Halcyon Repose

Finally getting around to my final part of Ireland posts. Sorry it took so long, but I have been working constantly it seems, and when I was not, I felt like I need to force some inactivity to keep from going crazy. I was lazy sums it up pretty well.

Day 11
Tuesday, September 30th

After getting up late, we made the trip downstairs for a breakfast, and then back upstairs to shower and pack. We checked out, and the lady of the house was kind enough to let us keep our car parked in front of the house for the day while we did some site seeing.

We caught the Dart to the Tara Street station, and the walked the last few blocks to Trinity College. School had just started up, and Fresher week was ongoing. This made the trip across the courtyard into an epic battle situation. After we navigated our way through the student activities booths we made our way to the Library. Before reaching the Book of Kells there are a couple of rooms detailing the creation and history behind the old books, which Joe and I poured over. The whole process
was amazing an the artwork beautiful. It rekindled my desire to get a tattoo, and of course if you are going to get a tattoo of celtic knotwork, Dublin is the place to do it. I am sure my mother would love that, for sure.

After going through the intro material, we made our way to book room where we got to see two of the books of Kell, one opened to text, the other opened to a pictorial, and two of the other manuscripts they put out on display. The art work Is amazing in all the pictures you see, but it is
truly breathtaking in real life. You get to see the way the light catches all of the different inks, and how truly small and detailed some of the pictures really are. To think that to produced the texts hundreds of years ago is really awe-inspiring.

Next we went upstairs to the Long Room which, by the way, is incredibly huge and deserving of the name. Stacks of old texts tower to the ceiling and busts line the room on either side. They have a display of books along the center of the room, and off to the sides. This room is also were Ireland’s oldest harp is on display, which we had been clued onto by a kind couple in one of the B&Bs we stayed at while in Galway.

After the library it was back to the Dart we headed. We picked up our car and checked into the Kingfisher, our new B&B for the rest of the trip. We grabbed lunch at Cahoots again, the deli next to he B&B, where we were able to log onto their wifi and get caught up with the rest of the world before setting out for the rest of the day. This time I just had a bowl of potato and leek soup, hoping to get dessert as well, which never happened.

We paid for the hope on hop off bus pass, and took it to a part of the city where Joe could find his bank for an ATM. That hunt ended up being a bust, so we hopped back on the bus and headed to the Guinness Storehouse. It was an interesting tour, but the free pint and the gift shop were by far the best parts. After the tour we got back to the bus stop just as the bus was pulling away. Since the next bus was the last of the day, we had an extended wait of 30 minutes in the cold drizzle and cutting wind. We did meet a cute Asian girl from California named Cathy who was waiting as well, and we passed the time talking till the bus came. After embarking, we continued our conversation in the bus until we actually had the bus driver stop the bus and come back to tell us that the other two riders couldn’t hear the tour information… Pssh

We rode the bus back to O’Connell street, dropped off our bags, and headed to Flanagan’s for a BBQ chicken pizza and some bruchetta. After dinner, we went to Temple Bar to find The Kitchen nightclub, but alas we still didn’t find it. We did find a spot called The Purty Kitchen, so we stopped in for a pint of New Castle. Next was the huge Fitzsimons, for a Kilkenny and some live music. Then to a very small local bar called The Lotts (snug bar) for a Guinness to finish off the night.

Day 13
Wednesday, October 1st

Man these two weeks have flown by. This is our last full day, and we started it off with breakfast as usual. Then we went out so I could get some new socks and undies (I had hopes to wash at some point which never happened and I was completely out). We also stopped to get gifts for the peeps at home. Then we were off to the National Gallery of Ireland.

The building was a mass of labyrinthine rooms, layered in paintings. The number of pieces was amazing, and we easily wandered the rooms for a few hours.

After we finished the gallery we went hunting for lunch. I had a chicken and rice curry for lunch at the Brewbaker Cafe. Then we set off in search of the National Museum of Ireland. There was a great
Tara exhibit which was interesting after having visited the site earlier. They also had exhibits for Egypt and the Vikings, as well as a lot of Celtic jewelries from the ages.

After finishing at the museum, we stopped by the post so Joe could send off the last of his postcards, and seeing as how it was early yet, we stopped for a pint of Guiness at O’Donoghue’s since most of the attractions were closing down for the day. We got a pint of Guinness, and while Joe was in the bathroom I butting into the conservation with the people next to us. They was Marian and Dave from Arizona and Dave who was a local Dublin finance guy. We talked about travel, the American economy, Dave bought a round for everyone, and Marian tried to convince me to vote for McCain. About that time, another American couple, Pam and Al, asked me to take their photograph. I talked with them about the sites of Ireland for abit, and when they left I rejoined the conversation with the others.

After a couple of hours, we told them farewell, and headed back to pack. After packing we checked we the guy at the front desk for an Indian restaurant recommendation. He recommended a place called Maloti, which was a bit of a walk but well worth it. I got a large bottle of cobra, a fried onion appetizer, the standard chicken tikka marsala, and the obligatory garlic nan. All top quality stuff, and a good place to end the trip on, because we headed back to the hotel to crash before our flight out the next morning.