Last Days in Dublin

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So I'm writing this blog a long time after the fact, but I figured that I needed to finally finish up the story of our trip out here. I wrote most of the last blogs on the trip and then just posted them later when I had internet access, but after this one I should be mostly caught up.

The day after Glendalough I found that I was not feeling very good. I woke up with a sore throat and it started to worry me. I felt better later, but was really groggy and tired all day. Nonetheless, we made it out to three of our four target destinations in the city of Dublin.

Our first destination was Trinity College. This is one of the oldest universities in Europe, and it is safe to say that Trinity is to Ireland as Oxford or Cambridge are to England. The university was founded in 1592 and has had many well-known graduates including Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde and many others. This was initially a school that I looked into studying at, but long story short decided to go elsewhere.

The campus itself is beautiful. It is situated in the centre of Dublin near many other attractions and important buildings. There is a lot to see, but the main highlight is the Old Library. This is the living space of the Book of Kells, an well-known ancient gospel manuscript from the 9th Century. The book is completed with many incredible and intricate drawings of the gospels created by Scottish monks centuries ago. The exhibit contains a few other books in the same style. Finally, the exhibit takes you through the "Long Room", which is the main part of the old library, containing books from as early as the 1700's, when it was built. The whole exhibit is really fascinating.

After Trinity, we made our way over to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We had a conversation with a local Dubliner outside of the Cathedral who shares the surname Reilly with my Grandma. I have noticed so far that Irish people love to talk to us and tell us about their history and politics. They are especially intrigued when they find out that my name is Erin. We seem to be a novelty to them. When we made our way inside the Cathedral, the highlight was the Irishman who worked there deciding to come and talk to us about Obama's policies. It is absolutely fascinating to me that so many of the people we met wanted to talk American politics with us. Aside from the quirky man, the Cathedral was beautifully constructed and absolutely ornate.

We made our way down the road to Christ Church Cathedral, which was fairly similar to the last one except that it housed an amazing pipe organ and had a crypt with many different Irish treasures. These Cathedrals were both really beautiful, but I felt so exhausted that I really did not get to appreciate them. We returned to the hotel, took naps, and went out for a quiet dinner before returning to bed.

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