Isaac's was a nice hostel, but my room was huge. Now you may be thinking... why is that a but. Well, a large room means there were 13 other beds in the room. However, it turned out to be an all girls' room which helps some.
After dropping my bags and getting a shower I set off to orient myself in the large city of Dublin. For those of you who have traveled to an old city in Europe you will understand how difficult it is to orientate oneself. Most blocks are more oval than square, because the streets wind through the city and frequently change names. The locals say this is great because once you know the city it is very easy to locate something by its street name and is there is hardly a need for street numbers. As a tourist and a struggling navigator this was mind boggling and a mild form of torture. After several hours of exploring and round-about routes I found myself back at my hostel. BUT I did have a better sense of my location and had found the sculpture where I was suppose to meet Crystal- the spire. The spire is a metal cone that points 120 meters into the sky. However, due to the growing issues of drug use in Dublin it is often referred to as a needle by locals.
There are many different statues and sculptures along O'Connell Street to commemorate different people and moments and time. Intersecting O'Connell Street at the spire is Earl Street (well it is Earl Street at one point) which is great for people watching, window shopping or actual shopping. Earl Street turned out to be the most direct route to my Hostel which I did not discover until after I went the most indirect route.
Dinner with Crystal was delicious and very Irish, so I was only able to finish part of my meal. Afterwards, we headed to a bar called the wool shed, owned by a couple of Aussie guys. Crystal wanted to check it out and I had no better suggestions so we went. It was fun and hilarious. Thursday night is karaoke night- always a good laugh.
Friday morning I woke up with ambitions to visit Trinity College and the Guinness Storehouse. Very stereotypical things to do, but I could not image coming to Dublin and not visiting the two icons of the city. I walk across town to Trinity and explored the campus for a bit before going to the Book of Kells Museum. The word Kells literally means old so it is the book of old. Indeed it is the book is estimated to be from 800 AD and written by monks. The process of making the book was quite tedious so I can not imagine anyone other than a monk creating this piece of work. Many of the pages are decorated in the most intricate detail that it's creator must have had a surplus of patience. The binding of the book, creation of the cover and page material was a long process in of itself. The museum had a video of a man going through the process to create the pages from calf vellum (mammal skin used for writing). The entire book is written in Latin and includes the four gospels. However, the monks incorporated many Celtic traditions into the book, such as drawings of elaborate Celtic knots. The idea of blending of traditions was also used by St. Patrick and his evangelism endeavors. St. Patrick combined the Celtic sun-cross with the Christian cross to incorporate the idea that the Christian cross, like the sun-cross is a source of life. These monks and early priests were very clever men.
After visiting the old writing of Christianity I felt that I needed to go to the opposite end of the spectrum and of the city to learn about the brewing process.
The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is the original factory from 1759. Although technologies have changed the basic ideas and original buildings have not changed for the makers of Guinness. The four ingredients are
- Barley
- Water
- Hops
- Yeast
They are added in that order. The barley is roasted at high temperatures and then allow to sit. After sitting and spouting it is crushed in a mill and then water from the mountains surrounding Dublin (where the water comes from is apparently key) is added, then after some more sitting a soaking the hops are added until they dissolve. Then after additional sitting or "flavor development period" the yeast is added to ferment the mixture. The yeast is not all completely used as some is saved to generate more yeast. So the yeast today is the great great great x 100 grandchild of the orginial yeast. The museum allows vistors to sample the different Guinness brews and I confirmed that I still do not like Guinness.
On the other floors of the museum there information on Advertising History and of course Guinness gear (anything you can image with Guinness logo on it).
That night at my hostel there was BBQ, so Crystal and I went and then out for traditional Irish music.
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