Yesterday was another day trip courtesy of UCD and it was AWESOME! While my favorite part of the day did not come until the end, it was still good overall. First off, the bus ride to the first location was only about 20min, which was good because I didn't feel a hint of motion sickness. It had been a late night for most of my roommates, so it's always interesting trying to get them up the next morning. Most of them are still drunk, so getting ready takes a bit longer and walking there is an adventure. But everyone managed to make it to the bus stop in good time and with a few minutes to spare.The morning was spent at Croake Park, the national stadium of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is an enormous pitch/field that seats I don't even remember how many people.
It contains the largest electronic screen in Dublin and the land that it sits on has been used for Gaelic games and events for over 300 years. Some of the games that are played there include hurling, Gaelic football, women's hurling, handball, and sometimes rugby and soccer. The stadium can be used for all ages of play from 10 and up. Although most kids at that age are still playing in their home county and not venturing too far from home. We got the chance to take a tour of the museum and some people tried out hurling or Gaelic football, I did not have the chance to take a turn. I did however test out a balancing mechanism which was pretty cool. It was basically a flat board that you had to stand on and it would time how long you could balance it for before it touched down. 
All in all, this wasn't the most interesting place for me, but it was pretty cool. We were able to get a tour of all the different areas in the stadium and get pictures from right down on the pitch to way up in the skybox. We also got a view out the backside of the city of Dublin which was also spectacular.After we were done at the GAA stadium, we hopped back onto the bus and began another 10-15 minute journey to Malahide Castle. When we first arrived, we were ushered through the back and into the restaurant where we were going to be eating lunch. For the meal, we had some surprisingly good sandwiches, a tasty soup that no one knows what is really was, and a sumptuous tart filled with a warm black current jam and custard and topped with almonds. There was also ah-may-zing coffee served with dessert and it was highly appreciated. After lunch, we were able to go to the gift shop and wander around outside for a bit before starting our tour. I bought a postcard for KOSHA and then made my way outside to watch people play ball on the grass.
The tour began at 2pm and were lead upstairs to a large wood-paneled room to await the audio commentary that would lead us around Malahide Castle. Most of the room was covered in hand-carved pictures that were breath-taking.
After that we moved into the small drawing room which was bright orange with gold trimming and contained a mottled marble fireplace. After that, we walked through the large wooden doors into the large drawing room, used for entertaining guests. It was also bright orange but had a less decorative ceiling and more seating. There was a large couch which had two additional seats kitty-cornered on the ends and was rather unique looking. Not good for watching TV, but certainly good for sitting and talking to others around you. After leaving the large drawing room, we passed a painting of the last owner of the Castle when was only 6 years old, and ventured up the stairs to the large blue room which contained silhouettes and models for carpenters. Not finding too much interesting other than the exquisite carpet which contained the crest of the house, we then moved up another set of stairs to bedroom hallway. One bedroom for the ladies containing their dressing clothes and a chamber pot, another for the children with all their toys and cribs, and one for the man of the house with his crown, cape, and huge grooming kit. Then we traveled back down stairs to the main hallway and passed through into the dining room. This room had a table that seated at least 30 and still hosts occasional banquet and a minstrels balcony to be entertaining the diners. 
There also a painting that was as big as the side of a house....wow. Passing through there was the small library with its entirely leather covered walls and books bigger than two of my laptops side by side. So there wasn't too much that was interesting about the inside of the castle and the outside was under construction so that wasn't too pretty either. But the grounds were beautiful and it was an overcast day so the sun wasn't too bright and I managed to get a few good pics.After we were done meandering the grounds and such, I got back on the bus only to find that Morgan had elected me to jump into the ocean...because that was our next move. After a 5 minute bus ride to the coast, we ran off the bus to smell the fresh ocean air and to view the Irish Sea. It was breath-taking (pics coming later). The water was basically the same color as the Atlantic Ocean and the rocks looked the same, but the air wasn't quite as salty and there wasn't as much seaweed everywhere.
There were people riding horses on the beach, which was interesting and beautiful yellow lab cross running through the water having a grand ole time. There were rocks and islands and seashells; a lighthouse type thing that didn't have a light at the top...so that was confusing. The water was COLDDDDDDDD but I did manage to stick my hand in and let my waterproof shoes protect my feet while I stood in the rushing waves. After awhile, we were called back to the bus by Dorothy to begin our journey home. I was able to doze a little on the ride home and the Bent kids were dropped off about 4 blocks from our apartment. We made our way back to the apartment and most people went to watch the rugby game on TV. I did some homework and applied for some more internships which was interesting. I eventually gave up on that and decided to watch The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural followed by downloading an online version of The Oregon Trail, yay me!
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