Forays, Faith, Food, Folklore and Fairies

Troy in the Dining Hall of the Schoolhouse Hotel

Another Irish Fry

A Gorgeous Set of Knockers

Trinity College

Lunch Was A Rushed Affair

Christ Church Cathedral

The Brazen Head Pub

Johnny, the Host of the "Food, Folk and Fairies" Evening Tour

Troy and I at The Brazen Head

A word about the hotel we are staying at. Oh my God! Is it ever gorgeous. We are staying in a renovated old schoolhouse, and we have our meals in a restored classroom. The building is made of stone and it is very cosy and quaint. I get the impression that the Harry Potter novels could have been set here. Each room bears the name of an Irish writer, but our room, #332, is actually the room of the former headmaster and headmistresses of the school. Is it ever beautiful! Photos will follow once I get home and load them onto this blog.

It was a late night last night because Troy had to load up a new security programme on his laptop and it took forever to download. Consequently, I didn't finish the blog entry before 1:30 a.m. That meant that this morning, we only got up around 9:30 a.m. We showered, got ready and went downstairs for an amazing breakfast. Troy had the smoked salmon omelette, and I had yogurt and fruit salad before the traditional Irish fry.

We decided to start off the day by going to the double-decker bus terminal to take the hop-on hop-off tour of the city. On our way, I saw a couple of distinctively-coloured Dublin doors with nice brass knockers on them and I told Troy I had to stop to take a picture of a nice set of knockers. (I know, Nick, "boo, hiss"). We hopped onto the bus at St. Stephen's Green and made our way around the city for what was almost a full circuit. The tour was very informative and brought us to places we had never seen before like Christ Church Cathedral (the Irish pronounce th's as t's), the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Dublin Zoo, and the Guinness Storehouse. We even saw a booze store called Next Door which makes home deliveries of wine.

But we are starting to have our doubts about being able to do everything we wanted to do in Ireland. In fact, it doesn't look like we will get much of a chance to get out of the city because there is so much to do here in Dublin! If only we could stay at least another week! We will need to discuss our plans for the rest of our stay here because the end of our trip on Sunday is coming fast.

We hopped off the bus for this part of our foray into the city when we got to Trinity College. I was moved when we got onto the grounds. When I looked back on my university days studying English literature and remembering my most cherish dream to visit the lands of all the poets I studied, and when I realized that I was on the campus here associated with Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver's Travels) and Samuel Beckett (author of Waiting for Godot), I got choked up. Troy asked to borrow my camera to check out the panoramic function, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the end result. Man, did I ever buy myself a nice, fancy camera!

We took the tour of Trinity College with a young student of the College who graduates next month. (I think he said his name was Kieran). He showed us the sights of the Protestant College, which was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I to replace the old Catholic monastery that her father, King Henry VIII, ordered demolished. We were then invited to enter Trinity College to see the Book of Kells on our own.

The faith portion of our day was getting to see the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels, created off the coast of Scotland around the year 800. It was handwritten on velum (dried skins) by an order of monks. We got to see the exhibit showing how the manuscript was created as well as the two displayed pages from the book. I found it very moving and it complemented well my seeing the manuscripts of the Mont St-Michel in 2004.

On our way out of the exhibit, we ventured into the Great Hall, where the library books are proudly displayed. It was a wondrous sight to behold. The College has a legislated mandate to acquire copies of all books printed in Ireland and it is one of the most important repositories in Europe. Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed, but the postcard I bought gives a great glimpse into this marvellous building.

We ended our tour in the gift shop where I bought my first gifts for family and friends. Mam, I got you your gift here.

We left the grounds of Trinity College around 4:00 p.m. and neither of us had had lunch yet. I was very famished and starting to get moody so we just stopped at a grocery store to pick something up for a light snack. We knew that tonight we had made plans to see the "Food, Folklore and Fairies" tour, so we didn't want to spoil our appetites. I got a Diet Coke, a bag of Chilli Doritos and a Chicken Salad sandwich. I was surprised to discover that there are no regular potato chips in Ireland, only flavoured kinds. The sandwich also surprised me, because it wasn't a "chicken salad" sandwich, it was a chicken "salad sandwich". In other words, chicken and salad in a sandwich (lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers). It was OK, but nothing fancy.

