Wednesday: Croke Park Stadium and Guinness Storehouse

Our favorite double decker bus picked us at 10 o'clock in the morning in front of one of Balbriggan's churches. It took us straight to Croke Park Stadium. We spent the rest of the morning there enjoying and amazing tour. 

Our guide was awesome and we learnt so many interesting things! Croke park is the third biggest stadium in Europe after Camp Nou and Wembley. Nowadays it is only used for gaelic sports and ruled by GAA. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is Ireland's largest sporting associations in the world. There are two main gaelic sports: gaelic football and hurling. Irish people are very proud of theses sports because they are amateur. Players don't earn money and they always support and play for their own county. There are no transfers. We were lucky because today it was a special day. Thousand of students from all around Ireland are coming to Croke Park during this week. 

They are allowed to play on it against other counties so we could watch them and learn the basic rules of these sports. We also visited the restrooms, warm up rooms, the stands, a vip area and the museum. There we could practice some skills required for playing these sports.

              Warming up before going to the pitch

After having lunch at the stadium we took the bus to The Guinness Storehouse. There, we learnt about the history of one of the most famous beers all over the world and its importance for Irish economy and history. We watched the brewing process, talked on video  with Arthur Guinness, the founder of the brand 200 years ago and enjoyed the magnificent views of Dublin from The Gravity Bar.