Next stop Dublin

My cousin Lindy came over from Scotland last weekend (ok, it was freaking almost a month ago, but see I really did start this with good intentions). She is studying there for the year, or at least we hope it's a year and she doesn't chicken out and head home after the semester(Update, I think she has chickened out, chicken!). She arrived early early on Saturday morning and the three of us drove up to pick her up from the airport. On the way, driving along the M50- the biggest road in Ireland- we saw a flock of sheep crossing the overpass. Ah, Ireland.
We drove into Dublin, stopped at the B&B and dropped off our luggage. We walked down O'Connell street, a main shopping thoroughfare in Dublin. At one end is the Garden of remembrance, which is dedicated to those who have given their life for the cause of Irish independence. There is a gorgeous sculpture of the children of Lir.
We walked past the spire of light, which just looked like a tall metal spike in the middle of the street before we had the authentic Irish meal of quiznos sandwiches. Silas climbed all over the statue of James Joyce while nibbling on bits of bread. Did the pigeons from Venice rub off on him?
We found our way to Trinity college and bought tickets for a tour from a student group which included admission to the Book of Kells. We had 15 minutes until the tour started so Lindy and I ran off to Starbucks to procure seasonal lattes. Oh, eggnog latte. Liquid candy. Upon our return we found the tour guide had disappeared. Not sure how that happened, but I suppose if Orrin could only keep his eye on one person, I'm glad it was Silas and not some tour guide.
So we didn't get a tour, but we did get to see the book. The writing is almost engraved into the pages of the book, which are made of calf skin. The exhibit had great information about the book and how it was made. Like so many hyped tourist attractions, the book itself was smaller and darker than expected, but still pretty impressively decorated and crafted.
We came across the statue of Molly Malone, made famous in song. I didn't realize she would look like such a hussy. Our patience in waiting out the other tourists taking photos paid off and we got this cute shot of Silas selling cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o.
We headed to Dublin castle next, but were waylaid by a little park and a small museum of oriental art. The museum had some absolutely incredible woodblock prints. Dublin castle was kind of strange compilation of styles of architecture. The castle was built on top of the river so the foundations kept crumbling and new sections of the castle were built throughout the years in the current style of the times, ranging from Viking, to Norman, to Romanesque, gothic, up through the Victorian age- so 500 years or so. The president of the republic lived there up until fairly recently, maybe 10 years or so, but now they have a residence in phoenix park. The most interesting part of the castle tour was a section of the old castle that they uncovered in an excavation recently. They found the remains of the old moat and wall and a secret back castle entrance. This entrance was made secure by having a low bridge over the moat so only small boats could pass under. Also the staircase was steep and narrow, and the door at the top could only be opened outward. This seems like such a simple and obvious way of protecting an entrance, but effective. We walked past the arch that has since been walled up. The guide told us that historians had also found records that the bridge arch was later filled in in an attempt to control the plague. This just really struck a chord with me. Maybe from working on our old house in Minnesota and uncovering weird "improvements" made by previous owners. Orrin and I would comment to each other, "Look at the shotty job they did patching up this plaster!" How strange it would be to reply, "Well, maybe they were trying to control the plague."
Anyway, after the tour we walked through the Temple Bar area, which is the "trendy" area of Dublin. The pubs were packed due to a rugby game being played that evening, but we finally found a place with a free table so we could sit down and enjoy a pint while Silas ran in circles around the table and up and down the stairs. We had a nice dinner and some ice cream for dessert.
Sunday morning we had breakfast in our room before checking out. Then we headed to phoenix park. We walked around looking at the monuments and various sporting fields, out of town hurling, polo, cricket, soccer, and Gaelic football amongst others. We were expecting an impressive phoenix statue, considering the whole park was named after it, but in actuality, it was somewhat underwhelming. Still, it was a pretty park and Silas had fun crunching in the leaves.
Next we decided to drive to a peninsula just north of Dublin and the town of Howth (rhymes with both). We were pleasantly surprised that there was a farmers market in town and a cool playground. The squishy padding mat around the playground had inlays of the solar system, sea animals, and zoo animals. There was a birds nest swing, spinning cups, and lots of climb on. Both Silas and I had a lot of fun!
The market was the source of the fractal broccoli, and an "unreal" mango. The man selling them was like a carnival barker screaming out "these mangoes are UNREAL!!" and offering loads of samples. Lindy claims that you eat the skin of a mango, like a peach. I've always peeled them. What do you think? The market had lots of produce, baked goods, coffee, candies, seafood, and other fun things to look at. We walked along the harbor and saw about 5 seals swimming around. We hiked out along the cliffs to the east of town, although it was a little cold and windy, Lindy really enjoyed the walk along the sea, and the scenery was gorgeous.
We had dinner of fish and chips and sat around visiting while Silas chased some other kids around the place.
That night we took Lindy back into the city to the hostel where she would spend the night. There was some slight confusion about the address of the place but eventually we located it, said goodbye to Lindy, and headed back home.
We had a great time in the city and with Lindy and we're excited about visiting Lindy and the rest of her family in London after new years.