Dublin (day 2) and back to London: spring break then back to Florence!

Day Two in Dublin was just as exciting as the first. The streets were still crowded, but somewhat less crazy than the festivities of Saint Patrick’s day before. Remnants of green confetti and broken bottles littered the sidewalks, and a few Dubliners looked as though they might have never left the party from the previous night. Our first stop? Breakfast! We had a delicious Irish version of American breakfast at a café, complete with pancakes, bacon and eggs – something I have seriously missed since being in Europe. It was a nice break from cereal in the apartment and pastries in Italian cafes. After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed out into the yet-again beautiful weather of Dublin for some sight-seeing. Dublin Castle is one of the main attractions of the city, so we scheduled a tour there for later in the day, and wandered over to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. We hadn’t actually planned on seeing it, being just another church and all, but we had time before the Castle tour. After passing by the impressive Christ Church which spans a few blocks in the city center, we walked down the bustling main road and suddenly came upon a grassy opening. In the middle of the busy, messy, dusty city – a huge expanse of sudden, bright green and there, on the edge of it, was Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It contrasted darkly against the fresh grass and glistening sky, an amazing sight on an unimpressive street. This thing came out of nowhere, and blew me away. The lawn was gorgeous on such a nice day, and covered with children playing ball, couples lying in the sun, tourists snacking on sandwiches before their next endeavor. Me and the girls took this chance to catch some sun, while Nick visited the cathedral (we were too tired and didn’t want to pay), where he saw Jonathon Swift’s tomb and the gothic interior of the Cathedral. After a half hour of rest, we left the precious green and checked out the plaque at the park’s exit – a small stone indicating the spot where Saint Patrick baptized people way back in the day.

Back at Dublin Castle, we joined our tour led by a girl with a very pretty Irish accent. It was cool to spend the hour tour listening to her play on words and learn about the place where old officials and Irish leaders spent their days. Most of the building is actually pretty modern-looking, with brick siding and big windows, but parts of the ancient castle are left over and can be seen from the outside – one of four circular towers remains, and underground you can see water from the original moat and dilapidated stones from the old walls of the castle. We saw the ladies drawing room, where women used shields to prevent their made-up faces from melting when sitting by the fires. We viewed the throne of old Irish kings, where Queen Victoria also once sat (and they had to add a foot stool and cut the legs of the chair because she was too short). In the dining room, fifty chairs surround a long table, with seats with larger bases for the ladies since their huge dresses needed so much space at dinnertime. And finally, we saw conference rooms where important officials from many countries have met over the past century and continue to meet today, including Bill Clinton a few years ago.

After the castle, we walked to Trinity College, the most famous university in Dublin probably, which was a beautiful campus of grassy lawns, athletic fields, and benches with hundreds of students milling around. Nick had been dying to see the Book of Kells, an ancient and apparently famous Bible, in Trinity’s museum, so me and the girls sat in the sun again while he learned enough history for the rest of us. After, we walked to a nearby square to see the renowned Oscar Wilde statue, a full-color glazed statue of his figure lying across a huge rock while smoking a pipe. Our guide-book calls it a “flamboyant” pose. He looks very intellectual, though, and it’s interesting to see a statue in color, as though he’s almost there with you. Nick reverted to being an 8-year-old boy for a minute and tried to climb up the giant rock to sit next to Wilde, while I took pictures of his funny failed attempt. The rest of us of course had to try too, after this spectacle, and us girls were able to make it up the rock pretty well – even though the picture of me looks like I’m about to fall to a harrowing death or something. So, we said bye to Oscar Wilde and trekked across town to the Jameson Distillery, one of the big sights of Dublin though probably a close second to the Guinness Brewery. Now, I’m not a whiskey fan, but this visit was very very cool. Most of us in the group had never been to a distillery or brewery factory before, so Dublin seemed like a great place to try it out. We were placed in a tour group with a guide who looked like he’d been out celebrating Saint Patty’s Day until the wee hours of the morning, but he was hilarious nonetheless. We watched a video about the Jameson family who started this famous Irish whiskey, and then toured a model of the factory processes – mashing the grains, distilling the liquid three times etc. It was only a model because the distillery actually stopped functioning in 1971 and Jameson is now produced from a factory in Cork, Ireland. This old distillery even had plastic statues of people working to sort the grain and make the whiskey, kind of creepy but also really funny. After, Nick got chosen to be part of a whiskey tasty performed in front of the whole group – he and a few other volunteers got to try American, Scottish and Irish whiskies and learn about the differences in taste and how each is made. I got the sense that the Irish don’t like Scotch, since our guide told the volunteers to throw the Scottish whiskey over their shoulder instead of tasting it! That was something I saw everywhere actually – a certain pride and passion for their country that is not so apparent in other countries. The Irish love being Irish and I don’t blame them. Dublin was one of the best parts of spring break by far!

