Good to know that insomnia travels well...

Yeah, it's like 2.30 in the morning here and I'm still up on the computer. Nice that habits don't change. The other roomies have been in bed for a couple hours now, but I'm just not sleepy. Catching up on the football game with Mike...way to go Hoosiers and coach Hep! But. I told you I'd update on what I did today. So here goes.

Today we all met in front of the Leeson Street Lounge for a hop-on, hop-off tour of Dublin, which was very very cool. (quick note: there are not enough adjectives in the english language for me to describe everything I'm doing and seeing here, so if I overuse them, I apologize.) We walked down to St. Stephen's green and did our first hop-off a couple stops later, at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Let's take a walk around. But first, some minor history. St. Patrick's, despite the name and what I thought, is not Catholic. The church was originally founded Catholic, but became Methodist in 1530 or thereabouts. That's really the important thing, but this is cool too. Attached to the cathedral is the largest public libaray in Ireland, founded by Narcissus Marsh in the 1700s. You can't check any books out, as they're all priceless manuscripts, and they've got a flaw-proof security system in place to prevent patrons from stealing the books. They lock them in cages while they read. Fantastic. On with the pictures.



Anyone seeing a pattern here? I really want an Irish wolfhound. This particular stone dog is sleeping peacefully inside the cathedral, with four of his brothers, serving as guards for a monument dedicated to the soliders who died in WW2. Notice that detailing on his fur. Amazing for people who didn't have indoor plumbing, eh?

Yes, I know this looks like a big giant list of names, because, well, it is. But underneath it, stretching all the way across the wall way too far for my camera to encompass, a pretty gold script read, "Roll of the Knights of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick." Awesome, huh?

This, clearly, is blurry and badly taken picture of the altar of St. Patrick's but I had to get it on here anyway. It's still very pretty, isn't it?

This is the plaque that bears the epitaph of Jonathan Swift. The smug, conceited man wrote his own epitaph by the way, as did many of my writing heroes, but that's neither here nor there. Let me impress you with my translation skills, as you can see the writing is Latin. In English, it reads, "Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, D.D, dean of this cathedral, where burning indignation can no longer lacerate his heart. Go, traveler, and imitate if you can a man who was an undaunted champion of liberty." How perfectly wonderful. Jonathan Swift, as you may or may not know, was a famous Dublin author; he wrote Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, and The Drapier Letters. A good guy, really.

These two go together. So I grouped them that way. The inscription reads "This Stone was raised 18th June 1901 six feet below the surface of the traditional site of St. Patrick's Well. Is 91 feet due north from the north west angle of the tower." That was the well where St. Patrick is said to have baptised his freshly converted Christians.

I feel like this blog feels like a museum visit, which, if you know me, should not be surprising. But I am having real fun too, I promise, not just geek fun. After we hopped back on at St. Patrick's, we hopped off again on O'Connell street where one of my roommates bought this fantastic hat. This is Taylor, she lives with me and she's from Florida/California. So she gets cold really easily. We decided the best way to combat this would be with a furry ear flap hat, which she wore for the remainder of the bus tour.

At the end of our bus tour, we decided to walk home through St. Stephen's Green, which is a huge park, comparable, we decided, to Central Park. Only it doesn't smell like New York. But here are some duckies in the pond in the middle of the green.

And here are some flowers. Really pretty flowers. And I did get called a tourist while taking this picture, so I hope you appreciate them. They smelled quite lovely, though not as nice as Powerscourt.

And here's my favorite picture of the day. Four little old Irish guys on a bench in the park. Once we exchange email addresses, my new friend Ryan has some much better pictures of this, as well as some cool pub outing pictures. Those'll be here as soon as possible. Also to come as soon as I have time, a post on the cool Irish people I have met, and one about the weird differences between Ireland and the states. But that's all for now. Have a good night/morning!