Weekend Excursions

Today I took the bus down to the city centre to do a little site seeing! I was a little apprehensive to go by myself, but Dublin is actually a very navigable city and very safe, especially during the day! Thanks to the Dublin books Webb got me, I knew exactly which buses and streets to take.

My first stop was Trinity College which included the Book of Kells and the Long Hall. THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!

In case you don't know, the Book of Kells is one of the oldest existing primary documents written by Irish monks in 800 AD. They wrote the first four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in Latin. The museum was really neat, it described a lot of the text and symbolism within the book. One thing that surprised me is it mentioned how the drawings of snakes in the Book of Kells represented Jesus Christ. Usually, we interpretate snakes as being evil. However, the Irish monks saw it as a snake sheds and loses its skin, it symbolizes resurrection and rebirth... interesting!!

My next stop was the Grafton Street. It is one of the busier streets that has a ton of great shopping along it. In some ways it reminded me of being in New York, because there were some real upty-up shops, but at other times it reminded me of New Orleans with all the street performers.

Then I went to Dublin Castle. It was built sometime in the 1100s, and apparently was occupied by the British for the majority of its existence. Much like a lot of Ireland. The inside of the castle looked almost like a Catholic church, it was gorgeous. Then it opened up into a huge courtyard area. Some of the castle buildings are now used for government offices and apartments! 

Tomorrow Dany and I might going back into the city centre and take a hop-on, hop-off bus tour or go to Phoenix Park which includes a zoo! I also teach my first lessons on Monday. Thankfully, things are going to start getting busier with school!