Two capitols in one day!

That's right, one just wasn't enough for us yesterday. We managed to visit Belfast and Dublin, but that meant the day was jam-packed.

We started the morning off at Stormont Castle, where we met Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. The two are members of opposing parties within the Northern Ireland Assembly, but I was impressed with how well they seemed to get along (Robinson is a Unionist, and McGuinness is a Nationalist). Even though they mentioned that they initially didn't agree on much of anything, they seem to have found a middle ground so they can work together for Northern Ireland's benefit. The work they have done is so significant that their names will most likely be in history books in the future.

From there we hopped back into the bus and had to rush to Dublin, where we had an appointment with the American ambassador to Ireland. Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time, but still met with a political officer from the embassy. He was able to shed some light on the purpose of embassies and what they do for the citizens of their countries.

We then got the rest of the afternoon to explore Dublin a little bit. Most of us stayed around the Grafton Street area, where we got some food and did a little shopping.

When we returned to the cottages, we were visited by a local politician who is a member of the Sinn Fein party. He is a former member of the IRA and was in prison for 10 years during the 1970s and '80s. I won't go into all the detail he did, but he told us a lot about the time he spent in prison (more than three years of which was in solitary confinement) how he and his fellow prisoners protested against the prison in order to be treated as political prisoners, rather than criminals.

Overall it was a very enlightening day in terms of what has happened in this country over the past few decades and how they are working towards reconciliation.