Dublin!!!

We spent last weekend in Dublin, which was AMAZING! I definitely prefer Cork to Dublin, though, but there were so many cool things to see there. However, a lot of the things we got to see I will not be able to show you pictures of because photography was not allowed.

Dublin is a 4 hour bus ride from Cork, which, while long, is not terrible because it takes you through a lot of the lovely Irish countryside. We arrived there at about 4 pm on Friday. We stayed in a very nice hotel, which used to be the residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin in the 1700's.

We went to dinner and then watched a play in the Abbey Theater, a theater described by the famous author James Joyce in his book Ulysses, if any of you have read it. Apparently, this isn't the actual theater becuase it was rebuilt or something. But anyway, here are a few pictures I took of the actual city of Dublin.






One of the pictures here is a picture of a cute little old man who was playing the Bodhran on the street and a picture of the famous Molly Malone or as they affectionately call her in Dublin "The night stroller", the "Tart with the cart" and the "Dish with the Fish."



While in Dublin we were given a pass that got us into any tourist attraction for free and a free bus pass for the double decker tour bus that went around the city. On Saturday we went to two famous cathedrals, Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We also went to the National Museum of Ireland. Several important people are buried inside these cathedrals including O'Carolin the famous blind Irish harper, whose music I have played before. I took a picture of his memorial also. We were even able to go underneathe the church into where they buried everyone. Here are some pictures of the cathedrals.








The weird picture of a cat and mouse is a picture of a mummified cat and mouse that was discovered inside the pipes of the huge church organ.








On Sunday, we went to the National Gallery of Ireland, which had many beautiful pieces of artwork, which, of course, I couldn't take a picture of, the Chester Beatty Library where we saw some of the oldest discovered fragments of Biblical texts. It was sooooo cool. And, of course, we visited the famouse Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. I was expecting just to see the one book, but the exhibit contains many beautifully ornate biblical texts transcribed hundreds of years ago. It was incredible to see, and I think this exhibit was my favorite part of my time in Dublin. Upstairs in what is called the "Long Hall" there are rows of extremely old books. It is a huge beautiful library full of important texts that of course, we can't take down and look at because they are so old, but it was amazing. Also on display is one of the oldest harps in the world. It was gorgeous!!! I couldn't take a picture of it, but they have postcards so I took a picture of a postcard and you can see it among the other pictures here. Alright, and finally, here are some pictures of the famous, beautiful Trinity College and also the Dublin Castle.