Dublin Day 2

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, we got a bit of a late start to our second day.  Jet lag is a killer, man.  Anyway, after we finally got around to getting out of the door around 1230/1 we headed to  back out into the rain for a tour of the city.

We headed across the Ha'Penny Bridge (right down the street from where we were staying).  We didn't spy any trolls though.  

Our first stop was Trinity College.  However, we took a little detour.  We first came across this Church thinking it was Trinity College.  Wrong.  This is Christ Church Cathedral.  What a gorgeous church.  Once I stepped off the bus from the airport I was immediately blown away by the gorgeous architecture of the different churches and buildings in the city and Christ Church Cathedral was no different.  As I mentioned in my last post, this was my first time in this part of the world and I was - and still am - amazed at how much detail is in the architecture and all without modern technologies.  Just amazing!

PINK DOOR!!! I want a pink door.  

Anyway, we walked in a few more circles (this was the kind of detour that took us about an hour to find Trinity College but only 5 minutes to get home) but finally found Trinity College.  I was just thankful for a dry place to hide out for a few hours.  Now, I know the draw to Trinity College is to see the Book of Kells, which was really cool and beautiful to see, but I was more excited to see the library. In case you do not know (or may have forgotten) I am kinda obsessed with Harry Potter.  Pretty much anything Harry Potter and I get excited.  So I was thrilled to be in a place that inspired the Hogwarts library for the all the movies.  Since cameras were not allowed I was not able to get a photo with my DSLR but being the sneaky photographer I am, the trusty iPhone saved the day yet again.  

Can't you just see Hermione searching for one of her books to help save Harry's and Ron's asses? 

Since it was still rainy and cold we decided to next head to Dublin Castle.  Because it was later in the afternoon when we got to the castle the tours were over but the nice reception/ticket collector lady suggested we head over to the Chapel Royal that are also on the grounds. What a beautiful building.  Again, I was completely blown away by the detail that went into building it and hundreds of years ago - and hundreds of years before America was even "discovered."  A fun little fact though, Chapel Royal was the set for scenes of The Tudors - a Showtime series about King Henry VIII and all his wives.  I just finished the series before our trip so I was pretty excited to learn that.  Look familiar?  

Since it finally decided to stop raining for a bit we decided to walk around the grounds a little (and search for a toilet). 

We decided Friday night was to be our night out since we had an early flight Sunday morning (that was an adventure that I will tell you more about in a later post...) so we headed back to the apartment after a pit stop for wine, beer, champagne and snacks for pre-gaming with UNO before heading to The Temple Bar for a night out on the town.  

Euros are so much prettier than American money. 

I quit my job of 6 years and my last day was the day I left for our trip.  It was decided without talking to any of us that each room on our floor was to have a purple wall (must have been cheap because who else buys Purple paint for walls?).  It was hideous and continued to be running joke among everyone I worked with.  But go figure, our apartment we stayed in had purple walls.  I seem to not be able to escape hideous purple walls. 

Guinness 'staches

group shot

For grandmal? 

And of course a night out would not be complete with a feast of greasy deliciousness.  

The next day was slow going as some of us (cough Melissa cough) were pretty hungover but we were able to accomplish a lot and was my favorite day of our weekend in Dublin.  

Stay tuned...