Last Post from Dublin

Today is my last day in Dublin so let me catch everyone up on what I've been doing since my last post. I've spent alot of time just walking around the city. There are lots of statues and monuments to look at around town. One place in particular we visited was the General Post office.
Sounds boring right, like a bunch of stamps or something. Actually the GPO was the place where the Easter Rising of 1916 took place. Those who were trying to gain independence for Ireland barricaded themselves for almost a week and fought from this site. The GPO was destroyed in the process as the British troops were firing straight at the building. So they have a few monuments and plaques to that event. Sorry I didn't have my camera with me for alot of this!
Next we stopped by the Irish Potato Famine statues. They were kind of creepy. Everything about these sculptures was emaciated and elongated. But the famine is important to how Ireland and even the United States is shaped today as most Irish immigrants came to the US during that time.
Yesterday we went to the National Gallery of Ireland and took a tour that showed how the formation of Irish nationalism through art. It was a really cool gallery. I've never been to a legit art museum before actually. They had several paintings of very famous artists there. Jack Yeats brother of W.G. Yeats had an extensive collection there. I also saw a Monet, de Goya, and a Vermeer. They had this special exhibition of sketches including one by Raphael (what!), Albrecht Durer, and others. This picture is the Caravaggio that I saw called the Taking of Christ.
Every since then I have been trying to pack. We are leaving Dublin tonight/tomorrow morning at 4 AM! That's insane. Oy. Bigger problem. The airline we are taking has a weight limit on suitcases of 44 pounds. Eek. I'm just kind of hoping for the best. I thought about wearing two pairs of jeans on the plane but that in the end I decided against it. So we've all been planning how we can maximize our coat pocket space, etc because our carry on bags have a weight limit as well. So tomorrow morning I will be wearing a t shirt, sweatshirt, thick sweater on top of that and my heavy north face jacket over all of that. I think I saved like 10 pounds right there. Problem: it's hard to move with that much stuff on your body. Proof:
Kelsey couldn't move her arms. Just like A Christmas Story.