Ireland: In Dublin's fair city

Day 11: The first step in going to Dublin is getting there. Luckily our little cottage is within a 5 min walk to the LUAS, the above ground light rail into Dublin. Tickets are €5 each round trip, but whatever options we chose they ended at €2.70. We thought we best get to the city and figure it out later. The crowd on the LUAS, or Tram as locals call it, was packed full of your regular mid morning riders:a few business people, teens, families, retirees, and tourists. The ride to St Stephens Green took about 25 minutes, we exited the tram and headed down Grafton street, the main shopping and pedestrian area.

The night before we made a rough outline for the day. Up first was Trinity College and The Book of Kells. The admission to see the book is €10, but students at the college have a little kiosk selling tours of the campus and the book for €12, or €11 if you're a student or senior. Our guide was an enthusiastic young fellow, bespectacled and wearing a most peculiar vest that looked fairly Harry Potter-esque. For 30 minutes we walked around the three main squares of the campus learning about its founding by Elizabeth I (she was planting a Protestant university in a predominately Catholic country), the sorted history as barracks during Cromwell, the decree by the Pope banning scholars to attend, and the current state of the campus (graduation ceremony is in Latin and your grades are read aloud). It was very enlightening and ended with us queuing to see the Book of Kells, which was quite anticlimactic. The lines was poorly organized and mobs of people gathered round the encased book (they could take a lesson from Disney is learning how to design an effective and entertaining queue). The book itself was larger than expected, about 10 x 12, and was opened to John 8:12. Following the Book of Kells was our favorite part, access to the Long Room. An ancient library with over 20,000 books organized from largest to smallest. Luckily for scholars there is a catalog with the books location so one is not doomed if they are used to the Dewey Decimal System.

We left the grounds of Trinity in search of lunch, which we found in a delightfully little cafe. Fresh sandwiches, tomato soup from fresh tomatoes, scones and cookie baskets overflowing. It was quite delicious. After we had filled up on food and water, our destination was the Irish national museum of archeology. The museum was much smaller than we had imagined. It was two story, with multiple exhibits in an area. Having learned a lot from our New Grange, we skipped most of the displays on the first floor and ventured to the Bog People. Within the bogs of Ireland thousands of relics, artifacts, and a few human remains Have been found. The bogs are excellent at preserving flesh and tissue and the museum displays several of the more complete remains. It was shocking how much had been preserved, facial features were discernible and all hair was intact. One of the Bog men.had an outstretched hand and his fingernails were still in good condition.

Next on our stop was No. 29 Georgian House. A carefully restored Dublin Townhouse built in 1790 shows what life was like for an upper middle class family. Or at least what life was like in their city home where they stayed and entertained whenever Parliament convened. Unfortunately we were not allows to take photos, but their website has a lot of information available. It was absolutely lovely and we recommend it to all who visit Dublin. With three hours to go before out pub crawl, we asked the ladies where we should head next. They suggested The Little Museum of Dublin, which was just near St Stephens Green. It in an amazing collection of memorabilia from the last 150 years. The bottom floor has been turned into an exhibit celebrating "Mrs. Brown" (a pop culture icon based on the TV show of the same name). The creator of the show has a fascinating family history involving some of Dublins most difficult times. Upstairs were walls covered with everything from pictures of JFK's visit to Ireland, to James Joyce's death mask, an entire room dedicated to U2, and another to women in journalism. We wished we had more than 40 mins to spend inside.

Our literary pub crawl we set to begin at 7:30 at The Duke on Duke St. We stopped by early, and sure enough had an excellent dinner menu. Allison tried spicy chicken wings, I had a disappointing Irish stew, mom had delicious fish and chips, and then for dessert we tried something new: banofee pie. AMAZING. It is a shortbread crust, with a medium thick layer of toffee sauce, freshly sliced bananas, and a mound of unsweetened whipped cream. It was heaven. We tried a few local beers and cider s, and when we were ready headed upstairs for the beginning of our crawl.

The Dublin Literary Pub Crawl is hosted by Collin who authored a book of the same name, and two.actors, Frank and Derek. Frank and Derek began the crawl reenacting a scene from "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett a famous Dubliner. The tour continued in the same fashion, we would walk to an area of interest or a famous pub, the guide would assume the role of a character or author, and tells funny stories along the way. From the Duke we went to Trinity College, where many an alumni went on to be household names but Derek gave special attention to Oscar Wilde. Then we went up the street to O'Neill's a popular watering hole for members of Parliament, scholars, students, and the poet Brendan Kennelly. Across the street near the Molly Malone statute for a scene from a play where the protagonist is a beggar and swears he can tell if a person is Protestant or Catholic and will then sing the appropriate hymn in hopes of receiving a few pennies. The gents were great and we had an enjoyable evening getting the know more about the city and its history.

We departed from the city well after 10, and on the tram ride home learned of our mistake from earlier in the day. When the ticket person came around he said we had purchased one way tickets and we should've selected return. His English was extremely poor, and while I was trying to find out what we needed to do to fix the situation he yelled no fix only €35 fine. I must've looked horrified and said I'm sorry sir it was a simple error we didn't realize until right now and the machine didn't have instructions. We went back and forth for a few moments he asking where we were from, me explaining los Angeles. Finally he gave up and walked away. Oops. (We figured it out for our next trip into Dublin, but sadly he wasn't on the train then next time to see that).