Ireland Day Two: we're actually in Ireland!

This morning we finally arrived in Dublin.

 The Dublin airport seemed different than American ones.

 Things were less brightly lit.

But I did spot an ad on the wall I really liked.

It read:

Please play on the grass and in the forest and mountains.

While a lot of other ads

 (Like the tour bus named Paddywagon) 

were disgustingly exploited specifically for tourists,

 this one was refreshingly nice. 

Next we met up with our amazing tour guide pat 

who wished us Céad Míle Fáilte (one hundred thousand welcomes). 

It was interesting to actually see all the signs

 written in both English and Irish, 

even though everyone speaks English.

 I think it’s hard for us Americans

 to truly understand the sadness that comes

 with a dying language that is so important to history and culture.

 Next we went to Pheonix Park.

 There we saw the giant cross

 where Pope Jean Paul II came and gave mass.

 There was a herd of wild deer out in the park—

such a funny thing to see in the middle of a city.

 We could also see a fantastic view of the Wicklow Mountains

 (for more on them see Day Three). 

However, I hope I will always remember

 standing by the cross in Pheonix Park

 and seeing the little boy trying to roll down the hill.

 He was incredibly adorable

 (I think his name was Liam)

 and maybe it’s just because I’m a naïve foreigner,

 but I think that’s a very real picture of Ireland; 

spending a Saturday morning at the park

 trying to learn how to roll down a hill.

 If I were an Irish poet I think

 that’s what I would write about.

We also saw the President's house.

 After the park we headed over to Trinity College.

 Trinity College was much more urban than I was expecting, 

which really does make sense because it is in the middle of the city.

 Yet for some reason I expected

 it to look so much grander and perhaps castle like. 

Nevertheless, it seems like a great place to study 

and very convienently located in the center of the city.

 At Trinity College we saw the Book of Kells,

 which is a copy of the four gospels in Latin

 written by the monks at either Iona or Kells over 1000 years ago.

 It is beautifully decorated and 

an extremely astonishing part of religious history.

 We also got to see the college’s long room 

which I found to be absolutely fantastic. 

(We werent allowed to take pictures so I scanned in the visitors pamphlet). 

It is a huge room that houses 20,000 of the library’s oldest books.

 It even had old ladders for grabbing books from the top shelves 

(a must have for my future house I’ve decided). 

The oldest harp from Ireland was there too.

 It is the same harp that appears on Irish coins

 and it represents the early bardic tradition in Ireland. 

The Long Room was definitely 

one of those rooms you could spend an eternity in.

 However, I have to admit it made me rather sad 

that the room is no longer in use. 

What good are extremely old books and ladders

 that slide back and forth if they arent used?

(I'm not actually sure if this is Grafton Street, but it's somewhere in Dublin)

After Trinity College we went to walk around on Grafton Street

 which is one of the main shopping streets in Dublin. 

Though it was a bit touristy, it was definitely a cool place to walk around.

 There were a lot of street performers including an entire rock band.

 After that we went to the Yeats exhibit at the national library.

 It was a really nice exhibit,

 but what I liked the most was the manuscripts of his poems

 in his own writing with words crossed out and lines changed. 

There was even a copy of one that was labeled final copy 

and he still had a whole line crossed out.

 It was a nice reminder that even a great poet like Yeats

 doesn't just spit out poems all nice and perfect,

 but has to revise and edit like everyone else

 (probably more than everyone else too!)

Highlight of Today:

My first taste of Ireland’s fabulous vegetable soup. 

Instead of having whole vegetable in it, 

it’s more of a vegatable broth. 

Delicious!