Man that Galway Girl left a trail of bodies...

February seemed like a good time to go to Ireland. And by a good time, I meant that the ticket was dirt cheap (I could pay more for a haircut than I paid for that plane ticket) and Michael was leaving Berlin in the next month or so to return to California. After booking a place to stay with an adorable, friendly, and really helpful Irish couple through Air BnB, we met up in Dublin for a three day weekend of Celtic narrative and wind. LOTs of wind.

Of course, being in Dublin, what kind of bibliophile would I be if I were to do anything but make a beeline for the Trinity College Library? And oh darn, this necessitated going past the Book of Kells first, which was really beautiful and rekindled by love of the art of book binding. I wish I could show you pictures, but the thing is really freaking old, and has been stolen a lot, so anything we can do to preserve it, including not taking pictures and keeping it in low light, is an understandable measure.

So yeah... the Trinity College Library. Michael was worried I was broken, or had a glitch or an aneurism.  IT WAS SO GODDAMN BEAUTIFUL.  I nearly cried.

Also: They were exhibiting a children's literature collection when we visited. The gorgeous art that accompanies children's literature around the world complemented the venue... I can't tell if the library made the art more powerful or vice versa. It felt like a fairy tale. 

Harry Potter... In IRISH.

Comics count!

 

 

The library also had a 15th century harp known as Brian Boru's Harp- legendarily owned by the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru, though this is likely untrue. There is no substantial evidence to indicate where this harp came from, but the legend carries weight, and you can see the image of this harp decorating money and other items as the national symbol of Ireland.

Looking back down the Long Room

We only left the Library once we had been driven out by hunger.

Wandering around we saw:

A Protest (I think to do with water rights... As Californians in Ireland, we found this pretty hilarious).

An Outdoor Book Market

an indoor knick knacks market



And a jam-packed-jamming Bar

I was SO excited to find this bar- we didn't stay long because it was intensely crowded, but it was exactly what I had hoped to find (and hoped to continue to find) in Temple Bar, Dublin. I adore traditional Irish music. We set off in the evening to find more of this sort of thing, but ended up hopping between several pubs in our search. Our most successful find was tucked away in a basement; a combination restaurant-bar-and-live-show joint where we found "Whiskey in the Jar" and of course, "Galway Girl". The audience was really enjoying the band. We had a nice side view from the bar by the stairs, which also meant we were right in the path of the stampeding university group apparently on a group-t-shirt-wearing-bar-hopping-can-i-get-laid-tonight tour.
When I say most successful, what I really mean is that they had violins. I love violins/fiddles in Irish music. This requirement however, doesn't mean there weren't other bars I loved–among others, we found a traditional irish music pub upstairs from the jam-packed-jamming Bar (they were a bit slow for what I was looking for. Give me ENERGY!), a two-level bar right on the river where we could watch the performers from a balcony, and the original temple bar, where, funnily enough, they were featuring American music rather than Irish.

End Part 1...