A pope, a pint and a play

We started off this morning with a bus tour with Eamon who showed us the highlights of Dublin including a lot of what we saw yesterday and then on to St. Patrick's cathedral, Phoenix Park and then ending with Trinity College, its famous library and the Book of Kells. 

St. Patrick's cathedral

Trinity College's library Long Room

Fun facts:

St. Patrick's cathedral is where Jonathan Swift is buried. 

Phoenix Park is twice the size of Central Park in NYC and four times the size of Hyde Park in London. It includes a protected herd of 400 deer which we got to see as we drove through. 

Phoenix Park also boasts of a tall Papal Cross where Pope John-Paul had a mass in 1979 to 1.3 million Irish (at that time, one-third of the population) and told them to be fruitful and multiply. Nine month later, there was a population boom and these children are nicknamed "the Pope's children". 

 

After seeing the Book of Kells (illuminated manuscript that we couldn't take pictures of because of the delicacy of the pages), another teacher and I took off to buy tickets for Once, movie-made-musical playing in Dublin. So after buying our tickets, we wandered around Temple Bar, bought crepes and mint lemonade for lunch. And she had her heart set on getting a tattoo so on the second try, we found a tattoo parlor and 40 minutes later, she was the proud owner of an cool  little shamrock on her shoulder. We then made our way back to the hotel to meet the rest of the group. 

Back on the bus and we were on our way to the number one tourist attraction in all of Ireland: the Guinness Storehouse.  We toured the factory where we learned about the ingredients, the process and even how to pour the perfect pint. So now, I am a proud graduate of the Guinness Academy - I have the certificate to prove it. :)

So Alison (tattoo teacher) and I again split off from the rest of the group to grab something for dinner before the play. The play didn't start till 8 but starting at 7:30, they allowed the audience up on stage for drinks and then about 7:45, the cast comes out and starts playing music to warm up the crowd. The play was great. I had only seen the movie and have the soundtrack but I wasn't sure how they had tweaked it into a stage production. It was very good and such a wonderful experience while we're here. After the play, we walked through Dublin's Saturday nightlife and back to the hotel. (So basically, we walked across the whole city today...twice. Current step count: 18,250) 

So now, we leave for Belfast in the morning.