Captain's Log: Day 7 - Free Day

Today was our first free day of the entire trip and I made full use of the free time.

Some people had a late night last night so Brittany and I decided to take explore Dublin by ourselves.

After eating breakfast, we made the 10-15 minute walk to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. The Church was amazing and very very old (established in 1191 AD). I was quite surprised by how commercialized the church was. There was a small entrance fee into the church but the money is used for the maintenance and upkeep of the church and its extensive grounds.

The inside of the church is gigantic and very dimly lit. The ceiling was so high and it looked exactly like a church scene straight out of a movie. There were two stones in the corner of the church that were over a thousand years old. One stone was used as the cover to St. Patrick's Well, where he used to baptize the newly converted native Irish people.

The altar was very impressive as well. There were old helmets of knights lined up on the sides of the altar as well as flags from all of the provinces around the country of Ireland. The floor was also beautiful because it was a very old and very amazing hand laid tile floor.

After the inside, we went outside into the square and sat down on the lawn. There were children playing everywhere and many people, locals and tourists alike, were there visiting the beautiful site.

Our next destination was Grafton Street and St. Stephen's Green. We went shopping for our families and friends in the many shops located along the popular walking street. There were also many street performers out tonight. There was someone making a sand sculpture, someone making large bubbles for the children to play with and live bands giving free concerts.

Once all of our souvenir shopping was done, we headed back to our rooms and had a quiet dinner in anticipation of our early morning and long day of travel tomorrow.