Dublin, Day 2

I hope this doesn't sound really tedious. I'm really just putting down my journal entries from the trip, edited of course. There are some things you people don't need to know. :) So on to Day 2:

Where do I start in describing the activities for the day? The beginning is probably good. We set off for Trinity College at 9am to see the Book of Kells. The campus is beautiful, the old buildings wonderfully kept and the new ones expressing a pretty contemporary Irish architecture. It's in a really bustling area but inside the gates it is really peaceful. The BoK was really impressive. The condition of this manuscript is just amazing. The skill of illuminating these pages so long ago is remarkable.
After talking with some people outside the library we started a walking tour of the 1916 Easter Rising. Let's just say the tour guide was nothing less than amazing. Lorcan was his name. He was so enthusiastic and intelligent, even very personal with everyone. I talked with him a good deal of the way. Awesome tour. Take this tour if you go to Dublin! There's some free advertising for Lorcan. We started at Trinity and went towards and across the River Liffey onto O'Connell Street where we stopped at most of the monuments. Then into the General Post Office and to Moore Street and the Memorial Garden which was really lovely.
From there we took a short tour at the National Museum, basically looking at ancient artifacts from the bronze age, Viking invasions and such. Good stuff that is. Mostly everyone stayed there to see the bog bodies which I would have like to see, but opted to go to the National Gallery. Just a few of us went: Colleen, Hannah, Mark the Resident Directory and myself. We received a very personalized guide to some important paintings. Colleen and Hannah were both very into Art History and they wanted to see any Yeats works the Gallery might have had. It was really a unique time.
When we got back a bunch of people were going to the Hairy Lemon again for dinner, so I joined them. We had made it back just in time to leave for the Abbey Theater to see The Crucible. It has to be said, I loved it much more than when I had seen it in New York on Broadway, and that with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, two of my absolute favorites. There was a humor in it that still seemed appropriate for such a dramatic play. I was really glad for it.
I had planned on going back to Mercer Court after the show but then I really didn't feel like sitting in my room. Mary had just arrived that day in Dublin and wanted to go get something to eat so I went to walk with her. Jenna and Callie said they would join us as well. We ended up sitting outside this pizza place on the sidewalk just talking and it was really a great time for something so simple. 2 days down, 33-ish to go.

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