July 12- The City Of Dublin

This morning Austin and I headed out into the city together. Neither of us had plans for today so we figured we do some exploring. We went to Ireland’s National Museum of Archeology, and I was able to tell Austin a lot of the information Kevin shared with me the day before about Irish metalwork and the peat bogs (I hope I didn’t seem like a know-it-all).

The museum was very neat. We were able to see the famous “bog people” who were preserved in Ireland’s peat bogs from hundreds of years ago. They’re basically like mummies but even more well-preserved. We were also able to go into the museum’s treasury which was just absolutely amazing. The museum keeps all of their best and most beautiful artifacts in this room. Yesterday Kevin told me about certain objects to look for, and I was able to notice so much more of the detail in the metalwork than I ever would have been able to without his help.

Around 11:00, Austin had to leave to go catch a bus to go on a tour with some friends, so I was on my own after that. I looked through the Museum of Archaeology some more, and then headed to the Museum of Natural History. I wasn’t too impressed by that one. It was just kind of one big room full of taxidermied animals. Being from Lincoln, I didn’t really care to see a lot of dead mounted animals, but I can see how it would be a fun place to visit if you lived in the city.

I went to the National Gallery of Art and got to see some pretty great paintings. Unfortunately, the building is undergoing some renovations right now so I was only able to see a couple of their famous art pieces. I saw paintings from Monet, Picasso, Titan and Rembrandt. The whole visit didn’t last long, so afterwards I just wandered the streets of downtown Dublin. I stopped at a small café and had a vegetarian breakfast sandwich. It was sort of disgusting, but I paid a lot of money for it so I ate it anyways. Because my meal was disappointing, I treated myself with a Nutella latte, and that definitely made up for it. Piece of advice, the next time you have Nutella in the house, plop a big spoonful of it into a cup of hot coffee. You won’t regret it.

I didn’t really know what to do after that. I went to Trinity College and looked around there for a while. Eventually, I made my way back to the bus stop and went back to the ship for dinner. I decided to just stay on the ship for the evening, and I got two papers done! I feel pretty proud of myself for that. It’s getting late, so I’ll probably head to bed soon. Tomorrow is our last day in Ireland. After we take off from Dublin, we’ll have three days before Norway. During that time, I’ll have two tests and two more papers to write, so wish me luck!