Today I woke up early, ate my complementary breakfast, and headed to the hop on, hop off bus tour with a new friend in tow. My new friend, Jenny, a Catholic, from Detroit, Michigan, and a student at Michigan state managed to completely get lost from me after one stop on the tour- Trinity college and The Book of Kells.
I can hardly remember this morning at this point in the day. Its now 7pm, and that was 9am. I covered a lot of Dublin in between. The book of Kells was nice and all, but I didn't feel it was especially important to me. After loosing my friend, which was probably in her best interest as well, I wandered around down town at the next stop on the tour. A city park with a statue of Oliver Wilde, complete with colorful jacket. I then wandered around the national museums, The museum of Natural history- found out I dont really care to see millions of giant dead animals.
Next up was the National Library, which had a floor for help with Geneology. I went up and took a look at things. I logged onto my new.familysearch.org account and looked up a line till it hit Irish. All my Irish family that are recorded were either royalty in Wales or Scottland in more recent history ( after 1500-1000 AD) Before that we had all sorts of King of Dublin, King of Leister, Cheiftan of Meath, and so on. Some of them were invading vikings (and yes, they were the sons of the King of Sweeden, etc) and others of them were Irish as far back as you can go (so far that was 300 AD). Unfortunately, There weren't any resources I found in the library to tell me more about these people. So everything I discovered I could have discovered at home, on my computer, with family search.
However, the cool thing about it was, I walked out of the library, forgot my camera, realized i forgot it, went back five minutes later and it was still there. Horay for honest people!!!
Another cool thing was that after visiting the Library, and the boring Natural history museum, I walked all the way past the doyle and the Teoshuck (sorry no i dea on spelling), around three or four blocks, right back next door to the Library and into the National Museum of Archeology, where I was able to learn a bit more about my viking ansesotor, see there shilds, and then see how my ancient Irish folks were. There were really well preserved bog people, people who had been murdered in the bogs, from that before 1000 AD time period (i believe even to 100 AD, possibly earlier.)
Because of conditions of bogs, the remains were so well preserved that they still had skin and hair, skin had turned to leather, the hair was red. Kind of creepy, but really cool.
After that I went back on the bus- exhuasted- and went on a few stops to Dublin Castle (closed) and ST. Patricks Cathedral. I got fish and chips from the first chipper in Dublin, and the dude was old enough I am sure its true. Then I walked to the Gardens adjacent to the Dublin Castle and ate my chips while a mean seagul staired me down. I walked to the Cathedral, and sort of just gave up and got on the bus without really taking much of a look.
My next stop was a really Irish named Jail that I wont try to write here except the jail part Gaol. It is the most historic building from the revolution people are allowed to see. It gave a sense of hallowed ground, where so many people had been imprisoned, tourtured, and killed. Some imprisioned for the most ridiculous crimes- a five year old was imprisioned there, Some whos sacrifice helped create the free Irish republic, and some who probably ligetimatly deserved to be there. Men and women. It was an amazing tour, and I recomend it to anyone. After that, I rushed back to the stop near my apartment so I could make it in time to the Leprachaun Museum.
My advice on the Leprauchan Museum- Take young kids for the day tour. If you are an adult by your self, do the spokey night tour. Irish mythology and folk glore is very dark, so they can't tell you all the good stuff if little kiddies are around, it would scare them. I went on the day tour, I wish I would have waited a few hours for the night one, but maybe it would have given me nightmares, who knows. I did enjoy learning about fairies, fair forts and other such, but I want to know more.
I finished that off too tired to even get a 10€ massage, and I've been on the computer ever since. I wanted to go to the famine statues, but I dont think my feet could carry me.
I can hardly remember this morning at this point in the day. Its now 7pm, and that was 9am. I covered a lot of Dublin in between. The book of Kells was nice and all, but I didn't feel it was especially important to me. After loosing my friend, which was probably in her best interest as well, I wandered around down town at the next stop on the tour. A city park with a statue of Oliver Wilde, complete with colorful jacket. I then wandered around the national museums, The museum of Natural history- found out I dont really care to see millions of giant dead animals.
Next up was the National Library, which had a floor for help with Geneology. I went up and took a look at things. I logged onto my new.familysearch.org account and looked up a line till it hit Irish. All my Irish family that are recorded were either royalty in Wales or Scottland in more recent history ( after 1500-1000 AD) Before that we had all sorts of King of Dublin, King of Leister, Cheiftan of Meath, and so on. Some of them were invading vikings (and yes, they were the sons of the King of Sweeden, etc) and others of them were Irish as far back as you can go (so far that was 300 AD). Unfortunately, There weren't any resources I found in the library to tell me more about these people. So everything I discovered I could have discovered at home, on my computer, with family search.
However, the cool thing about it was, I walked out of the library, forgot my camera, realized i forgot it, went back five minutes later and it was still there. Horay for honest people!!!
Another cool thing was that after visiting the Library, and the boring Natural history museum, I walked all the way past the doyle and the Teoshuck (sorry no i dea on spelling), around three or four blocks, right back next door to the Library and into the National Museum of Archeology, where I was able to learn a bit more about my viking ansesotor, see there shilds, and then see how my ancient Irish folks were. There were really well preserved bog people, people who had been murdered in the bogs, from that before 1000 AD time period (i believe even to 100 AD, possibly earlier.)
Because of conditions of bogs, the remains were so well preserved that they still had skin and hair, skin had turned to leather, the hair was red. Kind of creepy, but really cool.
After that I went back on the bus- exhuasted- and went on a few stops to Dublin Castle (closed) and ST. Patricks Cathedral. I got fish and chips from the first chipper in Dublin, and the dude was old enough I am sure its true. Then I walked to the Gardens adjacent to the Dublin Castle and ate my chips while a mean seagul staired me down. I walked to the Cathedral, and sort of just gave up and got on the bus without really taking much of a look.
My next stop was a really Irish named Jail that I wont try to write here except the jail part Gaol. It is the most historic building from the revolution people are allowed to see. It gave a sense of hallowed ground, where so many people had been imprisoned, tourtured, and killed. Some imprisioned for the most ridiculous crimes- a five year old was imprisioned there, Some whos sacrifice helped create the free Irish republic, and some who probably ligetimatly deserved to be there. Men and women. It was an amazing tour, and I recomend it to anyone. After that, I rushed back to the stop near my apartment so I could make it in time to the Leprachaun Museum.
My advice on the Leprauchan Museum- Take young kids for the day tour. If you are an adult by your self, do the spokey night tour. Irish mythology and folk glore is very dark, so they can't tell you all the good stuff if little kiddies are around, it would scare them. I went on the day tour, I wish I would have waited a few hours for the night one, but maybe it would have given me nightmares, who knows. I did enjoy learning about fairies, fair forts and other such, but I want to know more.
I finished that off too tired to even get a 10€ massage, and I've been on the computer ever since. I wanted to go to the famine statues, but I dont think my feet could carry me.
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