came to visit me in Ireland! My parents and one of my brothers came, and I realized I hadn’t done any of the essential experiences in Dublin. And well, they like me enough to pay for me when visiting sites. Starting off we went to the EPIC Museum which talked about Irish immigrants and their impact on their world. Compared to the rest of Dublin, this a fairly new museum being about 8 years old. That being said it was still a very cool museum and well worth the visit. It tackled issues from sports to music to immigration to various countries. Additionally, it had very cool art exhibits inside contributing to the atmosphere.

Next day, we went to visit Trinity College. Inside of Trinity College, we went to see the Book of Kells and the expansive library they have. The Book of Kells has beautiful writing and illustrations and tells us about the 4 gospels of Christianity. Compared to how much I’ve heard and read about it, it’s smaller than you would imagine when seeing it in person. That does not make it any less impressive. And, what’s really interesting about it is that they change the pages every couple of days, and me and my dad were joking around about “how much a person would get paid to flip the book of Kells. And how do we get that job?” After seeing the book, they led us upstairs to the library which is gorgeous. Vast rows and columns of books, a book lover’s dream. In the middle of the library, they also had the Brian Boru harp. Boru was a famous king of Ireland and is thought to have ended the Viking occupation of Ireland, also conveniently played the harp. This harp in particular is from the medieval ages and we are not sure if he actually played this one, but still very amazing to see its survival.

Finally, our last stop and the last day my family was here was the day we went to the Guinness Storehouse. Now, I have not been to a ton of brewery tours but I get why this is the big one. It’s absolutely huge with at least 5 floors, while having various opportunities to spend your money, :) We went through the self guided tour, where they told us about the founder of Guinness. As you went along they told you about the creation of Guinness where the barley has to be roasted at 232 degrees Celsius and how they created their wooden barrels. Then we got to the tasting room in where they allowed us to smell the different ingredients, and they have a tiny shot of Guinness trying to taste all the flavors that we just smelled. Then we were able to order our pint of Guinness, which we could have printed our face on top but we decided not to. Instead we got ours the old fashioned way, and drank it on top of the gravity lounge which gives us an extensive view of Dublin. Then our tour was at an end. Highly recommend the Guinness Storehouse if you get the chance.