Ireland!

Once at Heathrow, I found a waaay better way to get to Dublin than by airplane!

Seriously though, I actually had my own row on the airplane so I could just lay down and sleep. It was only a 50 minutes flight from London to Dublin, so the travel was very easy! Our first stop was the Guinness Factory which was SO FUN. We had a tour, then a taste test, then learned how to pour our own perfect pint! It was awesome!

         After we left Guinness storehouse we headed for Trinity College where we stayed, which was founded by Queen Elizabeth--at that time the only university in Ireland! Our rooms were really nice and they were suite style in what was really more like a small house with kitchen, living room and five bedrooms (sorry West Village...) My room was soo nice for sleeping. We went a grabbed some pies out for a snack at this adorable Irish pie shop--I had chicken and asparagus with gravy!
        Friday night we had the most delicious meal I have had this entire trip and that is really saying something, at a Dublin restaurant called Dobbins. I had a fried goat cheese appetizer (best thing I have ever had!) followed by a delicious lamb entree and then a chocolate mousse. It lasted a long time but the company and food were perfect!

      Saturday was our free day in Dublin with some optional group activities and OF COURSE I took advantage of every group thing. The highlight for me was getting to finally see the Book of Kells whch has been on my bucket list. It was absolutely as beautiful as I'd imagined and BETTER. The minuteness of the detail is impossible to understand from a picture. Unfortunately the exhibit was not pulsing people or very well organized so I had a hard time getting near the manuscript let alone perusing it to my hearts content. We got a much better page than we did when we saw the Lindisfarne Gospels: the author portrait of Matthew and the carpet page at the beginning of his gospel!

SO MUCH BETTER IN REAL LIFE but these are the best images of what I actually saw that I could find!

       After Book of Kells we had a really nice lunch at the Irish National Gallery--Stevens was like "have as much of anything that you want!" so I had fish and chips and an enormous piece of white chocolate cheesecake that I really wish I had a picture of because it was soooo good. 

       The gallery was really good but not quite as overwhelmingly full of wonders as the Scottish one. I did see some gems though including a Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ--My first in person! 

       That night a group of us went out for Indian food at a surprisingly upscale restaurant (the list said "affordable" but...) called Jaipur, then I had a chocolate orange shake. It was Molly Mugford's birthday so a big group of us went out to a Latin club and danced--I had a really good time! Trinity College is right next to an area called the Temple Bar which is an equivalent to the French Quarter so there was lots of do! 

      Sunday we were up bright and early to have an excursion into the Irish countryside. I was ill-prepared for this trip with my 3/4 sleeve white sweater, because with the wind chill it felt about 40 degrees out there! Our first stop was the monastic site at Glendalough which is also home to two very beautiful lakes and a forest that looks like a fairytale. Once I had narrowly escaped hypothermia I was able to admire the sheer wildness and beauty of the place. 

After Glendalough we moved on to a country hotel where we had a three course lunch that was very fancy but not quite up the standards of Friday! The hotel however had a beautiful view of the technicolor green mountains. Last we visited an Irish manor house that had some of the most beautiful gardens anywhere...unfortunately I forgot my camera on the bus! 

        After we had boarded the plane to come back to Oxford, they fount a dent in the side of the airplane and we had to get off and move to another one! Sarah and I read Henry VI part 3 outloud on the flight for our brand new Shakespeare class due to start the next day. We made it back to Lincoln College at about 10. 

      I really had an amazing time in Ireland--It was such an adventure! Dublin really felt very different and much newer somehow than the places we'd been thus far, and I found it a very neat place to visit! Ireland is a country that has had more than its share of suffering, not only in the past with the Famine and English oppression but even recently with the economic crash of 2008, and it is evident when you are there. Even so, I found the country beautiful and the people charming--through it all this beautiful green island has endured! I feel so privileged to have been able to visit it.