Dublin Day #3 (2015 Summer Adventures Part 8)

Disclaimer: The main reason for these posts is to remember our trip in the summer of 2015. There will probably be too many details and lots of parenthetic statements. I teach math - not writing.  We did not take any picture on this day/the things we wanted to take picture of were not allowed to be photographed.

We both woke up at 6am.  Ian showered while Alissa ran.  We ate breakfast at 7am at the hostel.  Someone had closed the window in our room overnight and it was so stuffy in there! After breakfast, Alissa showered and we packed up. We checked out of the hostel. Today was the first warm day that we had experienced; we did not need our jackets. We walked to the Dublin Castle and sat in the garden and played hangman. We were waiting for the Chester Beatty Library to open, but realized that it was not going to open for at least another hour. So we headed to a nearby bank and used the ATM and explored some streets near Trinity College that we had not seen yet.

image via google images

We decided that we were hungry and ready for second breakfast. We went to The Elephant and Castle in the Temple Bar area. I remember that it looked like a super upscale place (and we had our backpacks and everything with us) but it ended up being really reasonable and still nice!  We both decided on the California Breakfast - it was so delicious! Orange juice, two eggs, potatoes, bacon, french toast and coffee all for €21 for two people (that was about 25 dollars for two people). *I did not write this part down in our travel journal, but I think I was slightly grumpy before we had second breakfast.  I remember being so thankful that we found good food at a reasonable price and felt much better after some coffee.

Properly fueled we now set off (again) for Chester Beatty Library (which I think is right behind or connected to the Dublin Castle). We looked around a bit - a lot of really old pieces of literature.  I, of course, did not write down what we saw and have now forgotten. I think we saw the original (or very early copy) of Handel's Messiah Chorus along with some of Shakespeare's originals. There was a lot to see and I get overwhelmed easily in situations like that, so I took breaks on the benches they provided. There was a special exhibit featuring Asian (mainly Japanese I think) pieces, but we walked through it pretty quickly as I felt like we saw everything when we were in Asia.  

Ian had to use the restroom (which was like a block away) so I grabbed some brochures about the library to look at and sat on a bench. I thought, "Surely there must be more than just one exhibit in this place." (There was also a gift shop and a restaurant). After Ian came back from the restroom, we found out that indeed there was one more exhibit. There were three parts to the exhibit - Christianity, Islamic, and Eastern Religion. We spent all of our time in the Christian section. It was unbelievable! We saw ancient recordings of Scripture. Pieces of manuscript on papyrus ranging from 150AD-250AD and third and fourth century pieces of Numbers, Genesis, Daniel, Esther, Romans, Acts, Hebrews, and 1 Corinthians...really incredible. It was a challenge to take in and process that we were seeing writings (copies) of what we read in the Bible only a few generations after Jesus was on the earth.  Thanks to Ian studying Greek in seminary, I know a little bit and was able to look at the 1 Corinthians 13 papyrus and find the word, "agape" over and over.  After we went through the exhibit twice we went to the rooftop garden and tried take in what we had just seen.  The crazy thing is - we almost missed it.  When I think about our trip to the Europe - this is definitely one of the highlights.

We went to the Revenue Museum next - it was a fail.  It was literally about taxes and revenue.  We went through the entire museum in about 5 minutes.  We decided to find a park.  We walked to St. Steven's Green and sat on a bench.  The weather was so nice that we were quite comfortable.  After 30 minutes or so of people watching we headed back to Dame Street (what Ian and I would consider the "downtown" area of Dublin) and grabbed a snack at Starbucks and took the bus to the airport.  Check-in and security went well.  

I remember thinking that I could run the airport much better than whomever was in charge (Ian would say that I say this somewhat often about many things though).  Our flight was delayed an hour or so.  It was only 40 minutes in the air - which I remember being thankful for.  It was a large plane but the seats were tight and there was a bachelor party on the flight.  One of the guys in the wedding party was dressed as a bride.  Once we landed we walked through "customs". I really wanted my passport stamped so I was not happy about the lack of customs.

We took an AirLink bus into Edinburgh's City Center.  Our hostel was an easy short walk from the bus stop.  The two guys that checked us in at the hostel were really informative and nice. We found our {private aka not a dorm} room and put our stuff down.  Then we went in search of dinner.  We walked to Rose Street.  We found a Scottish restaurant on the second floor of a building.  Alissa had the Sausage and Mash with a Innis & Gunn Pale Ale.  Ian had fish and chips with a Yardhouse (from London?) Pale Ale.  It was great food - big portions.  We gave the place a 8/10.  The carpet was a red and blue plaid design - nice Scottish touch.  We walked back to our hostel. Ian headed out the Black Dragon for a pre-release of Magic Origins. Ian picked white and ended up playing green-blue deck. He went 2 wins, 1 tie, an d2 losses. He met many locals and had fun chatting and playing games.