Dublin free tour
Everyone should take this tour. Let's discard conventions, concessions, language difficulties and everyday cliché s of moods. The tour from Sandemans is unique and once again emphasized the excellent vitality and popularity. Young people, fascinating, educated and in love with their profession and their city, lead free round dances in the best capitals of Europe. The tours are conditionally free, suggesting your friendly participation in financing the merits of the author at the end of the tour in an arbitrary amount. From experience, I was limited to 3-5 euros depending on which coins jingle in my pocket. There is an option to get away with impunity without a penny, but after the pleasure you get, I'm just sure that it will simply not be physically convenient for you to do this.
Tours around Dublin are held every day at 11.00 and 14.00. Despite the month of March, the people were dark.
The live mass of tourists was organized into 5 English-speaking groups and 2 Spanish-speaking ones, which gave a total of about 150 people. And this is only at 11.00.
The route starts at Dublin Castle and passes through the central circle of the city with most of the sights.
But this is not an easy tour. It's not a castle on the left, a church on the right. It is truly a journey through time back and forth, juicy stories and little known facts, emotions, group activities and valuable tips on how to enjoy your time in Dublin without spending a lot.
Young and obstinate Conor, took the lead over our gray mass of 23 people eager to know everything about Dublin. Under his vibrating clockwork calls, we moved to the first stop in the courtyard of Dublin Castle.
Initially, we looked around, introduced ourselves, and learned a couple of native Irish greetings.
The team was made up mostly of English, Germans, Irish with some interspersed with me, Brazilians, Czechs and a couple of French.
So, our story began in the last centuries of the first millennium, when the Celts, who then inhabited these lands, first felt the devastation of the Viking raids, which gave them such a bulletproof reputation. But one day, the satisfied Vikings, who have been conducting their financial transactions on a stole-sold-welded scheme for several years now, come up with the idea to settle right here in order to avoid transportation costs. Deciding to run their painfully primitive business right here, the Vikings did not notice how they easily assimilated and, together with the local Celts, met curly-haired neighbors with a stormy temper in the Anglo-Norman style.
Without pulling the historian's blanket over me, I won't say who and in what year kicked the hip joints, but somewhere from the 13th century AD, the Irish were already ruled by the British. And they did it so successfully that the Irish managed to throw off the yoke of hated neighbors only in 1922. It was then that justice prevailed, and Ireland (as unexpectedly) was finally returned to the Irish themselves. Minus, however, the northern lands. It was because of these northern lands that the civil war of 1919-1921 broke out in Ireland, between those who agreed with the policy of the British and those who did not agree. The dissenters, as we know, lost, and that is why Northern Ireland is now marked with a completely different color on the map of Ireland.
The solemn ceremony of the transfer of power from the British to the Irish took place exactly at the very place that we tightly clotted with our sneakers in the moments of enchanted listening to narrations from Conor.
The process of transferring the castle to the Irish, represented by the first representative of the Irish state, Michael Collins, has an interesting moment. When all the English nobility gathered in the center of the castle square to hand over the keys to the castle, which for 700 years was the mouthpiece of the British power in Ireland, Collins himself allowed himself to be a little late for the ceremony. “Thank God that at least he was sober, ” the then witnesses whispered. When the British ambassadors indignantly threw out in Collins' face everything that they think about him and his unheard-of trick, he calmly retorted: “We have been waiting for this moment for 700 years, so you will wait these cf... 7 minutes! ". Handsome, isn't it.
You can retell stories and interesting facts from Conor for a long time, which presented them in a bright and exciting way. Laughing and condoling to his people at the same time, he captivated us with his story for almost half an hour. But it was time to move on.
Having delved into the relationship of the Irish with the English, which have been more than tense for 700 years, but now are very cautious and encouraging character of respectable neighbors, we have moved on to the religiosity of the Irish, its origins. The name of Saint Patrick remains central to the history of the Irish Church. It was he who streamlined the idea of religion in Ireland, introduced the correct rites and explained to the uncouth barbarians what to expect from life. Past beliefs in earth, fire, water, rain, evil fate and the strength of the fist faded into the background before the Holy Trinity.
Probably the most concise and successful explanation, using the example of a shamrock - the symbol of Ireland, the presence of a triune god, Patrick turned out for ignorant Vikings. The leaf is one, but about three petals. That's it. Simple, tasteful, accessible. On that, they decided, and since then Irish farmers have begun to en masse kneel at the knees of the new god and be baptized correctly.
Having dealt with the religious themes of the Irish, we went to the origins of Dublin, the place where the name of the city came from. Gathered in a green meadow, we were enlightened about how the name Dublin originated, where the elders gathered before the construction of the castle, and how a pint of Guinness was poured in the bar of the castle itself for honored persons such as Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II.
The next stop was an archway with a staircase named after author Jonathan Swift.
