He is an actor who when he has time, does these walking tours for hostels. They are completely free, but he makes his wages solely off of tips. He was hilarious! Full Irish accent so we started the day really only understanding about 25% of what he was saying. As the day moved on, Paul grew on us and we understood everything. The guy swore like a sailor but he was very very funny. He took us on a tour of the major and historical sites around Dublin. We started out at City Hall and the Dublin Castle. The great thing about the tour was that Paul told us the history of Ireland. It is a land of very prideful people and their story of liberation from the UK is something I now want to research more. Anyways, at the Dublin Castle, we weren't able to go inside because the President of the EU was inside and everything was locked. The castle itself used to be the best prison in all of the UK. Paul told us a story about how Shawshank Redemption is a rip-off because there was only one prisoner to ever escape and he broke into the sewer system on a thundery day and crawled through pipes all the way to the Liffy River. 
From there, we walked to Christ Church. It was built in 1030! Paul told us a few stories about Christ Church and how there was a terrible storm that ruined the building and it was turned into an actual pub and then a British man came over and renovated the place. Very incredible architecture. 
Down the street from Christ Church is a huge municipal building of Dublin where Paul showed us a plate in the sidewalk with a few Viking symbols in it. This is to represent what happened in the early 1900s. When excavating the site, they came across the largest collection of Viking ruins. The city gave archaeologists two weeks to clean out the site of all of the ruins. As you can imagine, the excavation lasted more than two weeks, but as soon as the two weeks came, the builders built right over the ruins and didn't care about how special the ruins were they just had a schedule to keep. Paul called it the worse case of cultural vandalism in Irish history. 
Our next stop was a pub in the famous Temple Bar area. I had my first, legit Irish pint of Guinness. Needless to say, it was just past 11:30 when we entered the bar and there were already people drinking. Ireland is known for drinking beer and a lot of drunks. I kid you not, we walked out of our hostel at 10 am and there was a guy with a beer in his hand, already drunk. We thought it might have been an anomaly but only just over an hour from then did we walk into a pub and it is packed with people drinking beer. 
That concluded the first part of the tour. We had to walk to the National Museum of Archaeology where Paul told us how the government works and a story of why Irish people love Obama but don't like prince Phillip. Sarah and I are planning to go visit the museum on our own tomorrow. 
Trinity College was next on our tour. Trinity College was the first university to enroll women in the entire world. It also has housed loads of famous poets, politicians and other people of importance. It also is the resting place for the Book of Kells. 
Our second to last stop was right outside the Shelbourne Hotel. It is the nicest and most expensive hotel in Dublin. It has been used by all the stars but also was a headquarters during the Irish Revolution. Paul told a story of two women drinking tea at the restaurant and they look to their left and see Bono from U2 drinking a pint with another guy. These women were so excited to see a celebrity that when Bono went to the bathroom, they went over to Bono's friend and asked him if he thought Bono would be okay with signing a few autographs and taking a few pictures. Bono's friend said that Bono would be more than happy to do all of those things, and he did when he got back from the bathroom. The women went back to their table and when it came time to pay their bill, the waiter came over and told them that their bill had been paid for. The women were so happy that Bono had paid for their bill, when the waiter said, "Look at the receipt, there is a note." The note said "thank you ladies for making my day. I couldn't be happier! Signed, Bruce Springsteen." The whole group laughed pretty hard at that one. 
Our final stop on the tour was at Saint Stephen's Gardens. It is like their Central Park. Very beautiful with ponds and running trails and gardens marked with tons of statues, all in tribute to people who helped the Irish Revolution. 
The day tour was amazing! We got to see a lot of main attractions and the tour guide was hilarious! Loads of stories! I would conclude that Dublin is a very proud city. Everywhere you look there is something to remind you of the Irish Revolution or people helping another out. I have truly enjoyed Dublin and can't wait to see the National Museum. 
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