Dublin

My arrival in Dublin started off with a bacon cheeseburger and a Guinness, two things I haven't had in Italy.  Most of my visit to Dublin revolved around good food, good beer and good music.  It's been hard for me to describe this trip in a blog but here are some pictures anyways.

View of the city from the top of the Guinness storehouse.  The gray clouds seen to define Dublin and I don't think the city would have felt the same without them.  

Inside the storehouse museum.

And the beer tasting room, don't worry there is a whole pint waiting at the bar at the top for everyone who enters.

A view of O'Connell Street looking at the Millennium Spear.  Dubliners think its the biggest wast of 5 million euros because it is in honor of absolutely nothing and wasn't completed until 2003.  It pairs nicely with London's Millennium bridge that wobbles as one walks across it.  

I went to the Abbey theater to see an Irish play.  (No, it was not the TV show)

The Ha'Penny bridge, named because it cost a half penny to crosse when originally built.  

A night of Irish music.  One of several.

The inside of Kilmainham Gaol.  It was built by the English and has held every Irish political prisoner that tried to rebel against English rule.  

St. Patricks, both times I was there it was on a Sunday during service so I couldn't go inside.  

Trinity college, with the largest one room library, which houses the Book of Kell's.  The years known as the Dark Ages refers to the time after the collapse of the Roman Empire, which covered most of the European and part of the Asian and African continents.  It covered the island of England and Scotland but did not reach Ireland.  So when the rest of the world fell they did not really know it and kept living life as they had always done.  Monks continued to copy old manuscripts and illustrate them as they made new books.  The Book of Kell's is a copy of the 4 Gospels.  It is one of the oldest surviving, dating to 800 C.E. and is the most ornate of all the books.