Solitary Tour

Today I took advantage of not starting work by doing some touristy things.

I went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ's Church (I didn't pay to go inside), and Dublin Castle. I enjoyed it very much even though it rained a little bit sometimes. So far the rain has not been a hindrance and I don't always have to put up my umbrella.

I walked everywhere today (once I got to the city center). If you are ready to walk nothing is really that far away and I still enjoy getting to see things by walking. I should probably start taking pictures of colorful doors so that I can have my own sampling of painted doors. It's easy to get door pictures when walking. Residences are all over the place, it's not like some cities in the states where houses are unheard of amongst business buildings. It's all kind of mixed in together.

St. Patrick's was very nice, but I was surprised at how touristy it was--- almost irreverent, but everyone was respectful. You are allowed to take pictures and there are monuments all over the place. There was only one small chapel set aside only for prayer and meditation. If I had been there during a choir practice I would not have been allowed to take pictures, though.

I learned a lot of little things in the tour of Dublin castle. It's amazing how much older everything is here. The castle's beginnings could kind of be compared to Jamestown, started just as a fort kind of thing, but of course it's MUCH older, starting in the 1100s or something like that...

There are buildings with a unicorn and lion on top and apparently the unicorn is Scotland's symbol and the lion is England's. Likewise the English flower is the rose, Scotland the thistle, and Ireland the clover--- I feel like I knew this, but had I been asked I don't know if I could have told someone that. There was a room full of portraits of important people and one of them had a wooden leg and apparently he would set the leg up on the table at dinner parties and make everyone drink to it (clearly I remember all of the really important facts...) Cornwallis' portrait is in that same room, but at the back and lower than the rest-- apparently they did not forgive him for losing the American Revolution. Also servants and waiters were always supposed to whistle in the hall when carrying food and if they weren't whistling it had to mean that they were eating the food.

I also had some really good sweet potato soup at a place called The Queen of Tarts-- I need to go back for dessert sometime. I've never had sweet potato soup before, but it was very good. Plus, there was brown sugar on the table so I was able to add a little :)

So far it has been a lovely day.
EM