I finally have some exciting travel to talk about — I just returned from joining my parents to visit my sister in Ireland, where she is finishing up her study abroad semester at Dublin City University. There’s so much to share from the eight-day trip that I’m going to spread it out over several blog posts. For this first blog post, I’ll focus on the museums we went to in Dublin and save other aspects of the city and our time in Galway for the coming weeks.

After a smooth overnight flight from PHL to DUB on Aer Lingus, we arrived at our lodgings at Drury Court Hotel, which has, hands down, the kindest front desk assistants I’ve ever encountered in a hotel. Every single employee was so sweet, eager to tell us about their favorite places in Dublin and give us helpful tips.

My sister, Claire, showed us around the DCU campus, where we grabbed some quick lunch before taking the bus back into the central part of Dublin. (Can I just note I am obsessed with the buses in Dublin? Double decker, and they come all the time! I love functional public transit.) We explored the city a bit and did some shopping, trying to shake off our jet lag and make it through the day.

My family and I waiting for the bus.

We visited three museums while we were in Dublin: EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology and Museum of Literature Ireland. The Irish Emigration Museum was the first one and probably also the one where we spent the most time. It felt personally relevant to us since my mom’s side of the family is Irish. Her grandparents emigrated from Ireland to the United States before they had their children.

The museum was interactive with a ton of information. It was impossible to read everything without spending probably a whole day there. There were interactive screens throughout that displayed historical documents, photos, written text, actors recounting real-life emigration stories and much more. Each room was focused on a different aspect of Irish emigration, from what Irish emigrants contributed to the world to the reasons so many people have had to leave the country throughout history.

My whole family enjoyed the museum, and we all learned a lot. I’d definitely recommend it as a Dublin attraction!

Our next museum, The National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, was appealing to us because of the “bog bodies” it holds. The museum is also free, which is excellent. We did not spend too long there; we pretty much saw the parts we were interested in and then left. Because it’s free, we didn’t feel we had to justify a price tag by exploring every inch of the museum, which I honestly prefer. Sometimes the cost of museums makes you feel you have to stay for way longer than you actually want to!

The bog bodies are really cool (and spooky!) displays. These bodies have been naturally mummified by the many peat bogs in Ireland. Some still have hair on their heads and fingernails. Some are just partial bodies, but a few are completely intact. It’s incredibly eerie but really cool. My sister was especially fascinated by them, while I think my parents were a bit creeped out. There were no photos allowed, so, sadly, I don’t have any visuals to share.

The final museum we saw, Museum of Literature Ireland, was a bit less cool than the first two, but I was still glad we went. I regret I haven’t read any James Joyce (can I even call myself an English major?) because the museum had a heavy focus on his works and life, and it would have meant more to me if I had read them.

I was also expecting a bit more Sally Rooney presence, but I could hardly find her anywhere. I am a big Rooney fan; she lives in Dublin and her works are pretty fundamentally Irish, so I definitely wanted to see some more of her. If you’re a Joyce fan, I’d say this museum is for you, but otherwise it may be slightly disappointing.

There’s so much more to talk about from my Dublin experiences, but this blog post is getting pretty long, so I’ll see you in my next one!

— Hannah Gruen, administrative coordinator