In anticipation of our tour, which only started at 6:40 p.m., we walked around the city a bit to pass the time. We made our way to Christ Church Cathedral for a closer look and took tons of photos. The old Dublin city wall is built along one side of the church. On our walk we also found the Church of the Immaculate Conception, and on the sign, underneath the name, was the caption: "(Adam and Eve)". Not quite sure how Adam and Eve are considered part of the Immaculate Conception, but anyway... (A few days later, I would discover that this is the church mentioned in the opening line of Joyce's enigmatic work, Finnegans Wake: "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.")

We then tried our luck at finding the tomb of Saint Valentine at Whitefriars Church. When we got there, Troy suggested we weren't going in: I hadn't noticed, but there was a funeral procession heading into the church. Oh well, this will be added to the impossibly long list of things we still want to do (and I'm chewing my fingernails as I type this).

We shopped for souvenirs along the way, and Troy got some cough syrup because he has a nagging, persistent cough. (As I am reading this out to him as I type, he suggested just now that I add annoying).

We got to the Brazen Head pub, alledgedly the oldest in Ireland -- even though they all seem to say that -- at 6:40 p.m., as recommended. We made our way to the third floor where we were seated at a table with a group of lively young ladies from Florida who were supposedly using their time to further their education in Europe. They told us they planned to go to Capri and Amsterdam, so we wonder about their intended scholarly pursuits, which seem to be centered around drink and fashion. They told us that this sidetrip to Dublin was intended for them to each present her own personal project to the larger group. One young lady took a dance class last night and will be reporting on Irish dance. Another will do a report on Irish castles after seeing Dublin Castle this afternoon. I am not sure what kind of degree they are getting, but all signs seem to point towards an American degree. The poor woman from Montréal who was seated at the end of the table, among this gaggle of girls, looked desperately out of place, as if she longed to be involved in a different type of conversation. I thought it was quite coincidental that they were here in Dublin, considering that Pamela Anderson had given a lecture at Trinity College a few years back. Oddly enough, no one seems to remember what her talk had been about.

Fortunately, we were seated across from Brendan and Charlotte from Sydney, Australia, an absolutely charming, intelligent and witty middle-aged couple that we really got along with. He is a writer and she is a practitioner of natural medicine. Ironically enough, Charlotte is an avid fan of James Joyce and has a degree in English literature, as well as a life-long love of ABBA. We got on swimmingly, and even talked about our astrological signs. We mentioned possibly all going to the reading of James Joyce on Thursday night, so we might see each other again there, where Troy just informs me that he intends to escape next door for a decent cup of coffee during the reading.

The evening of food, folklore and fairies was wonderful. We were served our choice of dinner menus. Troy and I both had the fish cake and beef and Guinness stew, after we had had Jameson whiskey. I had a pint of Guinness with my meal. The storyteller who hosted this evening feast started the evening by telling us about the importance of the potato in Ireland, and continued to regale us with stories about the history of the people of this island. After the appetizer, he returned to tell us about the spiritual world, including leprechauns, fairies, banshees and the like. It was really mesmerizing to listen to him speak, and I was absolutely enchanted with the whole thing. Just before dessert, he came on again and spoke to us about the Irish art of storytelling of which he is obviously a master. He told us two rivetting tales about the evil eye and about the rescue of a young lady from the clutches of the fairies. I would definitely recommend this evening to everyone coming to Ireland.

We then walked home and had a lively debate about politics in Canada, even though I hate debates. We got home after close to an hour's walk and I am ready to hit the hay.

We are concerned about the limited time we have here and all the things we still want to do. We will need to prioritize as best we can.

Good night all,

M.

PS- I never get tired of people calling us lads.