But it wasn’t over yet……after the distillery, we grabbed SuperMac burgers for dinner (to save cash) and went to see James Joyce’s statue as night rolled in. He was bronze and holding a cane, looking very dapper in his dark suit. Across the plaza from him is an even more random sight – the Millennium monument, a gleaming silver spike as high as a skyscraper that lights up at night to commemorate Ireland’s movement into the 21st century. And to contrast this futuristic piece with the past, you can also see the Irish Declaration of Independence across the street in the window of its Post office. A small plaque is embossed with the declaration’s text for all the world to see, and on the Post’s soaring columns – bullet holes from when the English invaded and tried to prevent this very independence from coming to fruition. As we stood gazing up at the century-old holes, a Dubliner passing by stopped and randomly began giving us a history of Dublin. This short, scruffy man went on and on about how the Irish fought the British and how James Connelly was their greatest martyr and got thrown in jail for his rebellion. The guy looked sort of homeless, but we humored him for a bit, having learned that Irish pride is fierce and not to be reckoned with…when suddenly, he was talking about Dublin’s prison where rebels were sent during the conflict and mentioned that HE had actually once been jailed there. Our eyes widened and I squashed my purse beneath my arm, until Nick said we had to go and our group hurried away wondering how we ever got to talking with a probably-drunk homeless criminal. But, we did learn a lot about Dublin independence history and how the bullet holes remained in the building, so it wasn’t a complete waste of ten minutes. That was when Nick and I remembered we had shaken this guy’s hand. Ew…

Back at the hotel, we all donned ridiculous bathing caps that the hotel made us wear and hopped in the pool and sauna before getting shut-eye for our 8:00am flight back to London. The caps cost three euro and I only paid it because I was thirsting for the jacuzzi….turned out the jacuzzi was as cold as the pool, and the sauna made us want to jump in a pile of snow. Not the best pool experience after such a long day. But, it was soon 5:00am, and we all rolled onto our scheduled taxi with bleary eyes and hungry stomachs. Tooooo early.

Luckily, our flight was perfectly on time and dropped us in London where I napped for the rest of the afternoon and Nick got to sit in class for two hours. Byzantine history – not something I’d want to focus on after a 5am wake-up call from the hotel and hours on a plane. But, he made it through, and we motivated ourselves to have a nice dinner out that Thursday night. He took me to a French tapas restaurant where we tried out everything from venison with mashed pumpkin and smoked salmon strips, to sausages and two types of foie gras. It was delicious, a very nice vacation from pizzas and kebabs and spicy Indian food that we’d had one night. Our waitress was French even! It seems like the countries with good food are well-aware of London’s lacking in the area, since there are tons of Indian, Chinese, French and Italian restaurants lining the streets. Well, in between all the fish-and-chips places anyway.

