Day ELEVEN: Dublin!

Hey all! This is my day eleven update! Today, we headed two hours south to the city of Dublin! Dr. Tim rented a big van to take all of us down. When we got there, it was about 10:45. We stopped for a quick cup of coffee and then walked down to our private tour of the Leinster House. The Leinster House is home to the parliament of Ireland. It's a huge building, that was originally built as a house for one guy in the 1700's. We had a tour guide to show us all the rooms where bills are passed or vetoed, and he gave us a history of the building and the government as well.

After that, we headed up to Grafton Street, one of the most famous streets in Ireland. It was crowded with people, shops, bars, and restaurants everywhere. It was an amazing place to shop and just to look around. We were all hungry and wanted something quick, so we stopped into McDonald's to get something fast. After that, we had time to shop before our next tour. I got a Claddaugh ring, which is an Irish ring that has two hands holding a heart. I also got some souvenirs for people at home! At about 2pm, we headed over to the Department of Foreign Affairs, located in the Iveagh House. We also got our own tour of the house, which was beautiful. We saw all the different rooms and a ballroom. The house has barely been changed since the 1800s when it was owned by the Guinness family.  We also had a chance to talk to people who work there and ask them any questions we wanted.

After seeing the department, we headed back out to go to one of the Ambassadors, Michaels's, Aunt and Uncles house which is located right in Dublin. They invited us to come for dinner, and they made us an amazing meal with beef, potatoes, stuffing, carrots, and gravy. We also have apple pie, ice cream, custard and cheese and crackers for dessert. We ate a lot, it was such a delicious meal and his family was so nice. After dinner, we headed back to the house, and sang a lot of songs on the way!