Ireland!! (Lots of new pictures!)

I just got back yesterday from my trip to Ireland with Sophia. I have lots of stories and I hope I remember all of them. If not though, I'm sure Sophia will, so reading both our blogs should give you the full picture. Also, I've brought my laptop to an Internet cafe so I can load my pictures. There were several days that I forgot my camera but Sophia was a diligent picture taker and I'm sure she'll upload lots of pictures I can steal!
First and foremost, I started with a picture of Kilkenny which is a delicious creamy beer that must be made by Guinness since it's always served in a Guinness glass. It deserves its place at the top of this entry as it played an important role in our Irish Experience.

Our plqn flew out of Nantes and we got to the airport a very responsible 2 hours early. We stopped in the bookstore to look at some guidebooks of Ireland (since we hadn't done too much planning) and a little girl walked over to us and starting staring. Assuming that as a 6 year old she wasn't used to hearing people speak another language I greeted her with a friendly "Bonjour." She answered back "Hello" in perfect English. Her name was Cody and she and her parents and her brother Patrick were living in France now but we from England originally. Its especially funny because Patrick looks, well, like a Patrick and not at all like a French boy. I'd seen him early in the airport and wondered if maybe he spoke English (or maybe looked really Celtic because he was breton?) My Anglophone-dar turned out to be right and Patrick joined our conversation pretty soon, too. Cody was, as many 6 year olds are, very blunt and after telling her we were American she asked "Is that why you talk so weird?" After telling her we were English teachers she gave us her (tentative) blessing, saying "Yea, I guess you sort of speak English." I think Sophia and I really were destined to meet Patrick and Cody though because after telling them our names Cody informed us "My goat's called Sarah and we used to have one called Sophie too, but she drowned." (Sophia was only slightly put off by my suggestion that she was somehow the reincarnation of Sophie, the dead goat).
Oh yea, and we almost missed our plane. This was not our fault since the gate number was not listed on the departure screen and we were also given some bad directions by a cafe worker. Luckily Sophia's sharp ears recognized our names being called (pronounced terribly, of course) by the woman over the loud speaker. If Sophia hadn't been there I'd probably still be in Nantes, waiting in Hall 3, wondering when they'd get around to announcing our gate number.
Luckily, that wasn't the case and we made it Dublin just fine. Once there we checked into our hostel and went about finding something to eat. Note to travelers: Dublin is much more expensive than small town France, budget accordingly. Sophia and I managed to find an Indonesian place (Along with my stellar Anglophone-dar I also have developed Ethnic-food-dar) and split some serviceable vegetarian food. After that we found a really fun bar and after a couple of pints of Kilkenny pushed our way to the front of the crowd and sang along to the live music. The musician was really fun and played The Beatles, Oasis, Elvis, etc. We went home quite early that night because we were tired from traveling and Sophia was a little sick. We felt like we had gained an hour though because of the time change.


The next day we set about sight-seeing in Dublin and first we went to see Trinity College where the Book of Kells is housed. We decided to take a guided tour because it was only 2 Euros more than the admission to the Book of Kells exhibit and it was super interesting. For one thing, we learned that the library at Trinity contains the largest room of any library in the world. (It's only a tiny bit bigger than the library at Trinity College,Cambridge but as the tour guide said, "They treasure every centimeter.") We also learned that there's a bell that rings every day during term at 6:15 calling all the students to dinner. This dinner is mandatory and students need special permission to miss it. However, no one ever misses it because its free! (Not too surprising that the 2 facts I most remember about Trinity are about books and food . . .) This is a picture of us in front of the Commons (Dinner) Bell and next to it is a picture of me in front of a scupture just like the one we saw at the Vatican.


