Keogh's, Flowers, and Ancient Manuscripts

Our second day began with a brisk forty-five minute walk into Dublin with Casey, one of Colleen's roommates who supplied us with quite a bit of good advice from where to grocery shop and what to see next to, "Be sure to avoid the gypsies." We took all of her advice, including what to see next and made our way up Dame Street to the Chester Beatty Library, situated on an edge of the courtyard at Dublin Castle. Here we observed parts of Beatty's extensive and rare book collections, including Greek copies of Paul's epistles dating back to about 150-200 A.D. from Egypt, seen to the left. By the way, we didn't take this photograph. We probably would have been shot if we had tried!  

This intriguing venture took up most of the morning, after which we made our way to Keogh's Cafe to do some planning. Keogh's is situated on the corner of Trinity Street and took a bit of finding as it is somewhat tucked away, but for that exact reason, is also quite charming. We bought mochas for a little over two euros and split a vanilla pear scone, which was quite delightful. Keogh's is apparently famous for their scones and after testing one, I can well imagine why that is so! 

The cafe was packed so we took our scone and coffee and sat in Stephen's Green looking over our map and guide book, deciding what we wanted to do with the rest of the day. We chose to meet Colleen at three-thirty to see the Book of Kells at Trinity Library but had several hours to kill in between so spent some time walking and sightseeing on the streets surrounding City Centre and then decided to step into St. Ann's Church on Dawson Street. Its gigantic red door attracted me, so we went in and saw its lovely stained glass windows and traditional domed ceilings and wooden pews, as well as plaques commemorating the remains of former elite church members. We were browsing through stacks of leaflets providing information about the history of the church when we were approached from the side by who we think was the Reverend David Gillespie (at least, according to one of the leaflets, that was his name). At any rate, he said to me, "That one's not here anymore. Don't you see, I was cutting out the hearts." I was slightly confused but soon realized he was talking about the particular piece of paper that I held which was apparently no longer in print. He was in the midst of weeding them out of the stacks and was compiling some sort of a scrapbook from them, from what we could gather. The page included a heart with an old map of the church's location and the phrase, "The church in the heart of the city in the heart of the day." He then asked, "Would you like one?" I said, "Sure," not knowing exactly what he was asking, but deciding to pretend that I did. "You'll have to wait a minute," he said, "I've got to go to my laboratory!" He then turned and walked swiftly through a door in the back of the church, his blue robes flying behind him. He seemed more like a funny professor than a reverend; perhaps it was his lack of stereotypical traits that made him so amusing. He returned about five minutes later and held out a red paper heart with cutouts from the pamphlet taped and glued to it, as well as a safety pin affixed to the back of the heart. "What do you think?" he said. Melissa and I decided that I could wear the heart around Dublin and start a new fashion trend, but I think instead it will find its way into the pages of a future scrapbook. 

After we saw the Book of Kells, we decided to take a journey up to North Dublin to see the Botanical Gardens. It was exactly what we needed in order to relax and get away from the crowds of people in the city. We meandered through the sunflower maze and then ended up taking many random and amusing pictures of ourselves in the Magnolia trees and beside the wildflower rows and Holly hedges. After we had been there for a while we heard a bell ringing in the distance to which Melissa queried, "I wonder if that means anything?" "I don't know," I responded, figuring that if it did mean something that we would be notified in short order. Sure enough, moments later, an irate Irish woman in a cart came speeding around a corner chasing people out of the rows. "Hey! That's enough! We're closing!" she yelled, over the sound of the motor. We laughed a bit to ourselves then turned to walk out, but Melissa, deciding for some reason to ignore the severe command, turned down a paved aisle leading into some trees. "Melissa, get back here! She's coming!" I yelled after her through fits of laughter. A moment later she veered around the corner behind me and yelled, "Hey! Get out of there, we're closed!" Melissa soon re-joined me declaring her desire to rebel, but desiring more to obey and to ease the obviously bad day that the poor woman was having, we made our way to the exit. I was sad to leave as we hadn't found the rose garden yet, but perhaps I shall see it if I am able to make another visit in the future. 

Tomorrow, we are off to Belfast where we will spend a few days before heading across to Scotland for a brief visit.

Noteworthy Observations:

1)Lots of brilliantly colored doors!

2)Hard to find street signs