DATE June 29-30

I got into Dublin yesterday morning, on the 7:00am flight from Brussels. This meant waking up at 3:45am, getting a taxi, shuttlebus and finally an hour and a half flight. Travelling is always exhausting, especially lately, so i was quite tired by the time i found my hostel.

::infuriating moment of the day::

getting on the airport shuttlebus to the town center, pulling out a five and my coins, driver sees my one euro coin and insists i pay with that instead of smaller (exact change) coins i was handing him. (the trip was six euro, i was only handing him one euro in coins). he told me to give him the euro coin or i would have to catch the next shuttlebus because he was leaving at that exact moment. I argued and eventually a more official bus guy came over to see what the problem was, counted my change, and let me on the bus. :::

Anyways. After a lovely bowl of rice crispies (i'm not being sarcastic, i've actually been craving them), I headed up to O'Connell street to see the Bodies exhibit that was showing at the ambassador center. It was 20 Euro, which is absurd, 16 with my student card, still absurd, but i paid it anyways since i've been wanting to go since it came out. It was a great exhibit, despite the price, made up of all human bodies and body parts.

I then spent the next few hours wandering around, i didn't have the energy to really see anything, but i got a good couple hours overview in before heading to the hostel for a nap. after my nap i showered, trip planned (i neglected completely to book anything or even properly plan my time in Ireland), and then went to Trinity College for a pub crawl. It was a last resort since i hadn't met anyone in the hostel and i didn't want to spend a friday night in Dublin by myself in a hostel. The pub crawl was very fun and i'm glad i did it. I met some cool people who i grouped with for the night. there was a young married couple and a group of three friends from texas. i've actually met a lot of texans during this last portion of my trip. We went to five pubs and a club. I drank two glasses of guinness, one shot of jameson, one jameson and coke, one shot of some other whiskey, and three bulls*** free shots. We played a fun drinking game at one pub, and basically just hung out, drank and chatted at the others. it was a great night, and i even went home within budget! (of course, i only brought 30 euro so that i would stay in budget, lol).

the next day i got out around 10:30 I started by exploring the old town; church, castle, town wall, and finally the Chester Beatty Library. The library was absolutely fantastic, one of the best exhibits i've seen on this trip AND it was free! Chester Beatty was a renowned book collection and the library has two floors exhibiting his collection (well, a portion of it). I was expecting a small, dark room with a few old book and items displayed in cases, so i was blown away when this free exhibit was so grand and immersive. it was organized by theme and had large, colorful panals describing the books, time period, history and culture of the civilization or religion each section represented. For example, there was a section for Japan/the east, India, the origins/history of book making, etc. It had an extensive and facinating visual history of book printing and explained why book collectors, such as Beatty, often collect for the art of the books itself, not solely the content. the majority of the books however were both beautiful as well as important.

the japanese section was particularly interesting and i spent a good amount of time in it. there was one particular famous japanese fable that was represented on various scrolls and in pictures that was the dominent focus. i need to find out the name of it because i can't remember it for anything. it was in this section that i read about my favorite theory of the exhibit; the japanese believe that writing/pictures themselves should have souls and not "deceptive representations" of something. they achieve this through calligraphy and caregully drawn/painted pictures, which made their books and scrolls individual entities. i think this is brilliant. it enables a harmonious flow and relationship between people and writing. books are not mere objects but actual members of our universe . when something lives in such a way, it is important.

the top floor focused solely on religeous texts. there was a christian section, buddhism, and (i think) muslim. the christian section housed some of the oldest known pieces of bible in existance. ut was amazing. some were only tiny sections and were barely held together. the buddhism section was very educational. i skipped the last section in the name of time and because i was hungary.

after grabbing some bangers and mash at a pub, i went to trinity college. the grounds were so beautiful. i would have loved if my university was so classic looking and had cobblestones. then i went to see some more old books, namely The Booke Of Kells. ok, so i was a little book burned out by that time so i still don't know exactly what the book of kells is, except that its religeous... and old. it is beautiful though, big and the pages have delicately decorated letter and animals between the lines in an almost grotesque style. (grotesque the style, not the adjective). you almost need a magnifying glass to see all the wonderful details. the pages are made of at least 125 lambs hides. the exhibit also included some other old books and ended in a great, long library.

i then walked down popular Grafton street and spent some time napping in saint stephens green. on my way out i ran into the group of friends from the pub crawl and chatted with them for a few minutes before moving on. i then made my way to the guinness storehouse (which i thought was open until 8:00pm). turns out it closed at five and my very long, tedious walk was for nothing. after going back to the hostel and blowing off some steam, i headed out back out and got some AMAZING fish and chips.. salt and vinigar. i ate them on the green in front of a church and then spent the rest of the night in.