Dublin, Ireland
On one of our favorite shows, The Office, there is an episode where Jim and Pam get married and they talk about taking mental snapshots throughout the day to remember the best moments. Yesterday was a day full of mental snapshots for me.
We spent the morning in the Irish National Gallery. The museum was very compact with several great pieces (a Rembrandt, a Picasso and a Monet to name a few). This would be the perfect art gallery for beginners and we really enjoyed the brief visit.
Nearby was the Archaeological Museum which was connected to the National Library. Inside were several exhibits featuring artifacts from ancient Irish history – including mummified murder victims uncovered in peat fields throughout various excavations from the 1800s through 2003 and the best (and only) Viking exhibit we’ve explored. There was a nearly complete Viking skeleton on display and I couldn’t get over how BIG this guy must have been. The skeleton was definitely taller than Josh.
In the Viking exhibit there was a 30 minute long video about the exhibit and Viking/Irish history. It was dark and quiet in the small theater room and Josh and I were on the top of the four uneven stairs where the chairs were sitting. I fell asleep during the movie and when I woke, Josh informed me I had been asleep for about 15 minutes. We decided we should probably leave the theater.
So, I stood up, still a little sleepy, took a step and fell all the way down the three other steps. I took out a chair and a man shushed me while I was still laying on the ground. Thankfully, nothing was hurt but my pride and Josh gathered the shoe I lost while I gathered myself and we met outside the theater to laugh.
After that, we finished the rest of museum pretty quickly and Josh walked me to my afternoon tea reservation. All the ladies on the trip agreed to meet for Afternoon Tea at 3 pm at the Shelbourne Hotel. The hotel is where the Irish constitution was written and was rather fancy. The fancy factor was greatly increased by the wedding going on which featured guests in coats with tails and ladies in fancy hats that matched their dresses.
The tea party, I think, was one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. Definitely a highlight of the trip. There was soft grand piano music playing in the background of the frilly, feminine and bright tea room. A beautiful crystal chandelier hung in the center of the room and there were pink and blue fresh flowers everywhere.
Being there on June 1st meant we had access to the first day of the summer menu – which offered iced teas along with the traditional hot tea menu. I had a tea called Sweet Nana. It was a Moroccan tea with mint and spicy notes. I also had a mixed berry iced tea with just the right amount of tart and a sweet foam on top.
The snacks came in mini versions of desserts and sandwiches and scones and treats. I have wanted to do a proper Afternoon Tea since my very first trip to Europe and, though, I’m sure Josh would have obliged many times – his lack of enthusiasm for the event was a real buzz kill so I never did it.
Being able to do this tea with three other ladies who were just as happy to be there was so much fun and I’m thrilled that I held out and had this first afternoon tea experience with them. It was was so fun and absolutely perfect!
While I was at tea, Josh explored some of the medieval portions of the city. He visited the Marsh Library and Dublin Castle, but, unfortunately, missed the last tour of the day by a few minutes and didn’t get to see any of the exclusive areas. He also visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was founded by the Irish in 1191.
After tea, Josh and I met back up at Christ Church Cathedral, which was founded by the Vikings in 1030. These two church are about 5 minutes apart and are the two oldest and largest Anglican churches Dublin. Both were previously Catholic Churches before the reformation and they have somewhat of a rivalry between them.
We got to visit the catacombs at Christ Church, which are the biggest in Ireland and the U.K., and found a mummified cat and rat on display (they had been discovered during an excavation). The cat still has whiskers!
Temple Bar is the party area of Dublin (think Bourbon St., New Orleans, but Irish). We met the whole group at a pub there called Oliver St. John Gogarty’s for an Irish Music Pub Crawl around 7:30.
The crawl was led by two musicians who led us to a few pubs where the tour group got private acoustic concerts and learned about the musical history of Ireland – including the three native Irish instruments, the harp, the Irish version of bagpipes and a goat skin drum.
They played some traditional Irish gigs and reels. They even talked about the tradition of singing in Ireland. They said it’s not weird to sing in pubs, it’s not about how good or bad you are – it’s about sharing something of yourself and, frankly, it is weird in the pub scenes here NOT to sing.
We were actually able to convince one of our group members to share a song with the whole tour group. It was so lovely. The musicians were so genuine and the music was really great. They played ballads and sing-a-longs in English and traditional Irish (a Celtic language). The night ended with a beautiful rendition of “Couldn’t Have Come at a Better Time” by Luka Bloom, released in 2012. The whole pub sang along and it was snapshot memory moment for sure.
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