We had booked a taxi from Doolin to Ennis because the schedules otherwise didn't suit us. The taxi was a bit late picking us up, so we missed the bus from Ennis to Dublin. But because the driver was typical Irish, he drove us to Limerick, where we caught the bus on the last second. But we did, and arrived to Dublin in good time. On Friday evening in Dublin, what do you do? Temple Bar of course :). We just had a few drinks, listened to great live music and enjoyed the atmosphere of an Irish pub. Nobody is pushing you or spilling beer on you, people actually move away from bar after getting their drink, people are having fun, singing and dancing... I love Irish pubs.
On Saturday I had booked a visit to see Book of Kells. You don't have to book in advance, but I recommend it, unless you want to wait in line for a very long time. With online ticket you can enter quickly and easily. I had also booked the audio guide online, it costs only 5 €, and the ticket is 11-14 € depending on the time of your visit. I hadn't even visited Trinity College before, and it was nice to see that too.
Trinity College is in the centre of Dublin, and it was founded in 1592 by Queen Elisabeth I and its library contains about 5 million books! The Old Library is one of most visited places, and of course Book of Kells. The Old Library has about 200 000 books.
Pics of the exhibition
Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript written in Latin, and it contains the four cospels of the New Testament, and also various introductory texts and tables. It was created by early Christian monks around 800 AD. It is very colourful, and it is Ireland's finest national treasure.The pages are made from vellum taken from the skin of over 150 calves. (Info is from their brochure.)
The Long Room of the Old Library. I cried a bit when I saw that. What an amazing place! I wish I could touch those books, read them... I would spend weeks and weeks there! For me this was more impressive than the Book of Kells. Books <3
The Proclamation of the Irish Republic, one of the few remaining original copies.
In the 18th century, the college received the Brian Boru harp, one of the three surviving medieval Gaelic harps, and a national symbol of Ireland, which is now housed in the library (wikipedia). In the long room no flash allowed, that is why the pics are a bit dark.
I visited Dublin also a couple of months ago, stayed just one night then too, and here's a few pics from that trip. That was the weekend of Ice Hockey World Championships, and Finland won!!!!! That is a huge thing, and Finns go crazy when that happens! I was in tears after the final whistle, in happy tears of course!
I also celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago (woohoo), and spent that with a couple of friends having dinner and some drinks. My colleague went a bit crazy, and that is what my desk looked like when I got to work... Had to do some work before I could fit in :D. It really doesn't happen too often that I laugh after arriving to work on Monday morning.
Now I am thinking what to do next? Do I stay in Ireland for another winter (sic!) or move on again. Winter here was really horrible for me, so I have done a couple of interviews. In many countries my salary would drop a lot, even to half, but so would my living costs, and I would get my own place again, but I couldn't save that much. I don't miss having my own flat THAT much, since my flat mate is always gone! #thebestflatmateever
Good sides and bad sides in both staying and leaving, and I am not sure what to do next. We'll see... In couple of weeks I will have a few days off again, and going to Northern Ireland to see Giant's Causeway, and then to Sligo. I think I should write a post about the every day life here, hopefully I get that done next week (haa haa I know).
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