A Trip To Dublin

Did I mention I went to Dublin? Well I did. In *cough*early September*cough* but due to my general rubbishness at remembering to steal photos from other people, it's taken me this long to blog about it. You don't mind a delay though, do you? Holidays are great and Dublin is BRILLIANT so it's totally worth the wait.

However, hotels there are ball-breakingly expensive. The cheap hotels were still £130 a night which is madness as far as I'm concerned. I want to spend my money on doing things, not on a bed for the night. We ended up staying at a Buddhist centre (as you do) and it was great. Cheap, nice, full of super friendly people and only 10 mins on the bus from the city centre.



So, what did we do? All the cultural things!

Now I don't have any pictures of the Chester Beatty Library because photography wasn't allowed but take my word on it, it is amazing. You must go. We went twice because it was so good and so full of wondrous things that we got kicked out at closing time on our first visit, having only got round half of it. It's like rolling round in booky heaven.

Speaking of which, we also went (as part of a tour of Trinity College) to Trinity College Library to see the Book of Kells. The latter was kinda underwhelming if I'm honest, although I did very much like the Pangur Bán poem in the accompanying exhibition. However, the library itself... *drools*

I'm such a div.


Just to add to the general air of literary love, we also went to the National Library of Ireland. The reading room there is unbelievably beautiful. I want to live in it.



The W.B Yeats exhibition on the ground floor also gets at least four thumbs up from me. Donning my nerdy work hat for a second, it's one of the best pieces of interpretation I've seen in a long time. So much to see and enjoy there. I really wasn't expecting it to be so enthralling.


We also went to the theatre to see Major Barbara, squeezed in a couple of films on the Sunday when nothing else was open (The Way, Way Back and About Time), walked around a lot and consumed a lot of coffee. Naturally.

Oh and we went on a tour of the castle. That was ace too! From high Victoriana to Viking foundations, all in the one place.

Ah, Lord Uxbridge. One of my favourite historical men.




I won't pretend it was all cultural though. Any of my holidays must feature lots of food and drink. It's the law. And possibly a frivolous purchase or two.




This place is amazing.

Sorry to let the side down but I just don't do Guiness.

And to end on a high point, I also encountered a man wearing these tremendously jaunty trousers.

Apologies for the shoddiness of some of the pictures btw. Blame it on phone cameras and Ryanair. Their cabin luggage allowance is now a pathetic 10kg and I couldn't fit all my stuff and my DSLR in the bag!