Dublin Day 2

Be prepared for a long post.  I did so much this day that it doesn't seem possible.  

The first thing I did was go to the tourist office, which is in a really cool old church.  I bought a hop on hop off tour bus ticket.  There are plenty of people who would never want to do this, and I am one of them sometimes, but they really are convenient.  They take you to all the places you want to go and they give you information that might not other wise find out.  Students get a great discount too.  I think it was 11 euro for 24 hours.  And traveling alone, I liked it a lot.  No risk of getting lost.  

At this point it was about 9:30 am and I went to the Guiness Storehouse.  By far the biggest tourist attraction in Dublin, and rightly so.  It is an unbelievable place.  The entire exhibition is perfect down to every detail.  They have all the raw materials used to make beer.  The first being water of course, but there were also hops growing on the walls and barley in a huge pit.  The building is a 7 story tall open rafter building, so perfect for a beer museum.  

They also had all of the original advertising posters on display.  I really liked seeing this.

I thought this was kind of ironic.

Once you finish your way through the museum, the very top of the building is the Gravity Bar where you get your free pint of Guiness.  Yes, I did drink mine at 11 am, and it was good.  I usually hate hate hate hate hate beer.

If any of you are wondering how I keep my facts straight and my life together, here it is.  Moleskin journals.  I have gone through at least 5 or 6 since being here.  They sell them in the US but it is actually a Milan, Italy company so they are plentiful here with a bigger variety of types than in the US.

Next was the Irish Museum of Modern Art.  The building is a former Victorian Hospital.  The building was cool, the art not so cool.

After walking through the museum grounds through the back I took a long path to the street and on either side at the end there were old cemeteries.  

Next was the Kilmainham Gaol.  A photographers paradise!  It is an old prison preserved for tours.  It was amazing.  All of the republic rebells were kept here.  It is an amazing building with so many cool things to photograph.  I think my tour guide got irritated with me because I kept staying behind to take pictures. 

All of the cell doors had peep holes.  Some cells had really interesting things inside.

This was the execution yard. 

Next was Dublin castle, which I did not go into.  Only a small part is original and its obscenely expensive to go into.

Castle Gardens.

The Chester Beatty Library is on the Castle grounds and has a really fantastic exhibition of old Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist manuscripts.  Including all 4 gospels on parchment from scrolls dating to before 200AD.  Possibly some of the very first gospel copies ever written.  It was amazing.  This continues my book theme from day 1.  If you love history and books go to Dublin.

The last thing for the day was St. Patrick's Cathedral.  I was surprised to find out that it is actually a protestant cathedral.  Which is why you have to pay to enter.  The bus driver explained this, he said that most people in Dublin are catholic so the cathedral does not have regular attendants for services so they do not make any money on Sundays.  Thus, they have to charge tourists.  The only time I have ever paid to enter a church.

Jonathan Swift is a famous person involved with this church, he was the head minister until he died.  He also wrote Gulliver's travels.  A biblical satire.

  A Keg piggy bank for what kind of Organ?  A Liver?  Strange in a church.