I caught my train back to Dublin pretty early. This is another opportunity where I somewhat regret not taking a picture. I sat with a history professor from the University College Cork and his wife. Very sweet people. I had ordered coffee before they sat and when it was delivered, they paid before I could say a thing – only after having talked with me for a few minutes. Not a major thing to most people, but it really stuck with me and kind of illustrates how friendly folks are out here. In the couple of hours that we were on train together, he gave me a great education on the Troubles and explained a bit more about the north to me, as well as an awesome mini-lecture on the real Saint Patrick. I wasn’t about to ask for a photo with them, but I do kind of regret it now. One of these days I’ll get over this (I think). I know I don’t mind taking pictures with folks, so maybe they wouldn’t either.
Anyway, I’m back in Dublin!
Now I just have to walk from the train station to my hotel.
I’ll be there tomorrow!
Ok, this is an interesting part of town…my hotel should be right around here somewhere. Maybe that tower is part of it?
Nope! That’s the Jameson Distillery! Conveniently located directly across from my hotel! I knew I booked close to it, just didn’t realize how close.
Normally I don’t take pictures of my accommodations. But this is a welcome sight. I’m ready for a normal hotel stay at this point. Gigantic room for what I’m paying.
My hotel…
…and the Jameson Distillery. Score. But this isn’t on the list for today. I’ve booked a tour for this place for tomorrow, after a tour of the Guinness building. Today I’m wandering around Dublin. I thought I might have to take it easy today after the cold last night, but apparently everything that Christy recommended worked like a charm. I feel pretty good and am definitely ready to get a better view of this city than I did on my first night in Ireland. St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College are definitely on the list for the day, as well as a natural history museum that has bog mummies (I had a book on bog mummies back before middle school, another thing I’ve always wanted to see). I’ll tour some pubs at night.
Heading off vaguely in the direction of Trinity College.
This is definitely a much nicer part of town than where I spent my first night in Ireland. Obviously a richer/more touristy part of the city than the other place.
Mexican food! No, I didn’t stop in here, but I was thoroughly amused. And that’s a lot for a burrito.
Dublin Castle was another modern type castle. Not really something I’m interested in, especially not after Neuschwanstein. Maybe later, if I have time.
Apache Pizza, really?
College kids with backpacks and prestigious looking buildings; I’m getting close.
And suddenly there are people everywhere.
Thankfully, the museum I’m looking for is on a side street, with far less people.
My time today is spread a bit thin (that entire flight from Germany really messed up my plans). So I’m not going to roam this museum as I would like to.
However, there is definitely time to admire this really long preserved canoe.
Ok, bog mummies! The bogs are a pretty interesting natural feature, especially when it comes to preserving natural things. A body thrown in can sink to the bottom and essentially enters an oxygen-less state where normal decay does not happen. Natural tissue is so well preserved that you can even get fingerprints off bodies over a thousand years old. Armed with this knowledge, I’m still not prepared for how damned cool these are.
First one, Baronstown West Man, from 250-400 AD (or CE, whatever it is now). Not a lot of information on him and not the best preserved, but you can see skin preserved on the legs…
…muscle tissue. Don’t have a good picture of the hair at the top, but that’s ok, because the next mummy has a whole head of it.
And hair! And ears! And skin! The Clonycavan Man (400-250 BCE). His hair could have originally been red, but most hair in the bog ends up this color, due to the composition of the soil Still. Hair. His hair was originally found like this – a topknot type style that was common for the era.
Yes, he’s just a torso and shoulders and a head, but still. The skin is pretty well preserved and a lot of the intestinal tissue is as well. Interesting fact: they think he was murdered because his nipples were cut off.
The Old Croghan Man (360-170 BCE). He too, is missing nipples, and was found around the same area as the Clonycavan man. Intestines are much better preserved here. He may have also been royalty, due to the fact that he has jewelry on (the band around the arm here) and (this is so, so awesome) because his skin is so well preserved, his hands lack evidence of doing hard labor.
Fingernails. This mummy, from over two thousand years ago, has fingernails. And his entire hand looks like a normal palm, with the skin folding/wrinkling like a normal hand would. This is just too cool.
Gallagh Man (400-200 BCE). He was found with a reed around his neck, obviously strangled, and was pinned into the bog to keep his body from floating up.
This is beyond fascinating. I spent probably a good hour and a half just looking at these mummies. Couldn’t get enough.
A bit of morbidity here now. The day I arrived in Ireland, a body had been found in the bogs in Meath county – it was the remains of a man who disappeared in the height of the Troubles in the1970s. He was identified by the clothing (that was very well preserved). The bogs have always been a common place to dump bodies throughout all of Ireland’s history. It was a little strange to me that a body had been found during my trip to Ireland – I wonder if it’s just a common occurrence for the natives.
My next stop was Trinity College. I was a little disappointed, I won’t lie. The buildings were overall pretty drab. This was probably the prettiest area on campus.
And it’s conveniently close to the Library, where the Book of Kells is held!
Of course, there’s a long, long line for it. But it moved quickly enough.
Once inside, we weren’t allowed to take pictures (there was a lot of security here, more than anywhere else I’ve seen so far). Of course. However, this was probably one of the more disappointing attractions of my trip. The book itself was in a protected table and opened only to two pages. You couldn’t look at other pages and you couldn’t look at it for very long. They didn’t have a time-restriction on it, it’s just that there were so many people trying to shove in for a look. It really annoyed the hell out of me and made me want to elbow the aggressive jerks and shove old ladies. But instead, I took a quick glance, wasn’t really impressed (not a lot of pictures in the pages they had open that day), and left the exhibit.
The library itself was so much more impressive.
Ok. Suddenly the aggressive little old ladies at the book of Kells may have just been worth getting to see this. I’m a book fanatic and there’s nothing like an old library, especially one as elaborate and beautiful as this.
A couple of the books on display. They were a lot more relaxed about photos here.
The exhibit hogging some space in the actual library is partially on Brian Boru, partially on some cartoon made about Brian Boru.
Guess who’s not interested in Brian Boru at the moment?
I could lose myself for days here. Unfortunately, you need a special permit to go past the barriers and look at the books. Not something I can do this trip.
After being happily overwhelmed at the library (despite being completely underwhelmed by the Book of Kells), I wandered into a campus building looking for coffee; gave this a try. Nothing special, but it hit the spot. And now I can say I had a Trinity Coffee at Trinity College.
The campus itself wasn’t very big. And again, the buildings are a little boring. Lots of open space, but most of it was paved. And rather colorless.
I may have just come at a bad time. A lot of construction was going on around and in the college – so I probably missed out. Oh well. Onward.