Ireland!: Everything in Ireland is cool

For some reason the people at the Quinn School of Business treat American students better than all the other international students. I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining. So that means that the group of American students has trips to cool places planned for throughout the semester. Today was one of those trips.

We started out at Croke Park:

This is the third largest stadium in Europe. I think it fits 84,000 people, but I could be wrong.

This is where they play the Gaelic Games, such as Hurling and Gaelic football. They do other things, but those are the coolest. The people on the field here are practicing for a Gaelic football all-star game or something like that.

I like the shorts they wear for the Gaelic games.

If your county is good at Gaelic football they could win something like this trophy at the all-Ireland final.

I tried to use a Hurley stick, but I suck at things like that so it didn't fare well. It was good to see how the Gaelic Athletic Association helped to shape nationalism in Ireland. Bloody Sunday actually occurred in Croke Park during a hurling match to raise funds for an anti-British group. History is everywhere here, it's really cool.

After that we went to Malahide Castle in the north of Dublin. It's a really cool castle that people actually lived in until 1975. It was in the Talbot family for 800 years. I couldn't even trace my lineage back that far, much less hand down a castle.

Before doing any touring we had a delicious lunch. Hooray for not paying for food!

The castle was built in the 14th century by a bunch of invading Normans. They had good taste but most weren't very attractive.

Carpet with the family crest. Their floors are officially cooler than mine.

This is my favorite room in the castle. It could be because it's the dining hall, but I do like the ceiling. Notice the horde of portraits along the walls. These were everywhere and most people just looked funny. This room could have done without the portrait of Oliver Cromwell over the door. Especially since the original occupants were Catholic.

They have a big front yard.

We also drove back along the coast and got to walk out on the beach. It was really sweet to see the bay and the Irish sea. It was quite windy and a little cold, but it was beautiful. There is an island in the middle of the bay. The coast is really rocky and dangerous looking, but there were people surfing anyway, but the beach was big and long.

Molly, Hayley and me by the beach. It has been quite windy out recently due to a tropical storm of sorts. There are all sorts of downed branches and trees because of the wind. It is very exciting to pick up the branching and wave them around when you're having a night on the town.