What an awesome day!!! We both slept 12-14 hours last night after we fell asleep about 6:00pm because we literally could not keep our eyes open any longer. We didn’t even go find any dinner like we planned... we just sat down on the bed and fell asleep. We woke up this morning feeling refreshed and re-energized and ready to tackle St Patrick’s Day in Dublin. We arrived downstairs for our 9:00am breakfast (pre-scheduled with the B&B host when we got here) and it was delicious!!! They cooked us ham steaks, scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, and a tomato. They asked us if we would like to try their white and black puddings, and we said yes. On our plate were two small slices of this pudding, which is actually pork mixed with bread crumbs, spices and the black pudding included blood. Yes folks, we ate blood pudding this morning and I must say that it was DELICIOUS! I craved another piece after I finished mine, so I’m looking forward to more tomorrow morning. Crazy, huh? After our lovely breakfast, we drove into Dublin and parked in the same convenient car garage from the day before. Today there were significantly more people in Dublin than yesterday. I would venture to guess that there were at least triple the amount of people roaming the streets from the day before. We decided to make our way to Trinity College first to check out the book of Kells since yesterday we failed miserably in trying to do so. We walked along the Liffey, carefully crossing the parade zone before it started. We arrived at Trinity at 11:00 and on a normal day, it would have been open, but because of the holiday, they opened at noon and rather than make the same mistake from yesterday, we parked ourselves in the sunshine right by the door and decided to wait the hour out. As we were sitting there enjoying the sunshine and each others company, a big plunk of brown seedy poo landed on my hand from the ledge above… a little fecal treat from the loving and sharing Irish pigeons who dwell at Trinity College. Ew!!! Stanley tried to tell me that the Ancient Romans believed getting poo’d on by birds was considered good luck. Well, so is having lady bugs land on you… I think I’d rather take the ladybugs over the poo – but what can you do? Luckily, Stanley had a bottle of water and I had some tissues, and it was only on my hand, much better than if it had landed in my hair or down my shirt or on my face or whatever. An hour later the exhibit opened and it was pretty cool. The Book of Kells is the ancient gospels of the new testament from 800AD copied by Irish & Scottish monks on the Isle of Iona in Scotland. When the Viking troubles began at that same time period, the book was brought to Ireland for safe keeping and is now held by Trinity College in Dublin. Even better than the book though, we got to see the old Trinity College library, called the Long Room, which was stunning and gorgeous, all wood and ancient books. Stanley said if there was a heaven, this room would be part of it . We found some great swag in the gift shop afterward and then made our way back into Dublin for more attractions. We walked to Dublin Castle, only to find it closed for the day, so we took some great pictures of the outside and the nearby garden and then walked to St Patrick’s Cathedral which is Ireland’s largest cathedral. We explored the cathedral for some time and took some amazing pictures. This place was very cool with beautiful floors and a really awesome brass celtic cross. In the back of the cathedral there was an area where you could light a candle for good health and prayer. Stanley and I usually light a candle in all of the big cathedrals that we explore and today, in my silliness, Stanley asked me if I had any Euro coins to donate and I replied with “No, but I have an earth quarter”. He started laughing and asked me what an “earth quarter” was, and then I realized what I said and started laughing too cause I meant to say “American quarter”. Apparently I must think we’re on a different planet because all I have is earth money. Too funny. After exploring the cathedral, we decided to head over to Temple Bar, which is an area of Dublin filled with pubs mostly of a musical origin. We tried valiantly to get there before the parade ended, and since we were on one side of the parade and Temple Bar was on the other, it was nearly impossible to find a crossing point. After walking quite a distance along the parade to find a crossing point, we found the end of the parade line where the parade was ending and the masses of people crowded the streets in every direction. Temple Bar was literally a mad house… walls of people and there was no way at all that we were going to get to see the area let alone see the inside of one of the pubs. We decided to come back on Sunday when we’re wrapping up our visit and instead walked back toward our car. We decided the next stop would be the Guinness Storehouse, which luckily was a short walk from our car. The best that I can describe the Guinness Storehouse is that it is like the Disney Discovery Museum for beer lovers. It was totally interactive with seven floors of beer making information, exhibits, gadgets, movies, bars, cafes, bands playing, beer tasting, and at the top, an impressive round room that provided an amazing 360 degree view of Dublin and a complimentary pint of Guinness. The Guinness Storehouse was very cool, even for a non-beer drinker like me. Back to our car, we decided to drive back to the hotel and find dinner at one of the nearby pubs. Unfortunately, all restaurants are closed for food on St Patrick’s Day, and instead open for drinks only, so we were totally out of luck for finding any dinner. We decided to walk to the nearby market and ended up buying some cheese, sliced Cajun chicken, bread, grapes, an apple, a bottle of wine, some chocolate dessert snacks and a bag of Pringles to eat at the room while we watched Irish TV. We found a very cool program about Hurling, an Irish kind of soccer game, in Gaelic with English subtitles. What a great day and we’re getting ready for bed. Tomorrow, we drive North to Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK) to explore Belfast, the Causeway Coast, and the Bushmills Distillery. –Michele
St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin. Authenticity. Even when American styled St. Patrick’s Day activities find there way back here to Dear Old Ireland, they have a way of being taken over and ‘Irished’ Up or recast with the indigenous Irish mindset. The parade is a fine example- what started in the states as a way for immigrants far from home to gain good PR and community cohesion has come back here as a happy inclusive Patriotic celebration of the home and home land. I loved it.
-The Book of Kells and Long Room (library) @ Trinity College. Oldness, with care and relevance brings a form of quality that is rare and to be cherished. This is not to downplay transcendent new quality –like my new Bose headphones, a paean to our Promethean cleverness- but the old quality has resonance that is sometimes misliked by us for its rarity, and that’s why we should embrace it all the more, when we can.
-Temple Bar was too crowded after the parade. BTW we came to experience Ireland not “MTV Spring Break- Ireland” Besides, too cold for those delightful bikinis. We’ll visit Temple Bar on our way back through Dublin.
-Guinness Storehouse. Like the Jameson’s Distillery but with stout. Nice.
-TV in Gaelic. Is that cool enough?
Please.
3 Points to ponder
-When your seat of government is a Castle (Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Russia, etc) you are tough and manly enough of a country that you don’t have to bomb innocent people from 30,000 feet to assuage your fragile ego. (Well scratch Russia). Dublin Castle, go see it.
-They do not dye the Liffey River green on St. Patrick’s Day, that’s Chicago and its goofy.
-Sit under the winged rats (my term of pigeons), you will be shat upon.
BY ORDER ~SEA
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