Our trip to Ireland
was magical and beautiful and pretty much everything I wanted it to be.
We got
to go and see The Book of Kells (a vellum book made most likely in the 9th
century), which was very cool. So old and intricate and interesting, but really
nothing that I can explain in words unless you could be there to see it
yourself.
The Book of Kells exhibit opened up into the The Long Hall of Trinity
College’s dramatically beautiful library. We got to walk down a stunning hallway completely surrounded by books.
Busts of famous authors line the hall,
the architecture and attention to detail are fantastic.
They wouldn’t allow you to take pictures of any of it, so
that really stunk. But, that’s what the power of Google is for.
I don’t think these pictures do it justice. It’s one of
those things that you have to see for yourself. When you first get in the
exhibit you walk along a little tour of how the book was made, the tools they
used, the story it tells, etc. But, it’s not until you are looking at this
relatively small little book, with all of its scrolling lettering and precise
pictures and intertwining lines, that you see the craft that was put into it.
The library was beautiful, I could have stayed in there for
hours admiring its beauty, but unfortunately not everyone we were traveling
with was as obsessed with books as moi. So, we hit the gift shop where you could
buy little scrolls and pen and ink sets, coffee mugs, shirts, etc. Ireland
is full of trinkets.
It was just cool to be in such a historic city where a lot
of famous authors are from.
Here are just a few random pictures from the trip:
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| Awesome Old Cemetery |
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| Jameson Whiskey Factory |
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| View from the Blarney Castle |
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| A tap at your table?? |
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| Cliffs of Moher - beautiful |
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| Cool Cliffs - kind of foggy, but still pretty |
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| View from the top of the Guinness Factory |
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| A Frenchmen blowing up a condom on his head |
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| Hurray. |
On to reading!
I totally agree with everything you have said about Trinity College library and The Book of Kells! Visiting them was one of the most impressing experiences in my life...but not being allowed to touch and read all the wonderful old books there caused me almost physical pain :)
ReplyDeleteOh, and compared to my impressions of the Cliffs of Moher the weather was splendid on your visit: I only saw a wall of thick white fog!
When we very first got to the Cliffs you could see out into the water and it was gorgeous, then it began to drizzle a little and that fog started to roll in, by the time we left it was pouring and the fog was just like you said, a wall. I felt bad for the people who were just showing up. It was definitely awesome to see though!
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