Dublin.

                A few weekends ago, the group headed to Dublin for a day trip. But Abby and I had some friends in Dublin, so we went up a day early and stayed the whole weekend.

                We left Friday morning and got to Dublin in the afternoon. After a lunch at Little Ass Burritos (recommended by Nick and definitely delicious) we were planning to head to the zoo. But we soon realized that the journey to the zoo was too far, and so instead we went to the National History Museum, which Jake had told us was great. BOY WAS HE RIGHT.

When we got there we looked around the first floor and it was pretty cool, with lots of taxidermied animals and such. We were pretty impressed and then we decided to follow the small, unassuming sign that read “Animals of the World Upstairs” in black print on plain white paper. That sign could in no way prepare us for what awaited us up those stairs. The room was huge, with a high ceiling and an old tiled floor. And it was full of wood and glass cases filled with taxidermied animals from around the world. It looked like something out of a Wes Anderson movie. In fact, we quickly decided that Wes Anderson must have grown up there, in what we now affectionately refer to as “The Dead Zoo.” If you’re ever in Dublin I highly recommended it.

                That night Abby, myself and our friend Kyrie fulfilled one of my wishes, which was to go on a Literary Pub Crawl of Dublin, something I’ve wanted to do since I was first in Dublin three years ago. It was great. We went to four pubs: The Duke, O’Neill’s, something, something. Our tour guides were two actors who took us around and told us facts about the pubs and the authors of Dublin.

                On Saturday we met up with our group and saw The Book of Kells. To be honest, I was not that impressed, but I was very excited to see a poem which we had learned about in my Celtic Civ class, called Pangur Ban, which is about a monk and his cat. I was geeking out and no one else really understood why, but I was pretty darn happy about it.

                Next we went to O’Neill’s, one of the pubs we had visited the night before, for lunch. After lunch we did one of the most touristy things…we took a Viking Tour of Dublin. For those of you unfamiliar with what that is, picture the Boston or Philly duck tours, but in Dublin. It was fun, but so, so cold. Also we got to wear Viking hats. Lots of great pictures were taken on that trip.

                For dinner some of us went to The Ginger Man (another Nick recommendation) for good food and craft beer. After dinner we went on our own little pub crawl, going to some places that Emmy’s friend ook us. I ended up splitting off with Abby, Kyrie and one of Kyries friends to go to two very cool pubs that they frequent, one called The Bleeding Horse? And the other called The Barge.

                On Sunday Abby and I did some shopping and then decided to check out the Dubh Linn gardens. We weren’t sure what they were but they were said to be pretty. And they were. Not very big or impressive, but pretty. They’re located next to the Chester Beatty library, where they were having an exhibit of French fashion plates. A cool thing to check out.

                Sunday night, after relaxing at Kyrie’s place for a while we headed back home. All in all, it was a great weekend and I’m looking forward to going back on Wednesday to see Wicked!