Friday evening, Elise and I boarded a flight to Dublin, Ireland! Although, ironically enough, on our way to the airport we met 3 American students from North Carolina who were not only living in the same accommodations as we were but they were also headed to Dublin the next day. We literally have not met any other Americans in our entire time here so it took Elise and I completely by surprise!
Airports here are way more lax when it comes to security as compared to the U.S. We didn't even have to take our shoes off! Initially we were a bit nervous that we were the only ones going to Dublin because the gate was completely empty (they didn't post the gate number until 30 minutes before the flight was taking off so we happened to just guess a gate that was in the right vicinity) but then we noticed a group of people and figured that they had to be going to the same place we were as it was such a late flight! Thankfully we were both paranoid about something going wrong so we got there like 2 hours early.
We arrived in Dublin pretty late on Friday night as our flight was at 11pm out of Manchester. The flight only took 35 minutes..shortest flight of my life. We checked into our hostel and went straight to bed as we were pretty exhausted!
We set off on Saturday morning to do all the touristy things...right after we helped ourselves to the complimentary breakfast at our hostel of course! Again, all I wanted to do was eat while in Dublin. Constantly hungry. I've considered the possibility that I might have a tape worm given the fact I am always hungry like half an hour after eating a meal. I'm getting to the point where I cannot afford to keep up with my eating habits! So in the event that I do in fact have a tape worm, I've given him a name...Gary. So from here on out if I refer to Gary, you know who I'm talking about!
Our adorable little hostel, abbey court
The Liffey River
The Book of Kells contains a lavishly decorated copy of the four gospels (all in latin) It was been associated with St Colum Cille who founded his principal monastery on the island of Iona. It is thought that the book was probably created around the 9th century by the monks of Iona. It was written by four main scribes. Scribe A who copied St. John's gospel was though to be conservative, generally leaving the decoration of his pages to others. Scribe B used a lot of colored inks and calligraphy. Scribes C and D did the majority of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The book was sent to Dublin around 1653 for reasons of security through the Cromwellian period and came to Trinity College when Henry Jones became bishop of Meath.
My favorite part was the portion that discussed the Chi Rho page. It is the most celebrated image in the Book of Kells. Chi Rho is the abbreviated Greek form for the name of Christ. This page is filled with visual reminders of the Eucharistic sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.
The Long Room (aka the main chamber of the Old Library) contains 200,000 of the library's oldest books in oak bookcases. Since 1801 the Trinity College Library has had the right to claim a free copy of all British and Irish publications under the relevant copyrights act and has a stock of nearly 3 million volumes housed in a total of eight buildings. One of the dozen or so remaining copies of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic is also on display! This signalled the start of the Easter Rising when it was read aloud by Patrick Pearse outside the GPO (General post Office) on April 24th, 1916.
They were filming a TV show at Trinity...thus explains the dressed up people!
Outside the front entrance to Trinity
The Long Room
Our next stop was the Dublin Castle! The name "Dublin" actually comes from the Dubhlinn which is "black pool" in English. The Dubhlinn was a sheltered deep dark pool/harbor that joined the Liffey. Now the present Castle's Dubhlinn Garden stands in its place. When the Vikings captured the harbous of Dublin, it was called Dyflinn. Over 250 years, Dyflinn become a wealthy trading and manufacturing center and the largest Viking town in the North Atlantic region.
Part of the castle bridge where it was filled in
Dubhlinn Garden Entrance
While on tour of the castle we learned that the harp is the symbol of Ireland. The Guinness family actually copy righted the symbol so if you look at the harp on the Guinness bottle, the body faces a different direction than it does on the Ireland coat of arms. There is a huge blue and gold (coat of arms colors) room in the castle called Saint Patrick's Hall. It's still used today for president inagurations every 7 years. The room is absolutely stunning!
On our way to the next stop, we saw St. Patricks Cathedral. Such an incredible structure with a really nice park/garden attached.
Next stop....GUINNESS STOREHOUSE!
Arthur Guinness actually signed a 9000 year lease at the storehouse location. Currently, the inner portion of the storehouse is designed as a giant pint glass. On the outer portion are the various floors the feature different things. For example, the first floor is all about the ingredients.
The ingredients are: barley, hops, yeast, water
The second floor is about the skill of the brewer. This floor introduced the story of Guinness starting with Arthur. The third floor is about brewing (roasting, mashing, boiling, fermentation, and maturation)
The actual ingredients were all displayed on the first floor. Super cool!
A little sampling on the fourth floor!
On the 7th floor (Gravity Bar)- free drink with your ticket purchase!
After the storehouse we went to Temple Bar which is not only the name for an area of Dublin but also a bar. We had dinner right next to the Temple Bar and then went in for a few drinks and actually ended up going pub hopping with some of the locals! It was a really fun night! We learned a bit of Irish that night as well...one of the sayings was "solange", which means "cheers." We also learned that tipping is not an obligation in Ireland (i.e. you do not have to tip on meals, drinks at a bar, cab drivers, etc) We were actually told that they found the tipping culture in America to be ridiculous/absurd. SO WEIRD.
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