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Published: October 4th 2008
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Having come to Belfast to work, I have been blessed to form friendships with two wonderful Aussie girls who have been an endless source of fun and entertainment since my arrival here. I have turned to my girlfriends Claire and Nadia for dinner dates, chocolate fests, tea and coffee hits, movie marathons and the occasional bit of outdoor exercise (though the latter would be definitely be in the minority of our time spent together). After many, many hours spent hanging out at each of our various shabby apartments in the same accommodation complex where we all live, we decided it was time to venture further afield for a weekend of all things girly.
Being only two hours south of Belfast, Dublin is the obvious choice for a weekend away. And so to Dublin we went! Having hauled ourselves out of bed at a ridiculously early hour for a Saturday morning and boarded a bus to our destination, it was fortunate our journey was uneventful and we found ourselves in the centre of Dublin before we knew it. Happy but hungry we headed for a cafe offering a 'traditional Irish breakfast' but were confronted by a 'food person' who heated up
eggs and bacon in a microwave to serve to the customers who fortunately ordered before us and so gave us the opportunity to make a hasty exit before we were subjected to a similar fate. We didn't have to travel far to find a more respectable establishment offering one of the best brekkies I've ever eaten!
Fuelled up at last, we headed out to take in the sights of Dublin. The first stop was Trinity, Dublin's only college, whose library is home to the Book of Kells. This famous book is an elaborately decorated manuscript dating back to AD 800. It is a bit of a miracle that this book has survived to be on display in the college here as it has been stolen numerous times and the last time it was recovered, it was found in the middle of a field on an Irish farm. It was an incredible manuscipt to see-the pages are embossed with startling coloured inks which are so vibrant it seems impossible to believe the age of these pages. My favourite thing though was the library itself which to me is everything a library should be. The moment you set foot inside you
could smell the aroma of leather bound books, all of which were located behind arched alcoves. The alcoves were stacked with books from floor to ceiling, accessible via old wooden ladders leaning against the shelves. The library was also home to the first carved Guiness harp, as well as the declaration of independence for the Republic of Ireland itself.
The afternoon was filled by a visit to Kilmainham Gaol. This famous Gaol was the first penal institution to consider the welfare of its inmates through the creation of more humane facilities, including the provision of adequate light and warmth for inmates as a basic condition. Kilmainham subsequently served as the model for prisons all over the world. The Gaol itslef has been the set for a number of movies as well as music videos, and walking into the main chamber, I felt a sense of eery familiarity. This institute also played a major role in Ireland's struggle for independence in the early twentieth century. The most moving part of the tour of this Gaol was the site at which several prominent Irish republicans were executed after the 1916 Easter Rising. The major streets and boulevards in Dublin centre bear
the names of those who were executed at this very site, such was their importance to the republicans' movement. It was indeed a moving and humbling experience to stand at the site which bore witness to this horror.
In need of some light-hearted fun after a very thought-provoking afternoon, we dressed up and headed on a literary pub crawl. This tour visited the old haunts of Dublin's most famous literary residents, and was run by a comedic duo who offered lots of historical fact in combination with many jokes and much inuenndo. We visited several of Dublin's best pubs before leaving the group and settling in for a few drinks in the famous Temple Bar area, home to many revellers and the site of much frivolity in the wee small hours of the weekend mornings.
The remainder of the weekend was focussed on the more traditional girly pursuits of shopping, drinking tea and eating cake. It was the loveliest way to spend a few days with two very dear friends and this weekend away reminded me just how much every girl needs a good girly break every now and then.
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