On Friday in London, my last weekend there, Nick and I went to Winchester for a daytrip. Allie, Larissa and Emily were staying at a hostel and seeing many of the London sights I already had, so we took the day to explore a little country town. The main event there was Winchester Cathedral, which crops up out of nowhere kind of like Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Winchester’s has a similar expanse of luscious lawn surrounding it and houses the burial place of one of my favorite 19th-century English authors – Jane Austen. In fact, it turns out that she lived in a nearby village but came to Winchester when she fell ill later in life. We went later to see the modest yellow home with its plaque honoring the great writer.
Anyway, we joined a tour of elderly tourists in Winchester Cathedral and listened to the old British tourlady stutter about English history and the day the cathedral almost crumbled from underground floods, only to be saved by a diver now famous in Winchester history. She showed us the huge stained-glass window that was shattered by Viking attacks and later put back together piecemeal – it looks kind of like a kaleidoscope now. Nick got excited about the bones of English Kings and one queen, encased in decorated boxes – even though no one really knows whose bones are whose, since they all mixed together in another attack on the cathedral centuries ago. When we found Jane Austen’s grave on the cathedral floor, the flat black stone doesn’t even allude to her famous writing, I’m not sure why. My camera died just then, though, and we left Winchester Cathedral to buy batteries, telling the staff that we would be back soon to take a quick photo of Austen’s grave. Before we left, we got to talking with a tourguide who took great pleasure in our being American and Nick’s interest in British history. We asked about the Winchester Bible, but the man said the cathedral’s library where it’s held was closed today. A little disappointed, we left for the batteries and returned a little later. At the front door, the staff asked if we were the Americans who had asked about the library. Why yes, I said, after a moment of confusion. They told us that a private tour was awaiting us, and to go ahead up to the secret library in the maze-like depths of the cathedral. Surprised, we ascended a flight of rickety stairs and found the library, where a jolly smiling guide asked if we were the Americans wanting to see the Winchester Bible. Why yes!, we said again. And so, Nick and I got a private viewing of the ancient Bible used by the cathedral since its beginning, as the tour guide pointed out the intricate drawings and even mistakes in the Latin text. He told us how, when the book was re-bound in 1948, someone ripped out and stole a two-page spread. Embarrassingly for us, the man laughed, they think the thief was an American. Apparently, the missing pages showed up in a museum in New York a few years later and had been bought for one million dollars from an unknown seller. If an Englishman goes there today, our guide told us, the Americans there are very protective of the stolen pages and it is difficult for even an English curator or official personnel to view the spread. Oh America, always taking what’s not ours. But either way, it makes a good story, huh?

So after seeing the cathedral and Jane Austen’s house where she died, we wandered by Winchester College for young boys and peeked through the gates of Woolvey Castle – where the Bishops of Winchester have always lived and continue to inhabit today. We also saw the table from King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, a huge round table tacked up on a wall of the famous Great Hall, where dark green and beige sections break the table into pizza-like slices with each knight’s symbol on the triangles. Behind the Great Hall, a war museum shows off a scaled model of the Battle of Waterloo, where my Napoleon-obsessed boyfriend snapped pictures as I fed ducks in a fountain outside. The sun was shining and the wide expanse of water and lawn lined with trimmed bushes was beautiful. We walked back to the main area of Winchester and took one last look at its small, café- and shop-lined streets, where an accordion player had serenaded us that morning. The small English town was probably my favorite day of London – an escape from the city and a place of history that its people care about deeply. It’s not hard to imagine why Jane Austen would travel this area to write her stories of love and create characters like Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett. If I could, I’d definitely go back to Winchester to live in her house and pen novels all day. We’ll see how that works out.

For my last day in London, Nick and I went again to the Borough Market and ate delicious feta-covered lamb burgers from a Greek food stand for breakfast. It was a day of markets: Giorgio had recommended we visit Portobello Market in the Notting Hill area of London, so we ventured there and found ourselves smack in the middle of a flowing street – full of artisans, antique dealers, fruit stands, souvenir tables, clothing tents and tables and tables of goods new and old. I tried on costume jewelry and picked up a book of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales dated from 1822. We walked by giant telescopes, lamp stores, buckets of silverware and old mugs. The mile-long market was a hodge-podge of vendors wedged into a random neighborhood. It was totally unexpected. And after a walk through its crowded streets, we met up with Emily and Allie to sit down for a cup of coffee. I got hot chocolate and remembered why Italy has the best hot chocolate in the world. After hearing about their past few days, we found the travel bookstore featured in the movie “Notting Hill” with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant – a movie I love, and was so honored to buy a map of Rome in the bookstore from the film. It was weird being inside and seeing the spots where Julia and Hugh stood in the movie!

And so ended spring break, after a dinner at Pizza Express (great pizza in London, actually!) and an early-morning wake-up to catch my Sunday flight at 8:00am again. This second early flight taught me something about flying. Mainly, don’t book flights at this time of day, it’s too early. But, I made it back to Florence for a long afternoon nap and got to hear all about Colleen’s break in Lisbon, which sounds like a cool city to visit but not great for food or clean streets.
I’m happy to be back in Florence, but had such a fantastic time this break. Dublin took the cake for exciting natives, while London sights were unforgettably full of literary history I’ll never forget. And the best part of being back? Sheena will be here in two days!!! I can’t wait for sis to come and share this abroad experience with me. It will be so nice to have a piece of home here, I wish Mom and Dad were coming too. We’re going to do so many things and eat so much gelato I can’t wait! I’ll try to blog as much as possible. Hope you made it to the end of this long post and enjoy the photos! Much love.