Dublin

Dublin is a cool city. No one will contest me on this, I’m confident. If you disagree, you should probably visit it and then you’ll change your mind.

Trinity College is lovely and old-timey. Very Hogwarts. Also, it hosts the Book of Kells, which is this super-intricate and beautiful medieval copy of the Bible that’s so incredible and rare that you can’t even take pictures of it.* The monks had to import lapis lazuli from way far away to this little tiny island in Ireland and grind it into a paste to make blue. Thousands of miles, and that’s just one color.

We went to a vintage store, which was cool, but rather pricey. I admired but did not buy.

The thing about the Guinness tour is that they very cleverly do not call it a factory tour, because that would imply you get to see beer actually being made and bottled and shipped. Instead, you wander around big rooms with artsy typography that smell like roasting grains and learn about Guinness, the Miracle Tonic of Ireland.

At the end, you get a “free” pint of Guinness and a great view of the city, so all told it was pretty decent. I was content.

Another great thing (or bad thing, maybe) about Ireland is the food. I had an incredibly delicious shepherd’s pie at a funky restaurant called Gruel (but not before sending the first one back when it was topped with pesto. Dear Ireland: when I say allergic to nuts, I mean all nuts, thanks). The downside is that after all that food, drinking enough beer to get drunk is very difficult and verges on painful. You need some strategy. As Stewie, the guitar-playing Irishman who bought me a pint at the International Bar, pointed out, as long as you eat enough you can drink from pretty much the crack of dawn onward.**

Dublin Castle was no Versailles, but it was lovely in its own understated, let-them-eat-soda-bread kind of way. And it had a nice chapel.

And a travel tip for the broke: parks are beautiful, and usually free. See St. Stephen’s Green. Everyone else might have been cold, but I was basking in the autumnal beauty of it all.

Finally, I saw a rainbow, but no leprechauns. What a ripoff.

*Yeah, yeah, you can only see one part at a time, so it should be called, as Eli says, “The Page of Kells.” Har har har.
**I think this is what he said. His accent was nigh on incomprehensible.