dublin, eire

two weeks ago, i spent a weekend in dublin by myself. ireland is amazing: i have never seen so many shades of green as i did while flying over the island. irish history is fascinating and i wonder why more people don't study it... i don't think columbia has a single course on ireland. and it was nice to be in an english-speaking country for a couple days! (still, i think i prefer the francophone world...)



st stephen's green is REALLY GREEN.



in the national history museum they have an exhibit on bog bodies. these are mummified
prehistorical remains found in peat bogs. amazing! also sort of disgusting. when i was in the museum, a group of schoolboys was visiting and, as little boys are apt to be, they were simultaneously fascinated and repulsed...



"shop while the dollar drops," ie, come visit new york while you can afford it, europe!! these ads were everywhere.

the national gallery has my two favorite paintings ever:



The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio



and Woman Writing A Letter by Vermeer.

both have incredible histories: check out The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr and The Irish Game by Matthew Hart to read about them.




this is the interior of christ church cathedral. as my guidebook said, it's sort of strange that such a catholic country would have two protestant cathedrals in its capital city. unfortunately the church is now more of a tourist attraction than a functioning place of worship; it cost me 2E to enter and it didn't seem like there's a real congregation. (in contrast, notre-dame de paris, despite its touristic attractions, is a functioning cathedral with a devoted congregation. i went to mass there a few weeks ago, took communion, heard some archbishop give a sermon... it felt much more authentic.)



then i headed over to st patrick's cathedral, which is near the spring where the said saint baptized many irish pagans. jonathan swift is buried here. this church was even more touristy; 4E to enter and it's basically set up like a museum...



but it's still beautiful!!



fish and chips for lunch: delicious but so heavy, i could not finish it.



the natural history museum smells like old books. a lot of the animals are from the early 20th century (or late 19th century), so it's like walking into the minds of the early naturalists.



a skeleton of a dodo bird!



so why don't we have sex education like this in the states? you tell me. this billboard is brilliant (bonus points to anyone who knows which artist's work it's based on).



the liffey at night: it looks like a river of guinness.



the irish coast from my airplane...



and then back to paris.