Trinity College

Hi all!

I did end up taking myself to the movies last night haha. I'm working more and more on one of my main objectives of this year every day - enjoying my own company. A couple of years ago had you told me to roam around cities, go to the theatre, the movies etc by myself I would've hated the thought. But Norway/Sweden last year and now this is making it perfectly normal (and enjoyable!) to walk around with no company but my own. 

This morning I checked out, left my bag at the hostel and went for a walk to Trinity College. Trinity College Dublin is one of the most famous colleges in the world and was opened by order of Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. It currently has 17,000 students. Oscar Wilde was a previous student and for those who are fans of 'Game of Thrones', apparently the guy who plays Joffrey in the show currently attends! 

Today it was nice and sunny again so it was really nice walking about! I had a look in the main square and saw the outside of the dining hall and the campanile, then went to the Old Library. The Old Library holds the most famous illustrated book in the world - the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is a lavishly decorated copy of the four gospels of the life of Christ. It is estimated it was written and illustrated in the early 9th century in Iona off the west coast of Scotland. It was stolen in AD 1007 and went missing for two months and 20 days and once recovered was missing a lot of its gold. In 1653 it came to Dublin for security reasons. 

The Book of Kells was written on vellum (dried calfskin with its hair removed). It is estimated that the book used the vellum of 185 calves! The ink used in it is from oak galls while the pigments were made from natural minerals. Apparently four scribes wrote it and three artists illustrated it, and the decoration in the book was never 100% completed. I wasn't allowed to take photos but I took some photos in the shop of paintings that look like it!

So I had a look at the exhibition about the book itself and then went into the dim room where two pages of the book were on display. I got to see one illustrated page (Matthew 27.38) and one page of text with elaborate coloured letters (Mark 13.32-14.6 which said "take ye heed watch and pray for ye know not when the time comes"). The illustrations were so intricate and detailed and the colours were unbelievable considering the book is 1300 years old and was lost for a while in between! Beautiful!!

Then upstairs I went to the Long Room, a library containing over 10,000 books. It had that beautiful old books smell that the library at Trinity College Cambridge did too. I sat down and just enjoyed, it was a really amazing building. 

Then I went back into the grounds and checked out a couple of sculptures and squares. For the rest of the afternoon I just chilled out and enjoyed the sunshine. There won't be too many times this year I get to lie down in the cool air with the sun shining down on my face so I thought I would take advantage! First I went to Dubh Linh Gardens and sat down for a while, then I walked via Grafton Street to St Stephen's Green and lay down in the grass. It was so lovely, there were people everywhere enjoying the sun! All the flowers from the other day had opened up properly as well which looked magnificent - spring has officially now sprung! Makes me even more excited for Monet's Garden next month (oooooo!!!). 

On the way back I bought myself an ice cream for lunch, it was great! I'm now back in the hostel waiting to leave for the airport to go back "home" for a few days. Tonight I'm staying at Rhi's and then heading to Emily's tomorrow night. This isn't the last I've seen of Dublin though! I'll be back in July for a couple of days before my tour of the rest of Ireland begins with my friends Brendon and Claire. I've had such a great time here!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox