Field Trip to Dublin!

Since my early start Irish Literature class is studying Ulysses, we went to the city that the novel is set in for our field trip. After a four hour bus ride from Cork, we arrived in the large, busy city. I love that Dublin was a much bigger city than Cork but it did not lose the Irish culture. Beautiful cobblestone streets, street musicians, and old pubs filled the city just as in any other smaller Irish city. 

We spent that night going out for dinner and exploring the city.  In the morning we had a seminar on Ulysses and a guided tour of where the chapter "lestrygonians"took place. It was very interesting to see how much of an impact the novel has on the city. In front of each place that is featured in Ulysses lays a plaque in the cement sidewalk. The field trip cleared up much of my questions with the notoriously confusing novel. 

My favorite part of the trip was going to the Guinness Factory. Guinness has such a presence in Ireland.  It was great to see how it is made and what makes it so different from other beers. I also got to learn how to "pour the perfect pint" from the tap. Another great part of the trip was going to Sandy Cove where we went to the James Joyce (author of Ulysses) museum. Although our class was supposed to be learning about Joyce we spent most of our time there admiring the beautiful scenery.