Wax Museum in Dublin

After we finished exploring the beautiful countryside in Galway, it was time to head back to Dublin.   There is a lot to do in Dublin with such attractions as the Wax Museum, Trinity College, and the Guinness Brewery, among other things.  This post will just be covering our visit to the wax museum as I have no idea where the pictures from the Guinness Brewery are currently (Annie??).  No worries though because there will be plenty of beautiful pictures of Guinness beer later this week.

The wax museum was very cool and started out showing some of Ireland’s famous writers.  Below is a picture of James Joyce.  I have to agree with Leo King (main character from South of Broad – great book by Pat Conroy - check it out) in his dislike of the great James Joyce.  I was forced to read A Portrait of An Artist As a Young Man by James Joyce in my Senior English class at Mount De Sales and found the book just dreadful.  It probably did not help that I did not enjoy reading then like I do now and my only focus at the time was the gym.  Anyways below is the wax sculpture of James Joyce. 

The museum informs you about the history of Ireland through their wax creations.  They are extremely life-like and very informative.  Some of them were also quite gruesome as is the one below in which a Viking is shown killing a priest. 

I had to get pictures of James II and William III as well as I had the pleasure of reading about them in English History this past semester.  James II would rely on Ireland’s support after losing his crown to William III, but they were not strong enough and William III reasserted his power over England by defeating James II at the Battle of the Boyne. (James II is posted first and then William III).

            That’s it for the mini history lesson.  Now onto my favorite part of the wax museum: THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS!!  This part scared Katie, my youngest sister.  Not surprising though as she is a scaredy cat, and the room is quite frightening (Not for kids under 13, or girls named Katie with red hair)  All of my favorite monsters were in the room: Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the werewolf.  There was also Hannibal Lector and some half-woman demon that was quite vulgar and definitely worthy of an x rating. (No picture here of her, not appropriate for any kids reading the blog)  I especially loved the vampire as for some reason that I can’t explain; I’m obsessed with vampires.  If a show has vampires in it, you can guarantee I’m watching it or have attempted to watch it (latter goes for True Blood, not my cup of tea).   I even had a wooden stake on me and was able to kill the vampire in his sleep.

Leaving the Chamber of Horrors we ran into this beautiful guy:

           

            There were quite a few cartoon and children favorites depicted in wax such as sponge bob.  I was lucky enough to see my childhood heroes, the Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles.  As you can see from the picture, I need to work on my kung fu pose, the Ninja Turtles would not be proud…

              I hope everyone is going to check out this guy this weekend:

It brings a tear to my eye to see how much lil Harry has grown up before our eyes.  It seems like yesterday he was just a little guy picking out his wand, and now the epic ends with a final battle with Voldemort (oops I said his name). 

            My favorite cartoon family was also depicted in wax. (Who also shares my namesake)

            To conclude the visit they had a large room with various movie characters.  You were able to pose with Freddy Krueger, but unfortunately I don’t have that picture either.  If I can find it I will upload it later.  I was able to snap this picture of Qui-Gon Jinn fighting Darth Maul.   If you look closely you can see Arnold as Mr. Freeze and Brad Pitt when he portrayed Troy.

That is all for now.  Sorry for the lack of updates but now that I’m settled in Florida expect many more updates about the rest of my trip throughout Europe. 

Galway

            We arrived in Dublin late at night and caught a bus to Galway the next morning.  For those who aren’t familiar with the country of Ireland, Dublin is on the east coast and Galway is on the west coast.  It was about a four hour bus ride made longer by multiple stops along the way.  Galway is a beautiful city that has an awesome downtown area that reminds me of a college town like Athens or Oxford.  It is full of shops, restaurants, and most importantly PUBS!  I know it is customary to enjoy a Guinness at the bars, but I noticed they were serving Heineken, but it is referred to as Heineken Extra Cold because the keg is chilled to 0 degrees to ensure lasting enjoyment.  It was delicious!  I hope they bring it over to the states soon.

            Obama arrived and gave a speech the day before we got to Dublin, but luckily he only stayed for one day.  His presence was still made known though as can be seen below.  We were trying to decide where to each lunch and definitely avoided that place after seeing that poster for their special burger.  The Irish were in love with Obama, or most it seemed, but not all.

            We walked around downtown our first day exploring the beautiful area.  We came upon a harbor which had beautiful views of the sea. 

            Leaving the harbor and going back to the city, we passed some apartments and my sister spotted this in an apartment window.  Raider Nation is everywhere!!!  And this would not be my last sighting of raider nation in Ireland!

            The fair was also in town although we decided to skip on checking it out as I got tricked out of some money by a carny when I was in elementary school and did not want to try my luck again (although I am much wiser now).

            A/B Bank in the picture below is located in an old castle that we kept walking past when we were looking for it, not expecting a bank to be inside it now.  We also came upon this church which my sister marveled at, and then was disappointed when she found out it was an Episcopal church.  I got a good laugh out of that as she was trying to find some Catholic churches, but it was a gorgeous church and I took quite a few pictures of it.

I also found the best printer shop in all of Ireland, although they made a typo when spelling their name:

Also found Ireland’s version of the American Dollar store:

            In the middle of downtown Galway there is this statue of the great Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde conversing with Estonian writer Eduard Vilde.  My research shows that the two never actually met each other.  It was a great opportunity for a picture with you know what!

            On our second day in Ireland we took a bus tour of the countryside surrounding Galway.  We stopped at a farmer’s home and he took us on a walking tour of his property.  We got to climb up to the top of some hills which his family owned and were treated to spectacular views of the countryside.  His family owned a few cows  and some sheep.  It was a wonderful experience and the highlight of the trip because we got to experience an Irish Farmer’s home up close.  The information pamphlet said it would be a light walking tour, and so my sister wore her best pair of hiking boots.  Turned out she was not as prepared as she thought…

            We continued on the bus tour and were taken to the Cliffs of Moher.  The cliffs rise 394 feet above the Atlantic Ocean.  It was the location of several films including Inception and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.   You had to be very careful because of the extreme gusts of wind.  A Russian tourist’s car was found abandoned at the top and his body turned up in the sea below the cliffs a few months ago.  The tower is O’Brien’s Tower built by Sir Cornelius O’Brien to impress the ladies (what great lengths men go to in order to impress the women) and to improve tourism in the area.  He thought that increased tourism would help improve the poor economy in the 1830’s.

            On the bus ride back home we were treated to more castles and cliffs smaller than that of Moher.  I was impressed with this castle’s security system in the second to last picture, I guess a moat wasn’t getting the job done.

            Galway was an amazing city and we had a blast there and I would definitely recommend it as a must see place if you ever go to Ireland.  There is so much to do and see in the city and the surrounding area.  It was unfortunate we only had two days to spend there.  Stay tune for reports on our trip to Dublin and even more Raider fans!  Time to continue my birthday celebration in Paris!