After breakfast (and a long time of ironing Mark’s newly washed jeans to try to dry them since we had no idea how to work the washer/dryer machine), we took the Luas down to the stop closest to the city center which is still a good 10 minute walk. Our first stop was at Trinity College for a tour of the grounds and to see the Book of Kells. The college itself was very crowded with many tour groups passing through and a wedding at the chapel. It was weird to me that it cost money for the college tour (Megan’s note: the tour actually was actually free because it offset the admission into the Book of Kells - this way we got a campus tour AND saw the Book of Kells - BOOM). Imagine paying for one of your college admission tours at a school you visited. It still was worth it and the writing on the sets of old books they had was amazing. We of course hit the gift shop before heading out towards Dublin Castle.
Mark and I decided to detour to get an ethernet cable so we could use the “free” internet at our apartment. After leaving the store, we booked it to Dublin Castle and ended up there before Megan and her parents. Unfortunately, Megan had lost her fitbit pedometer. There had been signs at the Book of Kells to watch out for pickpockets and Megan kept it on the outside of her pants so we thought someone had swiped it that way. She was bummed out and after her parents got tickets, we were hanging around on benches when I noticed that her fitbit was caught on the top of our paper bag from the gift shop. Talk about lucky! It was so close to falling off yet it had hung on a good 15 minute walk to the castle. The castle tour was pretty cool. The buildings are still in service today and they were prepping them for their presidential election. It was still beautiful and we also got to see the base of the castle (dug up after Hurricane Andrew’s impact took down the existing building) and thoughtful excavation some years back. After Dublin Castle we went to Christchurch Cathedral.
It was another 15 minute walk and we were all pretty hungry so we decided to walk past the cathedral to the Brazenhead bar which was supposed to be the oldest bar in Dublin (and also the namesake for the Irish bar in Dublin, Ohio where Megan’s parents live - double win). It was only a few blocks past and we settled down there for some lunch and more Smithwicks before heading back to the cathedral. I noticed there were street vendors set up on the grounds outside the cathedral and even though I had just eaten lunch, I proceeded to get a German bratwurst. It reminded me of a different time I was in Christchurch and got a sausage …... If I hadn’t had that one, I would have said this one was the best ever, but it is only the 2nd best. After wolfing down my sausage, we headed into the Cathedral. Unfortunately it was after 4 and we couldn’t get any more tours but they did give us a handout and let us walk around the beautiful building. They also have an elaborate crypt which has been setup with many artifacts that detail some historic events for Ireland. Megan was most excited by the cat and rat, which was a mummified cat and rat (one chasing the other) that got stuck in the pipe organ. It reminded me of Kevin’s friend at leiout. There was also a lot of Tudor stuff (from the show The Tudors from Showtime) that Megan and her mom had watched right before the trip.
Next we headed south to the other enormous cathedral, St Patricks. This one was actually bigger than Christchuch Cathedral and was equally impressive. It seemed to be less setup for tourists and didn’t have the cool crypt area but it was beautiful nonetheless. On the way home from the cathedral was Powerscourt Townhouse, an enormous building that was used as a “townhouse” in Dublin and was converted into an enormous shopping center. Unfortunately, we got there at 6 right after they closed so we didn’t get to see it. We resolved to hit it tomorrow. Instead we headed back to the Luas and took that back to our apartment and took a quick nap.
We then headed back out via Luas towards the Temple Bar area. Along the way, we stopped at a great Italian restaurant, Bar Italia, just north of the Liffey. They were pretty packed and had to put us downstairs with a large, loud group. We were not very broken up over them leaving. We split a good bottle of Chianti and had a great meal. Megan and I split a prawn and pasta dish and one of their delicious thin crust pizzas. I love Italian food.Afterwards, we headed over to Temple Bar and checked out the bar for which the area is named. It was super packed and super loud and there was so space whatsoever (and tons of people making out). We decided to go across the street to Fitzsimons Bar. This place was equally big but had a live musician and had some free tables that we snagged to hang out and listen. We got a few rounds of drinks while enjoying the atmosphere. The guy playing guitar was really good and we had a great time before catching a cab back to our apartment.
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