5/31/2014 - Dublin, Ireland

Went to Trinity College and took a tour - it's €9 for just entrance to the Book of Kells and €10 for Book of Kells and tour, so why not! It was good - learned about gun fight between provost and students at Red Brick, least desirable of houses, bathrooms outside! Museum building, the stones and flowers from all of Ireland. The line for Book of Kells was massive so I went and got wee Irish breakfast from Davy Byrnes - did it, Dad! Then I swung through the National Archaeology Museum and the National Library - saw bog men at Archaeology, heard Yeats recording at library! I'm at the library now, listening to Yeats poems and taking a little rest. (Yeats was in an occult order called the Golden Dawn!)

It's a cool area - dark and quiet but also filled with echoes of recordings and video exhibits. Very peaceful. I love Irish/Dublin accents. 

It maybe hasn't hit me yet that I'm alone. I'm not scared or upset of lonely really - maybe I'm not going to feel that way. But as I started to write this I wanted to cry - why? I can't tell. Maybe just with the much-ness of it all. I'm getting sleepy again now - not sure if it's just because I've sat down in a dark area with a sonorous Irish voice reading a lulling rhythm of a poem, or if it's the jet-lag. 

The Song of the Wandering Aengus by Yeats is analogous to the Neil Gaiman poem from Fragile things - "If I were young as once I was..."

"Those that I fight, I do not hate
Those that I guard, I do not love. 
My country is Kiltartan Cross.
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor."

I didn't expect bog men to look like they did. The closest to what I imagine was the bog man who had been decapitated - his hand looked almost perfect, with fingernails and everything. I guess it's because a lot of them have ragged edges from peat cutting machines accidentally mangling them, that's why they look different than I thought. 

Okay, I've sat through a whole rotation of Yeats - beautiful. Maybe I'll head back to Trinity College now and try for BOOK OF KELLS. Then maybe loop back to the hostel - investigate, do I want to see Swing? Concession tix are €12. Same as the pub crawl I don't really want to go on but feel I should. I feel it's not impossible I might meet up with Jenna and Kelsey (or is it Casey?) again, since they've just started their trip too and listed a lot of the same places. I should go, I should go. 

But what a waste when I don't drink! But I'll do this one and have a Guinness and if I don't like it, it can be my last pub crawl of the trip. I should do it now while I'm adventurous. 

Okay, I should do it. Psyching myself up. 

BUDGET - 5/29 - 5/31
depart airport: €252
bus to hostel: €6
water: €1.50
tour: €3.50
food: €10
Book of Kells/tour: €10
lunch: €5.95
hostel, 3 nights: €36.96
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