I wish Dublin was warmer

But other than that it was perfect.

  

 

 

 

 

 

So when I always pictured going to Ireland, I didn't really picture cities or museums. I mostly pictured castles and pretty green hills stretching for miles. But when I was planning this trip, I asked myself if one could really say they had experienced Ireland if one had not also experienced Dublin. I use the term experienced loosely here because we were only in Dublin for a day and because we didn't even visit the Guinness factory. I think that touring a beer factory when you don't drink is probably kind of a let-down and also probably a waste of time since I don't care about how beer is made not even a tiny bit.

Dublin, though, was, surprisingly enough to me, a really great city. At this point in my travels, a lot of European cities have started to overlap and run together for me; Dublin was different. I really loved the layout of the city and the colorful doors and the hundreds of churches everywhere and just everything about it. Also, did I mention that they have green mailboxes instead of red?

It was really quiet the day we were there because we happened to arrive on Easter Sunday and everyone was recovering from their End of Lent parties (I assume). This was great because it means there was zero traffic (we had a rental).The main things we wanted to see in Dublin were the Trinity College Library and Book of Kells, the Kilmainham Gaol, and.. I guess that was really it. We did a lot of walking around and oohing at the buildings too. And we talked to a lot of Irish people because, I mean, as accents go, the Irish one is probably the best.

This brings me to Trinity College. We saw the Book of Kells and had a guided tour of the campus by a student, which was very informative and also pretty funny. I don't think I have ever been so cold in my life. The wind was blowing at least 100 mph making the temperature probably around -27 F. That kind wind also created a nice little (HUGE) knot out of my hair and is also the reason I don't have more pictures with people in them. Because we look so cold. 

To my great pleasure, The Trinity College Library (like you haven't seen it on Pinterest) is trying out this new thing where they allow pictures inside. This is big news because it's easily the most beautiful library I have ever seen. It might be a toss-up between the Library of Congress but I guess you can judge for yourself. The books are arranged by size and the hall is lined with busts of famous authors. It was so breathtaking and lovely and I could have stayed in there for several hours just sitting and looking. 

Unfortunately for me on the photo-front, the grumpy old man who was guarding the room did not let me in on the secret that, according to him, I was only allowed to take a very minimum amount of pictures, a number that only he knew, because he yelled at me for taking too many and also accused me of conducting a "photo shoot." I may not be an expert on this, but in my book, 12 or so pictures does not constitute a photo shoot. I took a few more just to show him who was boss and we strutted out of there because, mister, there were no signs telling me the precise number of times I was allowed to click my shutter button. I think I got some pretty good ones anyway. Also! The oldest harp in Ireland was in there. 

We had the best hamburgers I have ever had in my life at this Irish gourmet burger place where they used cow hide for the booths and one serving of fries was enough for the three of us. I didn't take any pictures because I was too starving which I kind of regret now. But I'm not much of a food photographer anyway, so I guess I don't regret it after all. After this, we had a nice (hilarious) chat with a man who owned an Irish name store. We had him look up "Hayley" and it turns out they are from Sligo (Slyyyyygo), the earliest inhabited part of Ireland. And Yeats is from there. Good to know. So now I'm Irish by marriage and royal by blood. I am just finding out all about myself this year.