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| The First of Many Namesake Items |
We landed and took the bus to our hotel. On the way some locals on the bus pointed out this amazing bridge. Apparently, it swings open to let boats pass.
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| Samuel Beckett Bridge |
We were relieved when we got to our hotel, The Westin Dublin in Temple Bar. We splurged for the perfect location - close to all the bus routes and practically across the street from Trinity College. When we arrived at 7am our room wasn't ready, but they did offer to upgrade us to the Presidential sweet for only 200 €. It was tempting, but we declined and made our way onto the quiet morning streets of Dublin.
Our first destination was the Ha'Penny Bridge. After seeing this in many travel books and websites I started to call it "My Bridge." The bridge was built in 1816 and I love its antique feel in a modern city. Every time we passed it I said, "There's my bridge."
After spending an hour in a Spar, the Irish Walgreens, our breakfast spot was finally open. We had our first Irish breakfast at Cornucopia, one of the many vegetarian restaurants in Ireland. There, we learned every Irish breakfast comes with coffee or tea included. All trip I took my coffee with natural brown sugar and a splash of cream.
From there we walked to Trinity College, which dates back to 1592. This a picture of the Front Gate. where we were to meet at 10am for our tour.
We were so excited when we saw this sign outside the gate, reminding us of our little Scooter back home.
While waiting for our tour I took some photos of this amazing campus. Can you even imagine going to college here?
Trinity College senior pictures:
Our tour guide was a self-assured graduate student who had us laughing the entire time. One interesting fact we learned was this beautiful tree was planted...
...to keep the adjacent building from flooding. As you know, it rains so much in Ireland and this tree soaks up the water.
After the tour of the outside of campus we waited in line to see The Book of Kells and The Old Library. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels circa 800. The book was only open to one page, but the amazing detail and artistry was breathtaking. No photography allowed, so I guess you'll have to go to Dublin and see if for yourself.
The Old Library houses around 200,000 books. These pictures do not do justice to the immensity of the collection.
Not far from Trinity College are the Oscar Wilde House and statue. Zach was a champ and stood in front of the house even though he doesn't care much about Oscar Wilde. I was just sick of being in all the pictures.
I love this statue. I feel like it epitomizes the whimsy of Wilde. Plus this amazing work of art simply sits in a public park in the middle of Dublin. Free for all to touch and pose with as I nerdily have done below.
At this point we'd grown a little tired and weary so we took advantage of our hop on hop off bus tour to take us all of five blocks to the famous Grafton Street. As you can see from this picture it is a bustling street filled with tourists, street performers, and shops. Because The Grafton is one of Zach and my favorite restaurants in Chicago we were very excited to be on the actual Grafton Street.
On Grafton Street, we were so delighted to see our first Carphone Warehouse of "Extras" fame. I could just picture Stephen Merchant as Darren dancing when his cellphone rings.
We had a lunch reservation at Bewley's Oriental Cafe. I'd love to go back someday because our experience was less than magical. I accidentally ordered a "Goats Cheese" Salad instead of the "Feta Cheese" salad. It came out with a whole heap of bacon on it. Zach had to trade with me and I ate his Caesar salad that he was really looking forward to. Then, our waiter was super rude to us the whole time despite our general pleasantness and we accidentally gave him a really big tip by Ireland standards.
After Bewley's we stumbled back to the hotel in a tired stupor and took a four hour nap. We woke up refreshed and ready for our dinner reservation at J.W. Sweetman.
When we got there we found this amazing sign on our table. It definitely pays to book reservations from 3,700 miles away...
...Especially because this was our phenomenal view of the River Liffey.
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| Zach with the Sampler Tray |
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| Great Wall Quote |
After dinner we stayed at J.W. Sweetman for awhile and chatted with a few bartenders. Around 8:30pm we were getting pretty tired, but I'm never too tired for shopping, so we went to a gift shop across the street from our hotel. That is where I took this gem of a picture of Zach. He's trying to make the same face as the Guinness man, but instead it just looks like he wants to kiss him.
Before we fell asleep we went down to the hotel lounge to check our email, the only connection we would have to the outside world for 11 days. This is the view of the lounge from our room.
All and all a successful day in Dublin. Looking back we got our bearings very quickly, even though it didn't feel like it at the time. Little did we know all the adventure and excitement that was yet to come.
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying." - Oscar Wilde
