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Published: January 25th 2014
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As much as I love Dublin, I don't have many enthusiastic things to say about Trinity College. It's supposed to be Dublin's #1 attraction, and the Book of Kells is gorgeous, but it's not worth the €8 entry fee unless you're really into illuminated manuscripts. The Book of Kells is the oldest of its kind, so it's understandable that they would be very careful to maintain it, but "very careful" isn't the correct phrase in this case.
Rabid would be a better word. I've been plenty of places that won't allow pictures with flash and a few that wouldn't allow pictures at all, and I understand that. What neither Michael nor I understood was the fact that we couldn't even take pictures
of the pictures. Before you even reach the Book, there's a room with huge prints of important pages and brief descriptions. We knew we couldn't take pictures of the Book itself, but when I took a picture of the giant print I was told that I couldn't do that either. As a result, I honestly can't tell you much about the Book. I remember thinking that it was beautiful, and that's all.
And don't even think of sneaking
pictures of the actual manuscript. Whatever clever scheme you have in mind, they know. I promise that they know. There were at least four other people in the room, but the guard on duty had us pegged. He constantly shifted around the room, making sure that both Michael and I were in his sights at all times. I know when I'm beat, so I didn't even try. And yes, you can take that as an admission that I take pictures when I'm not supposed to, but I'm not stupid enough to do it when I think I'll get caught. Usually.
So we left the Book of Kells and walked upstairs to the Long Room, which, as you might have deduced, is a very long room full of bookshelves. Now, as a rabid bibliophile, this was much more appealing to me. I didn't see the curator lurking out of sight, and when I made the paramount mistake of taking a quick shot of the outside of the Long Room (with no flash, mind), he came swooping out of the shadows like Batman.
"No photos," he said.
Backpedaling, I said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I thought it was just
the Book. I won't do it again."
"I'm going to need you to erase all of the pictures." And then he literally stood there and watched both of us erase all of our illicit pictures. Moral of the story? They mean business, and you will be caught.
The unpleasantness of that interaction couldn't quite dull my enthusiasm at seeing the Long Room, and I don't want to give the impression that Trinity College isn't worth seeing. My point is that if you're strapped for cash, as Michael and I were, you might want to give it a pass. Honestly, it depends on what you're interested in, because immediately after that we walked down to the Archeological Museum. Snoozefest for some, wicked cool for me. Granted, it wasn't €8 to get in, but for some people that's not an issue.
Our first attempt at reaching the museum didn't go like we planned. We were following the map in my guidebook, and we saw a grand-looking building with a large courtyard and thought it was part of the museum chain. So we started walking through the gate, and a very nice man in a Garda uniform stopped us and
informed us that we couldn't go in there because it was the Parliament building. Whoops.
On the advice of a cabbie we ate lunch at the Church, a converted chapel on the north side of Dublin that used to be St. Mary's. The food was great and the space was really unique; it even included the original organ hanging above the bar area and a basement full of artifacts from its church days. We spent a good part of the afternoon at Dublin Castle, though we missed out on the tours as they were already booked. Instead we walked around the garden and found the memorial for members of the Garda, the Irish police force. Still hankering for green space, we took the metro out to Phoenix Park and wandered down the main road/path. I can't stress this next part enough: do not underestimate the size of Phoenix Park. It is over twice the size of Central Park in NYC and literally bigger than the main part of Dublin. Michael and I were aiming for the official residence of the Irish president, and based on how long we had been walking we thought we were at least three inches into our map of the park. Then we spotted the Wellington Monument, and when we found it on the map our eyes about popped out of our heads. Forget three inches, or two, or even one. We were less than a quarter of an inch onto the map, barely enough to register. In other words, Phoenix Park is almost too massive to believe. It was beautiful and peaceful, but we barely made it as far as the President's house before we had to turn back because it was getting dark.
As you might have noticed, Day 3 didn't go exactly as we planned. In the midst of all the chaos and confusion we still managed to have an amazing time, which just goes to show you that a less-than-ideal day traveling is better than a perfect day at home.
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