The end of this trip is logistically the beginning. As I think has been discussed, the reason we hit the road in the first place was to end up in Dublin around this time; everything else we did was backtracked from here. So, we’ve seen the Giant’s Causeway (which neither under- nor over-whelmed us) and we’ve toodled all over the Isle of Man (which was pretty good at whelming, all things considered). On a crisp morning, eaaaaarly for a vacation, we returned our car and boarded the packet steamer for a 3-ish hour sail to Dublin, Ireland.

Arriving in new cities in the morning can be tricky. If you’re carting luggage, you’re rolling the dice that your lodging will hold it for you even though your room probably isn’t available yet – although, true, most decent hotels don’t have a problem with this, gods know short-term rentals are a crapshoot. Even if you drop your bags, the time gap between then and check-in can feel daunting to utilize, especially if you’re at the end of a long journey. Fortunately for us it was a quickie this time; unfortunately there was a huge football match going on in Dublin and you couldn’t hire a cab or a rideshare for love nor money. So, the two of us and about sixty Manx schoolkids on a field trip piled into one bus and trundled into the heart of Dublin. (And here’s a pro-tip: Dublin is the first city in Europe we’ve been in for quite some time that was cash only on its public transit. The harried driver waved us through, but we were moments away from being completely screwed.) Once we reset ourselves, we made straight for a place held dear in our hearts: Trinity College of Dublin.

Trinity College is one of the first places we visited on our honeymoon back in 2012, and it has lost none of its charm. We didn’t go on a tour of the whole campus this time, though; we were there to see the revamped presentation of the Book of Kells. Since we were last there, they’ve erected an elaborate entrance with numerous displays about the history and significance of the Book, which is nice since, when you actually get to see the book, it can be underwhelming. After all, for the sake of preservation they only display one open page, it’s under serious glass, and no pictures are allowed. Completely understandable precautions, but that still doesn’t make for the most enthralling exhibition. Fortunately, before and after the actual display space are just chock-a-block with less precious but still interesting artifacts as well as a detailed lineage explaining why we even care about this particular book. After the Book of Kells display you actually navigate across the campus to an entirely new structure that has been erected, with further displays including an “immersive experience” that plays out much like the currently popular “living Monet/Van Gogh/etc etc…” exhibitions across the world. And, of course, there’s a gift shop.

Popping out from Trinity College we made our way back to our hotel for a pit stop, then it was a quick jaunt to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This was on the recommendation of family, and it was a fairly up-and-down experience. On the one hand, it’s a beautiful building owing to a steady influx of tourist income. On the other hand, the steady influx of tourist income stems from the fact that the place is like Disney Catholicland. Seriously, there’s a pop-up gift shop inside the sanctuary. I’m not Catholic and I still had my nose fairly bent out of shape. Still, if you want to tick the box on iconic locations in the city, it’s worth a quick visit. After a low-key dinner we tucked ourselves in for the night, ready for our flight home the next day.

First of all, Irish nerds are just like nerds in America. There were whatchamacallits… transient posters that get plastered everywhere?… pitching a Star Wars-themed fandom convention on May the 4th. Some dance club was even offering free admission if you came in costume that night. So yeah, in Dublin at least, the Force was with us.

And speaking of a long time ago (TRANSITION!!!!!!) the highlight of this day was a tour in Trinity College – observant friends have seen the hoodie I bought that day. It was a fantastic, fantastic time, not to be missed. At least, if you get Aiofe(?) as your tour guide. She was a teeny, spunky Irish redhead, a frickin’ caricature of a caricature, who also happened to be a a Masters graduate of TCB (that’s “Trinity College Dublin” for you non-natives) hoping to be a Ph.D. candidate there. Anyway, she won my tourist heart the moment she used “wee” in a sentence, unironically, as the first thing she said to the tour group. Something like, “Ok everyone, you have to gather ’round, for I am wee and cannot speak very loudly!” She had many wry observations, particularly about the sexism that permeates much of TCB’s history (there’s a statue of some past master who was known to have said there’d be women at Trinity over his dead body. She didn’t miss the chance to take the piss out of him…); Lisa and I thought she was funny, and apparently most of the rest of the tourists were non-English speakers b/c our cackles echoed, alone, off the ancient stone walls. She actually thanked us afterwards for helping her to stay sane. It also helps that we tipped well. :p

Speaking of ancient stone walls, it was a-MAZE-ingly quiet within the confines of the University, which we thought was remarkable given that Dublin has basically grown right up to the boundary of Trinity on all sides. Nevertheless, once you went through the arches it was as peaceful as an Ag school on summer break. In any case, the tour was lovely, there are many old and ancient buildings, quirky stories of teachers standing in line for bathrooms and so on, and generally amazing natural beauty juxtaposed with imposing architecture spanning the centuries of the school’s existence.

Oh, and the Book of Kells is there. Meh.

I kid of course. The thing is exquisite, at least what we could see of it. To preserve the book they display one two-page section for… months?… I forget, but a long time. This is undercut slightly by the fact that, recently, they’ve put a complete digital copy of the Book online, but seeing the craftsmanship in person was something else. In the same library (which, incidentally, was as idosyncratic as something out of Harry Potter, with the added benefit of actually existing) we also saw the Harp. Which harp? If your brain thought to Ireland, and to images of a Harp that I might be talking about, I assure you that’s the Harp we mean. It’s on the beer, and the money, and a bunch of other places. Like practically everything we’ll see on this trip, it’s older than America’s non-indigenous founding.

After TCB, we took one of those hop-on/hop-off tour buses that exist in most cities. We’ve had good luck with bus tours in Phily & New York. This one was… ok. We got on a multi-lingual line, which put even the English version of the tour on a recorded loop so it would sync with the available language tracks. We would have greatly preferred a live tour guide, as you see with most of these operations. Also, it was roughly 45 degrees and misting, and yet we stayed topside because of the view and also because we are dumb. Nevertheless, it was a good way to get the “10,000′ view” of Dublin, briefly seeing things we’d otherwise have not seen any of. Many of these sites featured commemorations of Brits shooting Irish; it’s kind of Dublin’s “thing.”

To be honest I’m a little hazy on the end of this day, specifically what we did for dinner. Nothing special, I think is the answer. We transferred ourselves to the Airport Hilton, for the next day is VERY long, and awesome, and begins with a flight to Scotland.

DISJOINTED MEMORIES

* Dublin is a very walkable city, but that shouldn’t be confused with “magically confers an immunity to exhaustion.” We were pretty tired by the end of the day.

* There’s some crazy spire monument thingy that gave me serious vertigo just trying to look at it. It’s just this needle-y looking thing, too; I don’t know if there’s an equal-length pylon driven into the ground to balance it or what.