So the flight over was decent, but it's not as exciting as the actual EUROPE part, so I'll just begin with our first stop: Dublin! The city was gorgeous, and like many European cities, it was very old and exuded history. The city was full of old brick building, statues, colorful doors, and paved streets. Also, everyone in Dublin was beautiful, especially their clothes. Everyone (and I mean everyone) was well dressed, it was impressive. I loved walking through the gardens in Dublin, and we walked through Stephen's Green & Iveagh Gardens. It was nice to just take a lazy stroll through the gardens, see the statues, and sit & rest by the fountain.
I also was able to visit Trinity College, which has a GORGEOUS library and houses the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells was, of course, beautiful. It wasn't quite as vibrant as I expected it, but that makes sense because it's from the Middle Ages and all. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs. The library in Trinity College was amazing. It is exactly as beautiful as it looks in pictures. There were sooo many books. It was overwhelming that someone wrote each and every one of them and now they're so old that they're falling apart and unusable. The library, though, looked like the library of my dreams. Again, though, because of the no-flash rule, I wasn't able to get any non-blurry pictures. After Trinity College, we visited the Little Museum of Dublin, which was nice and gave a history of the city.
The next day, we had a bus tour and visited Arbour Hill Cemetery, which is where 16 rebels for Irish Independence are buried. We also visited the Dublin Writer's Museum, which was really awesome, with me being an English major and all. I didn't have as much time as I would of liked there, but I was able to see displays about Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and many others. It was really impressive being able to see so many old works of literature under the glass at the museum. After the Dublin Writer's Museum, we visited the James Joyce Center which was one of the museums I was most looking forward to. In Fall 2013, I took a Short Story class and we studied quite a few short stories from Joyce's Dubliners and I really enjoyed it. I actually wrote my paper for the Tour Prep class on Joyce & Dubliners. The museum housed a replica of an apartment where he worked on Ulysses and an exhibit about a house mentioned in his books. Out a back door upstairs was an outdoor area with the walls painted with facts and pieces from Joyce's writings. Because of my love for Joyce and Dubliners, I ended up buying a copy of the book, and I had a nerd-out moment about how I was buying a copy of Dubliners in Dublin from the James Joyce Center.
After the museums, we had free time in the afternoon and we took the train out to Bray, which is a little coastal town not too far from Dublin. It was absolutely breathtaking there. The smooth pebbled beaches, the misty Bray Head, and the ocean. I walked out a little bit into the water and it was verrrry cold, but not quite make-your-bones-hurt cold. It was one of the many days that I was so very glad I wore my Chacos. The coast line was beautiful, misty, foggy, and rugged. I also took a stone from the beach as souvenir. We hiked up the Bray Head to see the ruins of an old church and it was beautiful all foggy and green against the worn-down stone. I wished we would of been able to hike to the very top. On our way down though, it POURED. My skirt was so drenched that I was able to literally wring out at least a cup of water from it. But it was all made better when we stopped for gelato--Wildberry Pie & Hazelnut--which was absolutely delicious. After the gelato we walked around a bit and then took the train home. It was a lovely day. And that was Dublin! Ireland was easily one of my favorite countries. It was so green & there was a lot of really interesting things to see and do. :)
I also was able to visit Trinity College, which has a GORGEOUS library and houses the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells was, of course, beautiful. It wasn't quite as vibrant as I expected it, but that makes sense because it's from the Middle Ages and all. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs. The library in Trinity College was amazing. It is exactly as beautiful as it looks in pictures. There were sooo many books. It was overwhelming that someone wrote each and every one of them and now they're so old that they're falling apart and unusable. The library, though, looked like the library of my dreams. Again, though, because of the no-flash rule, I wasn't able to get any non-blurry pictures. After Trinity College, we visited the Little Museum of Dublin, which was nice and gave a history of the city.
The next day, we had a bus tour and visited Arbour Hill Cemetery, which is where 16 rebels for Irish Independence are buried. We also visited the Dublin Writer's Museum, which was really awesome, with me being an English major and all. I didn't have as much time as I would of liked there, but I was able to see displays about Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and many others. It was really impressive being able to see so many old works of literature under the glass at the museum. After the Dublin Writer's Museum, we visited the James Joyce Center which was one of the museums I was most looking forward to. In Fall 2013, I took a Short Story class and we studied quite a few short stories from Joyce's Dubliners and I really enjoyed it. I actually wrote my paper for the Tour Prep class on Joyce & Dubliners. The museum housed a replica of an apartment where he worked on Ulysses and an exhibit about a house mentioned in his books. Out a back door upstairs was an outdoor area with the walls painted with facts and pieces from Joyce's writings. Because of my love for Joyce and Dubliners, I ended up buying a copy of the book, and I had a nerd-out moment about how I was buying a copy of Dubliners in Dublin from the James Joyce Center.
After the museums, we had free time in the afternoon and we took the train out to Bray, which is a little coastal town not too far from Dublin. It was absolutely breathtaking there. The smooth pebbled beaches, the misty Bray Head, and the ocean. I walked out a little bit into the water and it was verrrry cold, but not quite make-your-bones-hurt cold. It was one of the many days that I was so very glad I wore my Chacos. The coast line was beautiful, misty, foggy, and rugged. I also took a stone from the beach as souvenir. We hiked up the Bray Head to see the ruins of an old church and it was beautiful all foggy and green against the worn-down stone. I wished we would of been able to hike to the very top. On our way down though, it POURED. My skirt was so drenched that I was able to literally wring out at least a cup of water from it. But it was all made better when we stopped for gelato--Wildberry Pie & Hazelnut--which was absolutely delicious. After the gelato we walked around a bit and then took the train home. It was a lovely day. And that was Dublin! Ireland was easily one of my favorite countries. It was so green & there was a lot of really interesting things to see and do. :)