October 8, Dublin
Today just a quick post of things I jotted down during the day, as it's about time to head to a pub for a pint :)
We visited Trinity College today to see the Book of Kells, one of the top attractions in Dublin- an illustrated book of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from around 800 AD. It was pretty interesting as an exhibit, as there were many quotes from the transcribers (or other transcribers around the same time) discussing the process of writing. Some quotes were celebrating the process of creation, while others were mourning the crushing work of it (which one imagines was pretty difficult work, calligraphy by candlelight). I thought this was an interesting contrast, and something that has persisted even to today's writing process even by computer! Visiting Trinity College was also entertaining as it looks just like the American colleges- large white marble buildings and open greenspaces. The difference being that Trinity is 500 years old, while somewhere like Mizzou is only around 170. Apparently the American college architects are taking their cues from the old European universities. Also interesting- It was a cardinal sin for Catholics to attend Trinity until the 1960s, when the ban was lifted. One might have thought education not to be a cardinal sin wherever it was obtained, but hey, telling people to not go to school somewhere is clearly the most pressing issue of the day.
While we enjoyed the exhibit, it was a good contrast to the great museums we have free in the US- paying $9 Euro each for the exhibit seemed particularly expensive compared to the Library of Congress free exhibits!
Another observation as we walked around town is that there are many markers that say things like "nearby was the site of an old stone that marked the port for 800 years." We really don't have these type of notes in the US, because nothing is nearly that old and most noteworthy sites still have some remnants of whatever was there in the first place!
A couple funny things from yesterday that I forgot about in my lack of sleep (finally got caught up last night- we slept for close to 12 hours). When I was making Matt look at historic things before the Guinness tour, he observed that I actually looked like a Guinness- had on dark pants, a slightly lighter sweater, and my blonde(ish) hair- apparently to his Guinness starved mind this looked like the fade of the beer as it settles before drinking! :) Also, my brand new $20 sunglasses I picked up the day we left DC already broke- one of the earpieces broke in half while we were sitting at a cafe...must now acquire more...
We also went to a couple free museums today- saw works by Carvaggio and his contemporaries at the National Gallery and then also visited the National History and Archeology Museum, which I found much more interesting (including the mummified human remains from sacrificial sites 2000 years ago...pretty amazing though disturbing). This series of museums today cast a bit of light on the type of touring we like to do- architecture is more interesting to us than human history museums which are more interesting than art galleries (even the funny little Finnish black and white contemporary film gallery we popped our heads into playing strange cartoons made of altered photographs- somewhat dark and creepy...).
Tomorrow we head to Dingle, and not sure what the Internet situation will be there, but I am sure to have some great photos to upload when I can. Don't forget to click the photo to the side to see the photos from today, though there are only a few since much of the day was spent in museums where no photography was allowed!
Hope you enjoy, and now off to a pub :)
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