It was forbidden to take pictures of the Book of Kells so the ones up there are from the Internet to show you what it looks like. Before getting to Trinity all I knew was that the Book of Kells was a famous illuminated manuscript so I'll tell you what I learned to make it more interesting. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript of the 4 Gospels created in the 9th century by monks in Scotland and brought to Kells, Ireland for safekeeping (the Vikings were beginning to raid the monasteries of the British Isles around this time). Apparently there are several theories about the origin of the Book of Kells but that is the one we were told at Trinity. The Book had a beautiful gold and gem-encrusted cover and therefore was quite valuable. Eventually it was stolen but it is hypothesized that the thief was so frightened once he realized he'd stolen a copy of the Gospels that he hid it in a field. (He wasn't too religious to take the priceless cover, however.) The farmer who owned the field eventually found it and returned it to the Church where it stayed until they turned it over to Trinity for proper preservation. It was extremely beautiful in person and so were the other illuminated manuscripts on display there.
After Trinity we had a delicious "cooked Irish breakfast" (it was 2pm but we weren't complaining about details) and then headed over to Christ Church Cathedral, which I was surprised to find out seeing as we were in Ireland, was a Protestant Cathedral. This is because, until the 1800s it was illegal to have Catholic Churches on major roads. So, although like every other 1000 year old Church, it started out Catholic; the English changed it to Anglican after the Reformation, and it remained that way. The only Catholic churches are on smaller roads. St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin is also Protestant for the same reason. Here is Christ Church:


After the Cathedral we went to Dublin Castle where we learned a ton about the history of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England. I'll spare you the gory details (pun intended) since I'm sure you know that it's a long story and would turn this into even more of a history lesson. One cool thing we learned, though, was about the Irish flag. The orange strip is for the Loyalists who wanted to remain a part of the UK, the green strip is for the Nationalists who wanted to separate from the UK and the white in between represents peace between these two groups. This picture is of Dublin Castle:

That night we went back to the same bar as the night before and after it closed we were making out way to (ahem) another bar when a drunken (probably) homeless woman, clutching a beer (in a glass!!) approached me and asked for a Euro so she could by another drink. I had to laugh, although I appreciated her honesty, and decline, telling her I needed my money for my own beers. She then told me I had ugly teeth and an ugly smile. At least I have teeth, lady.
This is the approximate location of our encounter with the drunk:

The next day we made our way to County Cork where we stayed in Cobh (cove). Cobh is a beautiful fishing village with the steepest hill in Ireland with beautiful, brightly colored houses along the road. Its called the Deck of Cards.

Cobh was also the last port of call for the Titanic and town where the very first person to be checked in on Ellis Island came from. Cobh also had a beautiful Cathedral which was Catholic, because it was built after the law passed allowing big, Catholic churches on main roads.
We looked around Cork City a little bit, too. It's a really cute city and it felt more Irish then Dublin, which is so international. Here it is!

Most importantly though, we saw Blarney castle and kissed the Blarney Stone!


The picture to the left is Blarney Castle and the one on the right is the view from the top. They really aren't kidding when they say Ireland is green! Apparently, since we've kissed the Blarney Stone, Sophia and I now have the gift of eloquence!

The picture is of me kissing the stone.


After visiting Blarney we headed back to Dublin in time to take a Halloween Ghost tour of the city led by Zazimus the blind street poet. Here he is:

We heard ghost stories about Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Audoen's Church (built in 1190!!) and the medieval city walls. It was really fun, pretty cheesy but a little spooky at the end, especially when we were in the graveyard at St. Audeon's. I'll just tell one ghost story:
The Church was going broke so they decided to rent out the crypt of Christ Church to whomever wanted it. The man who took them up on the deal starting running a brothel (I'm serious) out of the crypt. However, he had to close it during the winter months because it got so cold and damp down there. On the last night of the season he had a huge party at the crypt and at last call he threw everyone out. When he came back the next Spring he found the skeleton of a British officer with his sword drawn, surrounded by the skeletons of rats. The officer had been too drunk to realize it was last call and was locked in all winter with the rats who ATE HIM ALIVE before eventually starving to death themselves. The moral of the story is don't go to brothels, especially one in the basement of a church.

We flew out of Dublin the next day. We stayed two nights in Rennes with some friends from St. Brieuc and Rennes to celebrate Halloween and prolong the vacation (esp. because we all got paid on Friday!) and now I'm back in St. Brieuc having a post-vacation vacation!