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Geo: 53.3331, -6.2489
The time change finally caught up with me last night. I turned out my light at 10:00 and then woke up thinking it was probably 3:00 in the morning. Nope. It was 11:30. I managed to get back to sleep, but then woke up again at 2:00 and just could not get back to sleep. I was completely wide awake. I'm sure I was still up at 4:00 if not later, and my alarm went at 7:00. So I was already feeling rather fragile, and then there was a spider in my shower, which pretty much had me hyperventilating. All in all, not the most auspicious start to the day.
I had the same thing for breakfast today as I did yesterday (poached eggs, bacon and toast), but today the eggs tasted like vinegar. They were actually fairly sickening, but I think I'm used to European bacon at last. I so rarely have toast at home, but there's something oddly comforting about it when traveling.
We started our day with a local guide, Edward, who walked us around Christ Church (two words), Temple Bar and Dublin Castle, and gave us some interesting short lectures about Irish history. I'm ashamed to admit
that I remember almost none of what he said, however. I know there was stuff about Vikings ... oh yeah: it was mainly Danish Vikings (I didn't know there was more than one type of Viking) who sailed their longships up the Poddle River to the black (dubh) pool (lin) and basically founded Dublin. Oh, and how the statue of Justice at Dublin Castle (which was the administrative center for the British governors) (a) was not blindfolded, (b) had her back to the people and faced the government, and (c) was holding scales that had a hole in one side, so when it rained hard, one of the plates collected rain and tipped the scales. And he did talk a little about the famine of the 19th century, and what a miracle crop the potato is. The Irish don't quite say “potato.” It sounds more like “badaydo.” So I guess I
do remember some of what he told us. Yay, me!
He took us to Trinity College, which was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 specifically to educate young Irish men to be Anglican clergy. Elizabeth figured it would be easier to rule the Irish if she could turn them away from Rome. For centuries, only Anglicans could study there and, of course, they had to be men. It wasn't until the 1970s that Catholics were formally given permission by the Church to study at Trinity. Women were allowed to enter in 1904, during the tenure of one Provost George Salmon, who famously said that women would be allowed at Trinity over his dead body. One week after the first female student walked through the gates, Provost Salmon died of a heart attack. There's a statue commemorating him on the quad; he looks like a cranky old fish.
Edward left us there, and we had time to use the bathrooms and get a coffee ---GAAAAAA! A small spider just crawled across my computer screen! I'll never get to sleep tonight!!! Anyway, bathrooms and coffee in the Arts Building at the college. Dublin has a terrible heroin problem, which was evidenced by the blue lights in the bathroom stalls. I felt much more alert after feeding my own addiction and having a mocha.
Declan took us over to the Old Library afterwards so that we could see the Book of Kells. This is the third time I've seen it and, quite frankly, I
Oscar Wilde
Clearly living in the gutter, but looking at the stars.find all the explanatory stuff in the rooms before the Book far more interesting than the Book itself. I mean, it's fantastic that this thing has survived more or less intact since the 8th century, but it's kind of small and it's very hard to elbow one's way up to the glass to get a decent glimpse. And when it's surrounded by Germans, who stand their ground even better than the Japanese, it's hardly worth it. Upstairs, however, is the Old Library and I find it much more interesting. The room is barrel-vaulted and 200 feet long, with a gallery above. There are 200,000 books in there, as well as an interesting display of scary medical equipment, a giant's skeleton and other old documents. Apparently, it was the model for the library in the Harry Potter films. Downstairs is the ubiquitous gift shop.
When we were done at Trinity, Katherine, Michelle and I walked up to Grafton Street – stopping by the Molly Malone statue – and had lunch at Marks & Spencer. I wasn't all that hungry, so I ordered a cream tea, figuring that the two scones wouldn't be very big. They weren't very big by Starbucks' standards, but
they were reasonably good-sized. And they were very, very good with clotted cream and currant jam on top. While we sat, we watched a large angry cloud make its way toward the city. When we got back outside, the cloud opened up and everyone on the street scurried into doorways to wait out the rain. Katherine and Michelle both have hoods, and I had my umbrella, so we continued on to Merrion Square to find the statue of Oscar Wilde. It's a pretty nifty marble statue. His smoking jacket is green with scarlet trim, and he's holding a pipe while lounging on a rock looking quite smug.
We continued on to St. Patrick's Cathedral (I got us slightly lost, but Katherine asked a nice lady which direction to go, and she got us there). It's smaller than I remember, but it's got a lovely tiled floor and the Door of Reconciliation. The door dates from the 15th century (so it's pretty raggedy looking) and has a big hole in the middle. There was a feud between the Earl of Kildare and the Earl of Ormond, which came to an amicable conclusion when Kildare cut the hole in the door and stuck
his arm through to shake the hand of Ormond, who had taken refuge in the Chapter House. This showed that Kildare was sincere in his desire to end the feud and that he trusted Ormond not to cut off his arm. This is where the phrase “chancing one's arm” comes from.
From one cathedral to another: we walked up to Christ Church to see the inside. My favorite thing was in the crypt: a mummified cat and rat that had gotten stuck in an organ pipe – one presumably being chased by the other – sometime in the 1850s. Poor things. There were also some costumes from the BBC series “The Tudors,” much of which is filmed at the cathedral.
Both St. Patrick's and Christ Church started out as Catholic cathedrals, but one of them is now Anglican and the other is Church of Ireland. It's unusual enough to have two cathedrals in one city, but Dublin has a third cathedral: St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral on the north side of the river. The “pro” stands for “provisional,” because for a few hundred years the Catholic clergy held out hope that St. Patrick's and Christ Church would be returned to the Catholic Church. They've
given up on that idea, but the “pro” remains.
As a group we had dinner at Luigi Malones (!) in Temple Bar. We were given the choice of a starter, a main and a dessert. I ordered potato and leek soup for my starter and profiteroles for dessert. I had a hard time deciding on my main because there were maybe a dozen choices, which was just too many. I thought about yakisoba, but it had prawns in it. (Also, who orders a Japanese noodle dish at an Italian-Irish restaurant?) Then I thought about pasta, but none of the preparations appealed to me. So I reluctantly ordered garlic chicken. It turned out to be very, very tasty. The soup was good too, but the profiteroles left something to be desired. The pastry wasn't light enough or something. It was chewy instead of choux-y.
We leave fairly early in the morning (8:20), so I need to pack up my suitcase and get to bed. Hope I sleep better tonight, despite the ever-present threat of a spider ambush.
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JK
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Spiders!!! Why couldn't it be butterflies. I guess you need me there after all.That comment about the Germans is a bit offensive to my heritage. :)