Dublin and Some Assorted Sweets

It's been a while since my last post but that's because not too much had happened, at least not blog worthy. The week was pretty slow which was nice because it gave us time to finally settle in. We were able to work on starting up class stuff and have a pretty chill time at home. I've been painting quite a bit and it's rather relaxing. Also, surprisingly enough I've been cooking almost every night because, surprise surprise, I actually have time to! There's not too much to do once it gets dark around here and most of the time we're back at the house so it's relaxing to cook dinner for myself, and sometimes for some other people in the house. We all seem to have a mutual love for cooking. I really need to go shopping and I think I'm going to later tonight so I can eat some good food.

On this past Thursday we had a required excursion to Dublin. If you know where I am living, you know that Dublin is across the country. It shouldn't be that far, but the roads make it hard to get there. It took us about 4 hours on a huge bus to get there. We left at about 7:45 am and when we got there we went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It's this huge old building with a giant courtyard; the funny thing about it though was that only two of the galleries were open. It didn't take us long to navigate. There were all these doors that were closed for remodeling or something or another. There was an odd modern/old clash with the building. Once on the inside of the building everything looked pretty new while the outside was stone and old. That's how everything seems in Dublin and for the most part in Ireland. There's a constant push and pull from the past and the present.

After the museum we went to the hostel to check in. There were only three rooms available that were for two nights and we got one so luckily we didn't have to move out and move back into another room. The hostel was pretty sweet. The rooms were small and the beds were kind of stiff but other than that it had a lot of interesting stuff and people in it. The weirdest thing about it was that everything was coed. The rooms and even the bathrooms. That's just something that's odd to get used to. So once we lugged out luggage up the stairs to the third floor (not realizing there was an elevator) and dropped our stuff off we were off again. This time we split into two groups and headed to a couple of galleries around town. The first one we went to was in Temple Bar, which is an area of Dublin that has become the center for clubs, pubs, and music. It's been said that it's family friendly until about 8pm, then you should just head somewhere else. Once we were done in Temple Bar we went to the Trinity College's gallery and saw a student exhibition. After that we headed to another gallery, which had quite a few abstract pieces, including some of Frank Stella's work. After that, we were lead to Graffton Street, which is the center for a lot of shopping in Dublin. It was kind of odd walking down there because there were so many American places and things. There were I think two McDonald's and two Burger Kings. I have to tell you too that this is only about maybe 5 or 6 city blocks long. We weren't really that interested in shopping, all of us were pretty hungry at that point. We split up because some of us did not want to eat sushi like the rest of them, so we went on to find a pretty nice place that had great pasta. Once we were done eating we made our way back to the hostel to rest for a bit. The other girl from U of M and I went to meet some people that we had met the week before back in Ballyvaughan. They live just outside of Dublin and told us that they would show us around. We went out and about then came back to the hostel and crashed. It had been a really long day.

The next day we woke up and went to the National Gallery, which has loads and loads of work. I recently discovered Jack B. Yeats who's one of the most influential artists from Ireland and from one of the most famous Irish families. In the National Gallery there is a whole section of the museum dedicated to him so that's where I went first. Then after that I kind of just meandered around until it was time to leave. We left and went strait to the Natural History Museum, which was our last guided stop of the trip, after that we were completely free to do as we wished. The museum had loads of interesting artifacts from all around Ireland. They actually have one of that largest collections of gold in the world and have a section dedicated to the bog people. The bog people are people that were thrown into the peat bogs left to rot. The bog preserved most of them and they have them on display. Some still have hair and teeth and fingernails. They look all leathery too. Once we were done with the museum a couple of us went back to Graffton Street to pick up some needed supplies then we got lunch. Once done there we headed back to the hostel to take a needed nap. At about 6 some people who had opted not to stay the extra night left Dublin and headed back to Ballyvaughan. We however went back up to the room and a while later went out to eat. We ended up finding a place down in Temple Bar and when we were done eating, walked around a bit but then headed back to the hostel. A couple of us decided to hit the hay kind of early because we were so drained.

In the morning we checked out, left our luggage there and headed back out. Three of us needed to get some art supplies and then decided to split up. I went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. I was excited to see it because I had seen a couple of the illuminations in my history class last summer. When you get in there it's a big room explaining illuminated manuscripts and the process. It also explained the history of the Book of Kells itself. I don't think anything so far has hit me while being here on how old it actually is except for this. This book is so old. The craziest thing about it is that it has been at Trinity College for protection from destruction since 1661. That's more than 100 years longer than our country has been in existence. And that's not even how old it is, that's just how long it's been at this college! I'm still a bit baffled by it. Once you're done looking at the book, which is in a small dark room, you head upstairs to a place called the long room. I had no idea what to expect when I went in there because I hadn't heard about it. What it is is this long room, filled on two stories with books. All first editions. All extremely old. All available to look at for the students at the college. I couldn't believe my eyes when I stepped in there. I know it's an odd reference, but it reminded me of the library in the castle in Beauty and the Beast. It's on such a grand scale and it's really hard to explain. Once I was through there I went back outside and went back to the National Gallery to meet back up with one of the other girls. She and I decided that we wanted to do one of the bus tours around Dublin since we hadn't really seen the whole city yet. Being our stupid selves we decided to sit on the top of the double decker bus that had no roof. It was an awesome view but really cold. Cold enough that it took us a good 5 hours to finally warm up, when we were finally back in Ballyvaughan. It was kind of strange coming back into such a secluded area, coming from a densely populated area. Now today it's kind of nice being home. I do, however, have a few notes on Dublin...

1. Bathrooms. I think it's really funny that since none of the buildings were built when bathrooms were even a room, which means that most of the bathrooms are through about 4 doors and down about 3 sets of stairs. Odd, but funny.

2. People. Most people in Dublin will ignore you even if you have an accent. They don't really care. They all keep to themselves, very much unlike the smaller town people from Clare at least.

3. City. It's a big city and reminds me of most big cities. It kind of reminded me of being in America. Odd seeing as it's such and old place.

I think that's all for now. I will try to post up some pictures I have taken recently but because I didn't bring my computer with me today it will have to wait for another time.