Wicklow Tour

Hello All!

Dublin is not what I expected. We are staying in a hostel on the north side of Dublin, and apparently the south side is a little nicer with more historical sites. We learned today that in the 1920's there were small revolutions between the British and the Irish, and the British sailed up the channel that we came in on yesterday and bombed much of Dublin. This is why much of the north side of town is newer and more industrial.
When I arrived in Dublin yesterday, I was surprised that the Irish are not the stereotypical red headed, green eyed people that I had imagined. They are much darker with dark hair and dark eyes. When I spoke about this to Tony (our tour guide for the day), he said that the original Celtic Irish are from a Mediterranean region of Spain. So actually, the Irish look more like me than I ever could have imagined. Also, the Irish are for the most part so nice. I am really enjoying my time here. The Irish are very fond of the other "celts" which are the Scottish and the Welsh, so I am actually learning alot of my welsh family history. They are really NEAT people....I'm liking being part celtic.

This tour we went on was GORGEOUS. Since the Dublin airport was closed today, no one but us and 3 other people showed up for the tour, so we basically we had a private tour all day long.
Our Wicklow tour started out at a Hotel in Dublin called the Gresham. We were picked up by a precious grandpa named Tony our tour guide. He was super fun and very knowledgeable and took us to all these great places all over the outskirts of Dublin. Most of the area surrouding Dublin is called a bog. This bog is hundreds of thousands of years worth of smashed leaves that has turned into very fertile stuff. Its highly regulated by the government and sometimes cut into bricks to dry for fuel. They find bodies in it all the time that are THOUSANDS of years old. Apparently, some acid in the bog preserves bodies perfectly.

Also, Tony said this was a good place to hide bodies. A serial murderer was caught several years ago burying women in the bog. He is still in jail, but according to Irish law, he doesn't have to go on trial or say anything to authorities until he is released....but the murders did stop when he was arrested, so they think they've found their man. YIKES. Besides that, the bog is cool.

We went to the site of a bridge where PS. I love you was filmed ( my fave movie ever), as well as Braveheart. It is surreal how beautiful everything is, especially the lakes. The water is cold and clear and just amazing. I took tons of pictures today so I hope they will load. My wi-fi works for skype but not so great for uploading pics...

OKAY-photos aren't uploading on this blog so this is what I'm going to do. I created a photobucket link and am going to post the link to my pictures every time I blog...this way, YOU can copy and paste this link into your browser and see my pictures from that day, and I wont have to sit here for three hours waiting for them to upload.

Wicklow Tour Pictures

FUN FACT: I am not a whiskey drinker-but if anyone reading this is, this is neat. THe irish are known for their whiskey, and drink a "drop or two" before bed every night according to Tony the tour guide. Back in the day, they called it Ischka Baha, which roughly translates to life water. Later, the English changed Ischka Baha into "Whiskey"