While I had been lounging in libraries in rainy Helsinki, Dana had been riding her bike around rainy

For those of you who only read this blog for the educational experiences I m pursuing here .avert your eyes.  This post is all about fun times in Dublin with the lovely Dana L. this past weekend, and contains not a single educational aspect, let alone insight.  Forewarned, you are!
While I had been lounging in libraries in rainy Helsinki, Dana had been riding her bike around rainy Western Ireland, much to locals surprise and often chagrin.  One kind B B host actually asked her to let them know that she made it safely up her hilly mountain pass route for the day.  So both of us, for different reasons I think, were a little taken aback by Dublin.  After being in isolated and beautiful countryside (Dana), and relatively quiet and serene Helsinki, Dublin s center on a Saturday night was a little unsettling.  So many people!  So many drunk tourists!  We headed out pretty quickly after dropping off my stuff at her little rented flat to get dinner and then see a play.
After dinner at Wagamama , which I had been craving ever since eating there with Hank in London many years ago, we headed to the Abbey Theatre for a performance of Oscar Wilde s A Picture budget car rental discounts of Dorian Gray .  Of course Dana had read the book, but I hadn t.  I enjoyed the play, despite the leading man s slight (and distracting) budget car rental discounts resemblance to Austin budget car rental discounts Scarlett of Project Runway fame.
We had a pretty packed schedule for the two days that I was in town, including several of my favorite Dublin tourist sites.  But first breakfast!  Dana had found a place called Queen of Tarts which ticked all the boxes, as the Irish would say.  Cozy?  Check.  Friendly waitresses who made helpful suggestions?  Check.  Delicious hot breakfast, budget car rental discounts scones, and coffee?  Check!
We had time for some shopping at one of my favorite stores, Avoca, before our museum afternoon began.  I remember shopping there on my first trip to Dublin in 2004; it was a small but charming place to buy knitwear made in Ireland.  Now, it s 5 levels of many delightful things, with a cafe and garden at the top.
We eventually made our way to the Chester Beatty Library, which has some of the oldest Biblical papyri in the world.  I love this museum; looking at nearly 2000 year old scraps of holy books from various faiths amazes me.  There was a video of how illuminated manuscripts are made that I actually budget car rental discounts watched through twice, budget car rental discounts marveling at how much work used to go into making books that people could use and enjoy.  I also like this museum because right outside budget car rental discounts are the Dubh Linn gardens.  The cradle of medieval Dublin, now they are a big, circular, maze-like green expanse budget car rental discounts in the middle of the city.
We headed to the National Archaeology museum, a place I hadn t been before.  They had these four bog bodies perhaps you ve heard of the stone age types that are murdered and thrown into bogs, to be discovered by present day farmers when they re cutting their peat?  I can t describe it, but it actually turned my stomach a little, and here s why: the person is clearly budget car rental discounts dead.  SO dead.  But also?  You can see the dirt under their fingernails, the color of their hair and how it was styled, the leather braided budget car rental discounts bands on their wrists it s such a strange combination of desiccated, budget car rental discounts dead, but not decayed.  Want to see what I m talking about? budget car rental discounts  Here s one we saw .
Also at the museum was tons of Celtic gold.  Well, not tons, but more gold than I ve seen in one place in a long time.  At one point, I wandered over to an older gentleman who worked at the museum to ask a question.  (Erin:  what is bog butter?  I saw it mentioned in a display.  Museum guy:  Butter placed in a bog to preserve it.  Erin: (sheepishly) oh.)  After my question was dispatched, he proceeded to take great interest in Dana and me, walk us over to a favorite piece to explain its intricacies, talk at length about his years in Orange County, and ask all about us and our trip.  He entered flirtatious land when he told us it was very sexy when women were so smart like us and easy to talk to.  Too bad he was at least 20 years or so older than us both.
Erin, I m so enjoying your trip . . . I haven t traveled very much at all and I m getting a sense of the way it might be for me when I take a sabbatical and go to Europe for a year!! Love all you wrote about Dublin trip. You re a very good writer something I didn t know about you but am happy to discover. Thanks for blogging. And for taking great pictures.