My religion, my church, and my altar.

This morning found me simply trying out the cafe downstairs again. I had first got a take out the night when I first checked in exhausted. Simple burger with fries so I could pass out on my bed. This morning was white and black pudding, rashers (bacony ham), sausage, tomato, bread, egg, and a latte. Good price, huge meal and well cooked. Why the fuck was I going elsewhere in the first place? Dang. Plus I got a discount for staying at the hotel.

The tomato was a traitor though. I tried to cut it in half and it squirted all the way across the table and down my shirt. No way that was not a deliberate move on the tomato's part. The shirt was toast as there was no way it was washing out. So I had to hit up a shop and buy a new shirt and toss the old one. I would have given it to a homeless place but had no idea where one was in relation to where I was located. Cest la vie.

My first stop was the Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. Y'see, to say I like books is like saying the Pope if fond of Jesus. Back in junior high and high school I looked forward to the last day of school before summer. Not because of the partying or running around outside. But for the first week I could read the entire day long. I would fly through three books a day. After that, I could start putting up with people - but until then I needed my books. The though of a book so precious and sacred that four people spent their lifetimes painstaking making the book and illustrating it, a book that battle and wars were fought over just to protect it, was like viewing the Holy Grail.

My first stop at Trinity College was interesting though. I stopped by a side exhibit detailing the difference between a map of Ireland from 1570 with one from 1670.

 

He was a history professor or student and was fascinated by the differences that just a hundred years made in cartography. He started telling me that the main reason the maps were different was that the British ruled just a small area on the middle east portion of the map. But that didn't jive with my engineering nature. I noticed the streams and waterways had roughly the same distance between them and realized something. Cartographers (explorers) would have kept to the waterways for food, water, and supply refueling from townships- not to mention transportation. When the different maps from these explorers would be compiled, they would have been given roughly equal weight and distance between them - hence the whole being skewed towards a squarish shape. I further proved this by pointing out three isles with roughly the same size and equidistant from the main shoreline, when in reality they were way farther out and in no manner equal in size. So we chatted for a half hour over the meaning as to why the maps differed, some via political influence and some via basic engineering/logical though process. Twas good to have a nice intellectual conversation in the midst of a vacation.

The Book of Kells exhibit was amazing. It had the descriptions of the alphabets used, details on the art for each letter, detailed descriptions of some of the illustrations, how they made the ink, who wrote it, the battleas and wars fought over it, and a VERY cool video showing how they used to make and bind the books.

Trinity College link online http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php?DRIS_ID=MS58_003v

There was also the Book of Durrow and the Book of Mulling on display. But the Book of Kells was amazing. It filled my heart with joy that four people spent their lives creating such a thing of beauty and you could tell it was their sole passion and dedication. I was mesmerized and tears started forming in my eyes. It was beautiful. No pics I'm afraid, understandably - they do not want to damage the book in any way by some yokel not turning off their flash (which happens a lot). 
Then came the old library. A huge hall holding a monstrous collection old and ancient manuscripts and bound books. A line of exhibitions showing various books, pamphlets and such over the ages. This really made my trip to Dublin worth it. 

Next stop was a hop on the hop on/off bus to check out the docks area. It was a secondary route of the hop on/off bus, so I thought I would check it out. There wasn't really any place worth hopping off but I did enjoy a lot of the scenery. There was some cool architecture and I really enjoy one of the bridges. It was cleverly designed in the shape of a harp, and I could do some quick figures in head and it was a sound structure. Pretty cool.

After this I went to a Viking Museum next to Christchurch. They were connected to each other with a bridge based upon the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. The museum was pretty cool for a touristy type of thing, and it explained why Dublin was there in the first place (dubh "black" and linn "pool" from early Viking times). From a historical standpoint it was pretty cool, but again. Touristy.

From there I made my way to Christchurch Cathedral, but I've seen so many massive impressive churches in Europe that quite frankly, this one was not at all impressive. It had a cool, yet very tiny crypt exhibit. The coolest part was where the found the mummified corpses of a cat and rat that must have been caught in the organ.

Kitteh!!

After that it was just a hop into the shiny chrome and red naugahide 50's style American diner for a chili cheese dog, fries, and a Coke. It was ok, but when it comes to crap food - we simply do it best.