Just Wandering

Sunday was finally just a day to chill out.

Besides waking up to the stunning aftermath of St. Patty's day.  The day was rather uneventful.

I had only three firm destinations in mind, Trinity College, St. Stephen's Green, and (don't judge) the Leprechaun Museum.  The rest of the day I just wanted to take random pictures of the city.

The Leprechaun Museum happened to be the closest.  Thankfully I wasn't the only one there over 12 years old.  Museum is a loose term, but it was an interesting exhibition.  They talked about the earliest written record of leprechaun stories.  There was a room full of giant furniture, so you could see what if felt like to be tiny like one.  They also briefly discussed Faerie lore (something the nerd in me really wished they'd have covered more in depth) as well as changelings and their accompanying myths.  All in all, interesting, but not worth the money.  Even if I did convince the doorman to charge me for the children's ticket price...

I wandered across the river, down Bob knows what street.  I believe I was in what's considered the city centre, but that's purely based on the amount of random shit that was happening there.  There were giant mascot leprechauns dancing creepily to a cassette player.  Bagpipes. Pennywhistles. Banjos (Irish?). Street artists spray painting. Street artists painting the stones.  Clowns making balloon animals. Men juggling flaming batons atop 9 ft ladders.  Men juggling flaming batons atop 9 ft unicycles. You name it.  Pretty sure I saw a sand sculpture of a pig...  Anyways.  Finally made my way to St. Stephen's Green.

Absolutely gorgeous park.

Ponds and fountains. Swans and ducks.  Hyacinths and cherry blossoms. Most surprising of all was the amount of people out enjoying the sunshine, a rare commodity here (partly sunny in Ohio is when the Irish whip out their SPF 60). Here, as I was observing the park map, I was approached by a 50-something Irishman that invited me to do something rather (they claim to speak English here, but honestly you can only catch every 5th word.  And that's only if they're sober and mentally challenged), I politely declined, as I had no idea what I might have been accepting otherwise.

Slightly creeped out, I exited a different gate than the one I had entered.  Normally this would be a fatal mistake, as I have not even the tiniest symptom of a sense of direction.  Luckily (pun intended) the Irish have landmark signs everywhere (they also have bed & breakfast signs everywhere as well), and I manage to find Trinity College.

What I would have given to attend a university with a history longer than that of the U.S.

To go to the same univeristy that produced Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Ernest Walton, etc.  I think my jealousy reached is maximum when I saw (and smelled) The Long Room, which is their oldest and most historic library (as they have several). 
It was just like the Hogwarts Library, minus the scrolls.

Books the size of your head that would for sure puff into clouds of ash if you picked them up.  Oh and the smell.  It's like the normal library smell is something you cook up in your dorm room, and the Long Room library smell is a dish created by Emeril.

Besides the ancient priceless books, Trinity College is a national library that is entitled to own a copy of every book published in the U.K. and Ireland.  Do you know what kind of modern authors come from the U.K.? The best kind.  Pullman, Gaiman, Fforde, Colfer, Rowling, I could go for days. Enough of that, I'm getting fired up just thinking about it again. Moral of the story

Trinity College > Otterbein University

As if there was a dispute in my mind before...

Okay one more thing.  The grounds are huge there! I had no idea which entrance I came in, or where I exited.

This is where I get really lost.

I knew I needed to cross the river to get back to Leonardo's flat.  So I headed in, what I thought, was a northern direction based on the sun's position.  However, I was accounting for the sun setting in a very southern position, thinking that it was still winter. 

Nope.  Its about as close to the Equinox as you can get.

I eventually make it to water. To what I think is the river.  Turns out its not. Its a docking bay created off the river.  There are cranes and industrial looking buildings that I have definitely never seen before.  Now. Before you spare any concern, there were plenty of people walking around.  All I had to do was ask how to get to the Spire (large needle like monument), but nooo Tegan, we had to be stubborn and do it all by ourselves.

By the time I found the river, realized how far east I was, and walked back to Leonardo's flat, it had been over an hour and a half since I decided to head home.

On the bright side, I found an awesome bridge shaped like a sideways harp and took some neato picures.

Ádhúil in Dublin
Tegs