Today was our last full day in Europe, and we spent it exploring the city of Dublin. Like every day, we began with a breakfast at the hotel, and then went off to the city center via the Luas tram. The first thing we planned to do was visit the Trinity College Library. Trinity College was founded in the 1500s and its library has a vast collection of historical books dating from medieval times to around the 19th century. One of the most famous books from the library is the Book of Kells, an original gospel manuscript in Latin dated back to the 9th century.
After going through a short exhibit about the book, I got to see it with my own eyes. It was quite incredible, for being written over 1000 years ago. The illustrations which made the book so famous were so amazing to see on the ancient pages. After seeing the book, we moved into the long hall, the library that inspired many movie libraries, including the Jedi Archives in Star Wars Episode II. The hall had an exhibit that changes monthly, displaying some of the books in the library. The theme for this exhibition was doctors, and we saw many old medical textbooks, as well as the first anatomy textbook ever (from the 1600s). After browsing through the souvenir shop, we wanted to go the Irish National History museum.
Unfortunately, it was a Sunday so the museum would open at 2PM, so we needed a way to pass the time. First, we went to Dublin Castle. In its courtyard, there was an exhibition on sand sculpting where I saw some amazing pieces of art. We decided not to do the tour of the castle though, since I can't even remember how many castles and palaces we've toured in the last 3 weeks. Instead, we decided to just go on the Luas tram line to the end. On the way, we saw the suburbs of Dublin with its gated communities and commuter parking lots. The end station of the line, Tallaght, was a new super-modern development just outside of the city that had a ton of new apartment buildings. Since Ireland went into recession in the last year, the city was mostly a ghost town, with hundreds of buildings "For Sale," "For Rent," or "To Let" (For Lease). We then took the tram back to the city and went to the history museum, close to Trinity College.
The museum had exhibits mostly about Irish archaeological history, starting with prehistoric times. We saw many stone age artifacts from when people first settled the Ireland. The next exhbition, the highlight of the museum, was about the bogs of Ireland, and how well they preserved artifacts and bodies. We saw four naturally preserved bodies ranging from 8000BC to 1500AD, one so well that we could see the face and hairstyle. The next few exhibits covered Ireland's history with the Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries, the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, and Ireland in the middle ages. There were also three non-Irish exhibits, about Egypt, Rome, and Cyprus. The museum was decent, and basically a lite, Irish version of the history/art museum in Vienna.
Since it was now around 4PM, we were hungry. The first place, "a Persian Restaurant" we wanted to eat at tried to scam us with foreign exchange rates, so we ate at a Lebanese restaurant next door. In this regard, when you travel, never agree to be charged in U.S. dollars on your credit card because the exchange rates are very unfavorable if you do. There, I tried some falafel and lamb donner meat on Naan bread. Since we were exhausted, we decided to rest at the hotel until around 7:30PM.
Our final exploration of Dublin was short and rainy. We walked around Grafton Street and Temple Bar, but there wasn't much action outdoors due to the rain, a guaranteed attraction in Ireland. After a final walk through Little Italy and O'Connell street, we returned to the hotel for good. Tomorrow, we'll be going to the airport and flying home to Boston. When I'm home, I'll post all of the pictures and do a final entry about the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment