Dublin Day 2

Scott + I have decided all you need to see Dublin is about 6 hours.

But before I begin, let's get the most important thing out of the way first: food. We started + ended our day with doner kebab + had burgers with an egg on top for lunch.

So after kebab #1 of the day, we headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. For 9 euros, we weren't very impressed. No guided tour + no pictures allowed to commemorate our experience. Highlights include : the cute little peacock on the page that was opened in one of the four books (Scott said he read somewhere they put peacocks by Jesus), the library that was full of really old books (at first Scott + I weren't sure if they were real), + the barrel vaulted ceiling (as seen in the new West Palm Beach Public Library). Things did get better though.

We couldn't even take a picture of the Book of Kells!

Or next stop was The Kilmainham Gaol, aka a 200 year old jail. We took a tour of the Jail + learned all about who was incarcerated there. We also got some great pictures of the two of us "in jail". Let's hope that the next hostel, our houseboat in Amsterdam, has a computer that let's us load pictures!

Stop three of the day was The Guinness Storehouse. I originally wasn't too excited about this, because I already had had my fill of Guinness in the 24 hours we had been in Dublin. But it was definitely worth it. The museum part taught us about how to make Guinness, which I had learned in food science freshman year (boo!) But at the top, we got a pint of Guinness + saw AMAZING views of the city. Dublin isn't really full of high rises or anything but it was quite the view. And if you don't like beer, they serve soda at the top instead. Thus, Scott opted for Fanta.

View from the top of the Guinness Storehouse

The rest of our day was spent eating + drinking, as all "touristy" things close by 5pm.

We are super excited about Amsterdam...flight at 950am!

Side note: I titled yesterday's blog "Bloomsday" + never quite explained it. June 16th was Bloomsday, Ireland's day to commemorate James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. Everyone is supposed to dress up in Edwardian gear, which I would best describe as Old English if you can even imagine. But basically I was dissapointed in the lack of enthusiasm. Maybe we just missed it? Lots of people were drinking in Temple Bar area, maybe that's the way they celebrate?