Dublin Version 1.0

20 June 2019

Written by:  Amy sitting in the common lounge space in Armagh City Youth Hostel while Colleen gets some alone time in the room.

We are only in Dublin one full day before we are headed up to Armagh.  We'll be back to Dublin several times this trip, so I'm not worried if we don't see everything in the next 2 days.  But, it's up and out for us.  Well, those of you that have lived with Colleen know that up and out is dependent on Colleen being in the same time zone as you are.  Tina has given her Tina's old time zone.  Such a great gift.  So, Colleen runs a little behind.   Which is sometimes very fine.  And sometimes--like when you need coffee and it's downstairs in the dining room along with your breakfast--it's not very fine.

BREAD!! My Precious.

But it is all worth it because coffee happened.  And so did bread and toast and Irish bacon and FOOD!  So great to sit and have it all there for you buffet style.  Yum!

Then we collected our things and walked towards Trinity College to the bank that's across the street.  No luck there, I'm afraid.  Going to have to do the money thing the hard way for a bit.

There's Geometry in there!

After the bank it was over to the tourist information center for some directions to Dublin Castle.  But, before we could go through the castle, we were distracted by a library--The Chester Beatty Library.  Adjacent to the castle, this library holds the collections of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty.  Entry is free so we popped in and had a look through some of the extremely cool stuffs on display there.  Beatty collected ancient sacred texts from many different religions.  On display were many different copies of the quran and the bible.   Beside them were collections of eastern asian religious texts, scrolls and items.  Very cool.  We love a good library!  You will all not be shocked to discover that my favorite part was a geometry text.  I really wanted to stay and have a real look at it, but there's so much to see.

St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

No ghost dog here.

After Chester, we headed on over to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Colleen heard tell of a Captain who saved many lives that is buried there in the cemetery.  On his grave site some people claim to see the ghost of his dog who never left his side.  I was going to take Colleen through the cathedral, but you have to pay to get in.  You don't have to pay to traverse the cool maze in the courtyard, which was fun.

You shouldn't have to pay to get into a church.  I don't know why that strikes me the wrong way, but it does.  So, no, no, St. Patrick's Cathedral church for us.  Instead we walked around the block to find the Captain's grave and what do we see?  No, not a dog on his grave....another library.  The Marsh Library is the oldest open-to-the-public library in Dublin.  They had a Bram Stoker exhibition going on while we were there.

Marsh Library

To the couple from Phoenix in front of us in the Marsh Library--please, please, do not go into a library and ask if anyone has read the books in it.  It's such a tacky question.  And, it's really embarrassing to hear you ask it and even more uncomfortable to hear you rephrase the question when the 2 librarians assure you that people do read the texts.  It's a library!  Of course someone reads the books.  Sigh.

After the Marsh Library which was way cool, it was time for some coffee and lunch.  We went to a great cafe and had some really good food.  Win!

Then it was off to Christ Church.  We have been to Christ Church during the night that Dublin opened it's doors to everyone when we were living on the island.  But, this time, we took the guided tour which included the bell tower and the crypt.  Our tour guide was excellent--funny, pun-y, engaging and inclusive  We had a marvelous time, learned a ton and Colleen got to ring a bell in the bell tower. The weight of the bell was enough to pull her off her feet while she was pulling the rope.  The bell tower was so cool.  Did you know that the bells swing 360?  It's an amazing engineering feat.  Especially when you consider the largest bell is over 2 tons.

On top of Christ Church

Ringing the Bells over Dublin

Temple Bar and Colleen

I wanted Colleen to see the Temple Bar area, so we headed there in between the rain drops.  I have no idea why I thought she needed to see this area.  It's cool and all, but we're not drinkers.  None of us.  We waited in a cafe until the rain had past.  By then, Colleen had had enough of walking so we ambled on back to the hotel and had some down time.  We paused our down time just enough to grab a bit to eat at a poshy restaurant near the hotel.  They were very disappointed when we split an order of fish and chips.  No 1000 quid dinner for us, thank you. But, the lady and gents next door had enough alcohol and food to more than make up for us.



We were knackered after that so it was back to trying to fall asleep.