Interesante...

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So today was relatively uneventful. I went to the National Library of Ireland. It's amazingly beautiful. Mosaic floors in a beautiful pattern, corinthian columns gold-tipped at the top and a cameo-esque frieze at the top with a dusky rose background. The reading room is equally amazing with differing shades of aqua wall paint and a very ornate frieze at the top with cupids all over it, and the wood panelling is equally as ornately carved. I discovered that librarys here are very different from what we imagine as a library...closed stacks folks! I haven't looked through a card catalogue in years! But wow! There's some amazing stuff there. Then I went on my normal meandering, but it was really windy! So I went into a well-known sweater shop which has simply gorgeous stuff, by the way, and got myself a dark green Aran Island merino wool scarf. For those of you who don't know this, the Aran Islands have a long tradition of knitting, and are extremely well known for it and have developed a distinctive pattern. This scarf is a little piece of heaven. I also went and got my ferry/rail ticket to London, which I leave for on the 27. I went grocery shopping, and bought myself a nice little 1/2 kilo Irish steak (which I hear is better than steaks from the midwest...more to come on this front), two freshly baked rolls, a little pad of Irish cheese (divine stuff, I tell you...) and some pasta provencal for dinner. I'm discovering that "salad" here is not quite the same as in America...here its like pasta salad, macaroni salad...creamy stuff. Also they don't sell lettuce in small amounts (I wanted a little salad to go with my divine sounding dinner), but to no avail. Vegetables here are not in abundance...pretty much limited to mushrooms (very fresh though), tomatoes, lettuces, cucumbers, potatoes (of course, right?), and stuff like that, they do not have the variety we have at home...so if you happen to come to the British Isles, do not expect to eat many veggies! Next time I go to the internet cafe, I'll post more pictures...I expect to do so tomorrow. Cheers!

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