Europe Trip- Dublin

*** The next few posts may contain more information than you care to read about!

 Pete and I just returned from a 10 day trip to Europe. Originally, I was going by myself with four of my students, but I made Pete go so we could have a vacation that we never would have been able to afford otherwise. It still felt like work most of the time for me, but we did have a fantastic time and saw a lot! Our trip started in Dublin, Ireland. I had never been to Dublin before and was glad to be spending two days there. We left Atlanta at 3:15 pm and arrived in Dublin at 8:30 am the next morning. After 12 hours of traveling we were off for a whole day of sightseeing! There's no resting on vacation, right!?! We went on a walking tour of Dublin that first day and saw a lot of the city.

Dublin is separated in two by a river. Each of the bridges that crosses the river looks a bit different. We just had to remember what the one we crossed looked like so we didn't get lost! There are absolutely NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS in Dublin. We made the mistake of leaving where we ate lunch without using the restroom and boy did the girls and I learn our lesson the hard way! They have Penney's in Dublin (JC Penney's but Walmart quality and price). I thought sure a department store would have a restroom. The woman looked at me like I was crazy when I asked where the toilets were! So, when all else fails, you go to McDonald's right? There was a security guard blocking the restrooms, because they are for paying patrons only! I was seriously about to wet my pants and I decided it was no time for dignity. I basically begged the security guard telling him that we were American tourists who were not used to not having public restrooms (translation- we are really stupid) and we REALLY had to go. He must have thought it was humorous, because he laughed and let us through! One of my students realized her wallet was lost on the first day in Dublin. Turns out she left it on the plane. They found it and we were able to go back to the airport and claim it. Everything was there including the cash! WHEW!!!

I was so excited for our second day in Dublin because we were going to two very exciting places. First on the agenda was Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Yes, the St. Patrick that we celebrate every year the day before my birthday. I learned about St. Patrick's life in Awana's this year. He was an English slave brought to Ireland who gained his freedom and then became a missionary to Ireland sharing Christ with the pagan Celts and Nordic tribes. The cathedral is an impressive Gothic structure, the form of the pagan tribes and the function of a Christian church.

The main reason I wanted to go to Dublin was to see the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is one of the most important medieval works of art and also one of the oldest surviving handwritten transcriptions of the four gospels. SUPER exciting!!! It is housed in Trinity College in Dublin. The entire book was handwritten by Celtic monks and contains the coolest and teensy tiniest design work. Just visually amazing. We couldn't take pictures of it, but here is what it looks like. The iridescence is gold paint and this is why these old texts are called illuminated manuscripts.

The left is an example of the text from the gospel of John and the right is the Chi-Ro page (Chi and Ro are the first two letters for Christ in Greek).

Trinity College also houses a huge library of very old books. I mean OLD! You aren't allowed to touch any of the books on either of the stories, but it was so cool to see. The room is called the long room; I guess you can see why. We also went to the National Gallery of Ireland, which was a nice museum. Pete and I did get separated that afternoon and we must have spend $30 in international calls trying to meet up. A lot of grief and money could have been saved if I had stayed on one place- oops.    

The food in Dublin was good. Lots of meat and potatoes or "bangers and mash". Pretty simple food, but hearty. I did have sandwich with sweet onion relish- not a fan. Oh, if girls want to dress in style in Dublin, you need to wear black pantyhose under everything. Shorts, skirts...we saw a lot of dark hued legs. Guys are rough and tumble Irishmen. Our tour guide was missing front teeth from his rugby game the week before. And Guinness...Guinness is everywhere. I think the entire city works for them. The weather was absolutely beautiful. 70's and sunny. Apparently VERY rare for Dublin.

Goodbye Dublin!!!