Ireland: Part 3

Sorry it's taking me so long to write about it all.
I'm not really sure you care though so in my opinion it's all good.
The next three days I spent the majority of the time by myself.

Day 5: I thought I would wake up soon after Maria left to intern but I slept several more hours. I then got ready for the day and took the little walk to City Centre and Trinity College. I enjoyed the beautiful architecture of the college campus (holy beautiful Georgian style). I loved it. Trinity College is the common thread between sandwiches, Winnie the Pooh, Robinson Crusoe, and the inert gas Argon (the inventers, discoverers, and authors all attended. Along with many others).

While there I visited "The Book of Kells" in the Old Trinity Library.

It was super cool. It told of the methods that monks used when copying and illustrating manuscripts, including the Book of Kells which is an illustrated manuscript of the Four Gospels in Latin. Once you take that all in, the exhibit goes upstairs to the old Library and holy cow I loved being there. The 200,000 of Trinity's oldest books were enchanting. I couldn't take any pictures but I found this one online:

Ah! Amazing. Beautiful. Inspiring. Happy.

I spent some time walking around Dublin.
 Seeing street performers

This just reminded me of Bert from Mary Poppins

Beautiful harp

The Old Parliament building which is windowless on purpose

The Gardens of Remembrance

I tried to get the statue and myself in the same picture...

I had to look up the meaning of this statue online.
The four swans represent the Children of Lir
who were turned to swans by their step-mother out of jealousy
After 900 years they were returned to human form, died,
and lived happily in heaven with their parents
(in one version of the tale).
It represents 900 years of Irish struggle under English rule.

That night Maria and I attended YSA, ate delicious dinner there, and sang Christmas songs, and my Irish (possibly American) cold started with an oober sore throat.

Day 6: I LOVED this day. I accompanied Maria to the village of Bray. Then she went off to intern and I strolled the streets and beach. It was COLD and rainy. So I walked the beach only to become very cold. So I found a small cafe, ordered a hot cocoa, and read a delightful book.

Then I strolled the streets and shopped the shops (without buying anything).
I returned to the beach as the rain had ceased and took a lot of pictures of myself, rocks, and the scenery.

 

Apparently my mascara is NOT waterproof...
I hope this appeared after my first trip to town...

 

 

 Once finished with that I found another little cafe/coffee shop and ordered a muffin and sat a read the rest of my book.
I really enjoy not doing much and just "being."
I met up with Maria later and we enjoyed a night at one of her housemates play with her roommate Anna.


Day 7: This day was pure shopping in Dublin. I didn't have anything crazy or really funny happen so there's not much to tell. But that night I did pack for the trip to Manchester early the next day! :)