After such an ‘exciting‘ first morning and a really fun evening in Dublin, Day 2 started with me, of course, running late. Joseph was arriving this morning(!!) and I had to hop in a taxi to make sure I would get to the airport in time so he wouldn’t be by himself. This time around I luckily had plenty of cash to pay for a cab and I made it just in time!
Joseph arrived in one piece after a long flight and we decided to attempt the bus back to Dublin. Little did we know there was the Dublin Marathon going on, creating quite a difficult route to get to our AirBnB at 8:30 am, as almost the entire downtown area was shutdown. Our nice bus driver tried to get us as close as possible to Christ Church Cathedral (which wasn’t that close). Luckily he told us to follow the spire. So we did, pulling a suitcase amidst a break in the runners of the marathon – it was quite entertaining!
Breaking my rule yet again of not sleeping until midnight on the day of an international flight, we decided for a quick nap as Joseph didn’t sleep much on his flight. After the much needed rest, we set off to explore Dublin. Two of my friends whom I also worked with in Hong Kong, Dan and Jenn, also arrived in Dublin today, so we met up for a drink. I hadn’t seen them in almost a year and it was so good to catch up and see them! So much has happened since I last saw them! They had gotten married, gotten two great jobs after working really hard on Masters programs, etc. It was really nice reconnecting with them and my old Hong Kong life, and bringing back memories from an important time in my life.
Blast from Past in HK
Next, we decided to head to Trinity College. Trinity College is the oldest university in Ireland, that was founded by Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1592. Located in the heart of Dublin, it is home to the Book of Kells and the impressive ‘Old Library’. You can purchase tickets in advance and skip queues for around 14 Euros, or buy at the door for 11 Euros and risk queues – however we went about a half hour before closing time, paid the 11 Euros, and there were no queues – woo!
Photo Courtesy of Joseph
The Book of Kells is the prize possession of Trinity College. It is a beautifully ‘illuminated manuscript‘ Gospel Book. The Book is all in Latin, adorned with stunning pictures, decorations, symbols, and text. It is believed to have been created around the year 800. The walls of the ‘museum’ are blown up pictures of the pages of the Book of Kells, while different parts of the actual manuscript are actually on display. Trinity College does change what is pages are displayed on given days.
The Old Library of Trinity College contains ‘the Long Hall‘ – an impressive hall filled from floor to ceiling with over 200,000 books! It looks like something straight out of Harry Potter (although this isn’t the library from HP!). It even smells of old book, adding to the ambiance of the place. No flash is allowed, so getting a good picture was hard to do, but take my word – it is amazing. If you are a book lover like myself, or even if you aren’t, I highly recommend seeing this. It alone is certainly well worth the 11 Euros.
Photo Courtesy of Joseph 🙂
After the library and some souvenir shopping (surprise, surprise) we headed to a giant pub for some dinner and drinks before going our separate ways for the evening. I had a blast catching up with Dan and Jen and introducing them to Joseph. We would see them again soon for Amelia’s wedding and I couldn’t wait!
The adventure would be getting there! Stay tuned for that and more adventures in #ErinGoBroad.
