Dublin (map)
December 6-8, 2008
For the first weekend of December, I found myself in Dublin with Kristin, Marjorie, and Aurore, the great friends I luckily met on a bus early one fall morning. They went up on Friday but, with a lecture I couldn't miss that day, I decided to go on Saturday morning and come back on Monday.
Our Saturday was primarily spent at the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin's main tourist attraction. The building, located on the 64-acre St. James' Gate Brewery, was redone in 2000 into a brilliant 7-floor museum of sorts where you learn about all things Guinness - the entire production chain from raw ingredients to storage to transportation, its marketing through the years, and general history about the company. Even for someone who doesn't like beer, it was a pretty interesting tour through the building shaped like a pint glass (despite the ridiculous crowds and hilarious Windows errors) and the displays were quite well-done. My favourite part was probably a video from the 1950s showing a cooper in action, speedily making a barrel with the most minimal of tools and experienced hands.
A pint was included with entry, making the ticket price slightly less exorbitant. With not much time and boxes on the qualities-that-make-one-easily-inebriated list, I didn't finish my pint. Actually, none of us did - much to the chagrin of the guy who grabbed our seats as we left.
Here we are from left to right: Aurore, Marjorie, Kristin, me! (Photo stolen from Kristin :)
Our evening's entertainment was covered with dinner, music, and dancing at Legends, the restaurant/bar part of the Arlington Hotel. The food was delicious, the music traditional and charming, and the dancing impressive. The moving painting was a fun addition.
On Sunday, we joined up with a walking tour guided by a history graduate of Trinity College. His Jack Nicholson-like mug attempted to go through the history of Ireland back the past few hundred years in a span of two hours - no small feat. With so much information pouring in and me knowing pretty much nothing about Irish history to start, a lot of it passed right through me.
The highlight on Sunday for me was Oscar Wilde! Travelling with three literature majors, his statue was a definite stop - and am I glad we did it. This statue is, hands down, the most brilliant of brilliant statues out there. The cheeky facial expression, the inviting pose, the colourful smoke-room jacket - all apparently quite appropriate for the type of man he was known to be. Opposite the statue sculpted in 1997 by Danny Osborne, there are two columns covered in his quotes and topped with two impressive sculptures. I wonder, though, why the male sculpture is just a torso while the female one shows an entire body.
After being awed by the wicked statue, we made our way to see the Book of Kells and the Old Library of Trinity College. Sadly, the book was not in display that day (for maintenance) so we only saw a facsimile. The little exhibition about the book did have some neat videos - my favourite one showed the old school book-binding process from start to finish - and just standing in the Old Library surrounded by ancient dusty volumes was quite an experience too.
The girls left that evening and I spent the night strolling around town. Much of the same was done on Monday and I strolled on into a few museums too.
One area that was nice to walk around in was Temple Bar. The cultural hub of Dublin, this area was on the brink of demolition twenty years ago. A bus company had plans to buy it out and build a bus depot but had trouble paying their mortgage. Instead of borrowing massive sums of money that they wouldn't be able to pay off (not a good idea?), they decided to rent out the flats for short periods at low rent. Artists and students flocked to the area and a cultural revival of sorts organically began. The government took note, admirably scrapped the bus depot and, instead, invested money into the area, funding centres for photography, music, film, and theatre.
I had lunch at The Bakery - a delicious savoury pastry (though no bacon or ham!) - and spent the rest of the day at the Photography Gallery, National Photographic Archives, and the National Library of Ireland. (The National Museum of Ireland was closed because it was a Monday - what a bummer!) Quite the cultural day to end off a nice weekend.
I found people were generally more pushy than I've seen in Edinburgh and drivers were slightly insane but, overall, it was a good choice for a last trip of the semester. Lots more photos and commentary to be found in the full album at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2182660&l=a0f6f&id=90402206.
I'll leave you today with one of my favourite photos taken last semester - a bird sitting atop a Temple Bar sign.
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