Donde Esta La Biblioteca?

DAY TEN

We were in Dublin, and can you believe it?

We were hot.

The hotel windows only opened a little ways,

and there was no fan or cross-ventilation.

Go figure.  We had packed umbrellas and had all four bought raincoats 

--which we didn't even own before packing for the trip --

and it turns out we were instead sweating.

Anyway...

we were going to hit the town!

The first place we went to was Trinity College...

...to see the Book of Kells.

I'll admit it, I was more familiar with the Book of Kells

through a cartoon released a few years ago...

...than through any history or English class.

But it's a very famous exhibit in Ireland, so off we went.

It was an interesting exhibit, but crowded... 

we had to enter the room in small groups like we were at Disneyland.

The book itself was transcribed around 800 AD, and is the four Gospels.

(Not my photo; there was no photography allowed.)

It seems like my enjoyment of the different places we went was in inverse proportion

to how many shoulders I was rubbing, and this was no exception.

And then...

we entered the Long Library.

"Oh my goodness!!!  Oh my GOODNESS!!" I gasped.

Like the Grand Canyon, pictures don't do it justice...

... but its size and the light and the sheer weight of all those books was just incredible.

It felt holy.

It felt magical.

I felt like Belle, when the Beast shared his library.

There were books down the center display...

... and, hey! A familiar word to any new-language learner.

And even though I knew that many of these books were probably about, I don't know,

humors and long-dead petty rulers and Latin grammar...

... I still felt this energy from them.

I could have stayed for hours.

But!

We had one more place we wanted to go.

The National Museum of Ireland housed one of my other obsessions:

bog bodies!

Yikes, right?

There was a lot to see there, a lot, but we were flagging.

It was time to get something to eat...

...head back to our sauna of a room,

and plan out what we wanted to do for our last full day in Ireland.

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Next Up:

A rainbow celebration!