So, what to do with my first day in Dublin?
Based on my wanderings last night, it looks like the hotel was being entirely honest when they said that the City Centre was walking distance away, so that’ll help.
I’m thinking maybe the Old Library at Trinity College, so that the zCats do not murder me with a cat when I return, and the Guinness Storehouse, because it’s always worth supporting a stereotype.
Also, I’ve never been on a brewery tour before.
~ some time later ~
For future reference, I am absolute crap at navigating through St. Stephen’s Green.
Got turned around on the walk to Trinity College & ended up doing an increasingly-confusing extra loop to get back on track, but found the place in the end.
They had an exhibition on about the Emperor of Ireland, Brian Boru, who would appear to be part of the Warhammer Fantasy setting from the look of the artwork;
I must admit that my very favourite bit of the whole Old Library/Long Gallery & Book Of Kells experience was Pangur Bán, a poem about a Monk & his Cat, and the similarities between their jobs.
No big surprise there.
There was this thing outside the library, which I had plenty of time to look at while waiting in line;
Not sure what it is, but it struck me as being an interesting artistic thing. Also, it’s interactive. Sort of;
Well, it turns.
On my way back to the hotel, while staring at a very pretty & historical-ish map of St. Stephen’s Green and wishing for a historical “You Are Here” sign, I was spotted by Katie, who I’d met at the hotel I stayed at for LonCon. She knew where the correct exit gate was, I knew the way from there, and so we made it to the hotel.
After a spot of nattering in the lobby bar, at Katie’s suggestion, we set off to find the National Leprechaun Museum of Ireland; A group of five, from The UK (Katie), USA (Steve), Canada (I’ve forgotten, but possibly Carl Jenk, though it’s spelled with a ‘C’; Will fix in post), Belgium (Peter), and New Zealand, heading for adventure and what I imagined would be a Leprechaun Petting Zoo.
- Irish Buses take exact change only
- Very few of us had exact change, and one guy had no change at all, having only just arrived
- The bus driver didn’t really want to talk to us
- We probably could have caught a bus which got us closer
However, we made it, and joined the tour, and it was fantastic. With luck there will be some more photos (cellphone camera wasn’t really up to it) of the group on & around an enormous chair, having all been Leprechaun-ised, or standing in the rainbow, at the end of which there was a pot of gold. The stories are true, it seems.
Ended up in a pub for dinner after the museum, where many of us learned the term “The Bank Of Fandom”, where someone gets local currency without paying ATM fees by paying for the meal/drinks on their credit card, and getting cash from everyone else. It’s a good system; I just never knew the term for it.
Steve, Katie, Cenk, Me, and Peter
Katie, who’d actually done some research, unlike the rest of us, knew where the bus back to the hotel left from, and indeed which number it was, so Steve & Peter & I rode back on the top deck of a modern double-decker (didn’t ride one in London. nor did I eat fish & chips; that happened on a ferry in the middle of the Irish Sea, and again at an Irish pub), having sorted out our exact change ahead of time.
I asked one of the people at the Leprechaun Museum, and they find the exact change thing annoying too. Apparently it’s just a Dublin thing, and they don’t know why
Back at the hotel, we pretty much hung out in the lobby in the constantly-merging & splitting groups of fen chatting. Spoke to people from Florida & New York about things in general & cons in particular, and eventually went to bed a shade after midnight.
Peter the Leprechaun checks his email.
Katie assists Irish tourism.
The various posters read;
- Come To Ireland – The Country Shaped Like A Teddy Bear
- Do You Take A Drink Mister? – Come To Ireland
- Come To Ireland – Much Like England But Smaller
- Come To Ireland – The Home Of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, And Terry Wogan
Here are a couple more photos, taken on the walk.
A canal, with locks of a manually-operated nature, ran near the hotel, requiring a bridge and a big-ass pipe or two.
Probably a church?
I took the photo, then got distracted & didn’t check, but it looks pretty churchy. Also, it’s right by St. Stephen’s Green.
I just checked – Dublin Unitarian Church, according to Google Maps.
