For our second day we had a planned a nice day spent entirely walking around to better test the limits of Allie’s ankle. Down the street from us we had seen a sign advertising the “Best Breakfast in 2018” so we decided to test their claims. Allie was really looking to breakfast due to the general inadequacy of Italian breakfasts and I was just really hungry. We all ordered the same sandwich because it looked amazing, but expressed our individuality in our drink selection of different coffees/teas. I still don’t quite know what all the coffee terms actually mean here so I ordered myself a masala chai.
Next we walked through the Iveagh Gardens which I had explored the day before and then continued on to St. Stephen’s Green. The Green has some historical significance related to the Easter Uprising of 1916 and has cool little informative plaques. Also you are explicitly forbidden from bringing catapults into the park. Trebuchets and other siege weaponry are okay though. The tulips in the park were blooming beautifully and we got a lot of pictures. After our park photo shoot we walked the rest of the way to our first destination – the front gate of Trinity College. Here we met our guide Sylvie (or something like that) for the Historical Walking Tour of central Dublin. We didn’t book in advance because it cost €13 to book online but only €12 to do it in person. It would’ve been worth the extra euro no matter what! Sylvie was amazing and was very passionate about all things related to Irish history. So passionate that even though the 2 hour tour turned into a 3 hour tour we made it only a little more than halfway through the scheduled stops!
Next we grabbed some lunch and a pint across the street and then walked back to Trinity College to see the Old Library and the Book of Kells. The library is probably the biggest tour attraction at the college and they have a really sleek exhibit set up detailing the process of writing, decorating and binding ancient books. Connor and I were mesmerized by the bookbinding video for several minutes. And the dyes and paints they used to illustrate the pages were all very interesting too, especially how they contained arsenic and other friendly materials. We were able to see four actual pages of the book, two were the lineage of Jesus and the other two were from one of the gospels. I feel pretty safe with that last statement because the book only contains the four gospels. A couple pages were magnified and the detail on them is pretty incredible, the Chi Ro page especially! The exhibit then segues into the aptly named Long Hall where thousands and thousands of books are on display on pretty amazing bookshelves. I could’ve done without the 38 busts of random non-Irish people though. At the end of the hall is a very old very ornate wooden harp.
The intense literary experience wore out Allie’s foot so we took a taxi over to St Patrick’s cathedral. I should also note that at this point in time it was really sunny and quite nice out! Although a tad bit chilly. We snapped some pictures outside of the cathedral and then I went to ask if the cathedral was open and was told it was closed for a service… which I thought was relatively ironic considering it was a church and all. Half the purpose of our visit there was to actually go to the service, which was Evensong performed by their Gentleman’s Choir, so I had Connor go ask and he was told that it was open and free to the public you just couldn’t take pictures. Helps to ask I guess… Evensong was really cool, I’ve never been to an actual church event inside a cathedral so it was a good experience. They lock you in the pews and then pretty much just start with some singing but the acoustics are a little… echoe-y. Still well worth it.
Our day ended with a cab ride back to the apartment for a nice respite. We then had some moderately okay Indian food for dinner, made a fruitful trip to Tesco, opened a beer with a spatula and planned our excursions for Thursday!