To be honest, I read Gulliver in my deep childhood, when Gorbachev was still shown on TV. But based on some of Colin's notes, I think I should re-read it. The fact is that the whole idea of Gulliver is Swift's allegory about the relationship between the British and the Irish, which the authors of the Hollywood version of Gulliver's Travels did not understand at all with Jack Black, frightening with his optimism. After Gulliver, we discussed the film “p. with. With Love ”, one of the moments of the filming of which took place precisely in this transition, as well as the dissatisfaction of the Irish with their closest neighbor, the Scot Gerard Buttler, for the role of an Irish fellow.
After walking through art, we returned to religion again at the next stop near Christ Church. The standard phrase “the oldest church in Ireland” (as it turns out to be several of the oldest) has experienced a rather interesting fate.
It was destroyed, burned, contained a bar, and then a brothel. Despite the breathtaking and stunningly beautiful appearance, as well as the wonderful sound of 19 bells, the most interesting story for tourists is the presence inside the Tom and Jerry memorial. The cat and mouse, stuck in one of the organ pipes, were preserved there and miraculously preserved. When the master organ tuner could not achieve the perfect sound, he decided to look into the cause of this cacophony. And what he found in one of the pipes is now under glass and attracts curious tourists.
Most of the tour was coming to an end, but despite the 2-hour walk, there were no tired people in the group. Conor took us to an area called Temple Bar. While I was trying to combine in my head such clearly contrasting concepts of “temple” and “bar-tavern”, the guide once again made his own adjustments.
The fact is that you will find the name Temple Bar here on every cafe sign, but this has nothing to do with the direction of the establishment. Just in the 17th century, the enterprising merchant Sir William Temple gradually began to buy out pieces of this territory, which was a useful area for transshipping goods from ships in the River Liffey to city buyers. This is how this historical district and the cultural center of Ireland with the name of an enterprising comrade was formed.
The best cafes are located here, the oldest theater in Europe is based here, as well as exhibition halls and galleries, as well as fragments of the City Walls of medieval Dublin.
This is where Bono started with his U2 team. Here you can dine in a restaurant or drink a glass of Guinness in one of the cafes, which, on a par with other properties, belong to this gray-haired rocker.
After taking a break for tea and coffee, after 15 minutes we were ready to continue the tour. The next station was hidden in a narrow lane from which only one object was visible, as it turned out, the most important one. It was the Dublin Spire statue. This very spire, 121 meters long, is not the most flattering assessment from the residents of the city. To put it mildly, not everyone agrees on how the state invests their funds. By analogy with the shape and ability to shrink in length during the cold season, many pejoratively tease her with all possible synonyms for the phallus.
The finale of our trip was Trinity College. The oldest and most famous college in all of Ireland, which gave a ticket to the life of literature grants - Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw and Jonathan Swift. About whether Bram Stoker studied here, for some reason, I don’t know.
You can get to the college territory without any problems. There are a lot of historical and symbolic things preserved here.
A little to the left, new complexes for students have already been built, which are no longer so epic and beautiful. College graduates are honored, and honorary members of the fraternity also have significant privileges. They can afford to get married in the local chapel, visit the halls of the old library for free and store the pride of all Ireland Book of Kelly, bring a pint of Guinness with them to class, eat free around the clock in the dining room and some other strange freedoms that I, to Unfortunately, I didn't remember.
If you pay attention to the 2 statues of former rectors, you can see the difference in their posture and facial expressions. The first on the left is a gloomy old man who kept the entire gymnasium "in the body" and did not allow females to study. “Only over my dead body, ” an excited Salmon Provost shouted about a request to provide study places for girls.
Rumor has it that he was buried at the entrance to the gates of the college in order to fulfill a long-standing prediction. This misogynist is on duty on the route towards the bar, which he does not regard as a noble act for a student.
Seated to the right is a more liberal steward of the college, who encourages students heading to the library with his blessing.
The long tour was coming to an end. In conclusion, Conor, once again, gave us a couple of tips. This time they were about how to see an ancient Irish manuscript. According to historians, the essay "The Transformation of Darkness into Light", consisting of 4 Gospels written in Latin, was published in the 8th century AD. Each page is decorated with handwritten symbols and signs, and, according to eyewitnesses, is incredibly beautiful.
Every evening, museum staff turn one page so that visitors the next day can see a completely new composition.
So, how to view the treasure. First of all, it is to pay 10 euros and go on a first come, first served basis. The second option is to book a half-hour tour for 12 euros. The third is to go half an hour before closing and get a 50% discount. Well, the most sophisticated, meet a local student who has the right to take up to three friendly persons to view for free.
You can talk endlessly about Dublin and traveling around it. It's even better to travel endlessly. But everything ends sometime. The tour was good and helpful. Now I can at least somehow refer to my acquaintance with Dublin and give little advice and feedback. Thanks to Conor, thanks to Dublin, thanks to the calendar day off, and, just in case, thanks to the parents.
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