I'll skip the boring morning details and start off at our first stop, the Royal Hospital of Kilmainham which has been reborn as the Irish Museum of Modern Art. We peered in to the Frida Khalo exhibit but not being particular fans of her many droll self portraits, we spent the majority of our visit at Philip Taaffe's dizzying collection of mixed print/paint iconographic pieces. I'll spare the OCADU interpretation, but the works were very impressive. We also happened to arrive on the opening day of a collection of master prints which I've always found fascinating, and some works by William Hogarth and Albrecht Durer particularly stood out.
Our second stop wasn't far off, at Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) but seeing as the tour was pricey, lengthy and supposedly very depressing, we decided it not really worth our time since we'd have to cut some other attractions. The outside was impressive though.
The old Jameson distillery was our next stop but along the way I read about a small church that was founded in 1096 and while largely rebuilt above ground, holds ancient crypts below. We were escorted through them by a very eccentric guide who informed us that the limestone structure eliminating moisture combined with the constant temperature year round and underground methane gas source created the perfect conditions for preservation of the coffins and mummification of the deceased. Some wooden coffins that have been there for centuries look as though they are brand new, still glossy from the stain the day they were created. Others were in rough shape as many were simply stacked atop one another and some older ones at the bottom were crushed under the weight of the newer heavier caskets. They ranged in decoration from simple wooden boxes to ornate gold and ivory embellished ordeals. There are six crypts all together and each contains numerous chambers, many owned by families who have been placing loved ones in them for, in some cases, several hundred years and continue to do so even to this day!
I apologize to dwell on this one location for so long but, as morbid as this is, it was one of the things we will remember most about this trip. In one of the chambers we were able to see mummified preserved corpses from caskets that had broken open over the years. One of which was a crusader placed in the crypt over 900 years ago. Not only could we go in and see him up close, but were allowed to lightly touch his hand. Yes, even Sarah did it. It was indescribably amazing. No photography was allowed as these are burial grounds, but Sarah managed one photo of the corridor shown above.
On a lighter note, we finally made it to the Jameson distillery. We took the very campy and cheesy tour which was actually a lot of fun, and it ends with a sample! Also picked up a few souvenirs for myself in the gift shop, although the complete collection of Middleton rare reserve dating from the mid 80s to present at 50 000 euro was a bit out of my price range.
After a quick lunch we made it across town to two places I've been dying to visit; the house of Oscar Wilde and his very impressive statue made of various types of stone and marble to give it even a bit of the colour and presence the man must have shown in real life. A real inspiration to me (Alex that is), it was great to finally walk his footsteps in his home town, after visiting the Left Bank hotel in Paris several years ago, the place where he died in Nov of 1900 . His legendary wit is widely quoted, and aside from my favourites of his many fine one-liners "who, being loved, is poor?" and "no great artist ever sees things as they really are; if he did, he would cease to be an artist" and many more, his final words always made me laugh. On his death bed in the hotel room, he looked up in disgust at the wallpaper that he loathed since the day he arrived and said "My wallpaper and I are fighting a dual to the death. One or the other of us has to go" and then passed away.
There were a few other sights along the way, such as the O'Connell monument commemorating Daniel O'Connell who fought to give Catholics the right to own land and sit in parliament while Ireland was still under British anglican rule and protestant influence, as well as campaign to Irish independence until his death on a pilgrimage to Rome in his early 70s.
See what I mean about there being too much to write about? One small two minute stop can be expounded upon endlessly.
By now it was already nearing 4pm and we hurried to a more fun destination, the Dublin Zoo! The zoo sits in the world's largest inner-city park, Phoenix Park, which is more than twice the size of central park in NYC. It is also one of the oldest zoos in the world still in operation, and we were instantly impressed by the care and aesthetics of the habitats. The star attractions were definitely the snow leopards, orang-utans, gorillas (who are awaiting the completion of their new massive habitat), sea lions and most importantly, asian elephants! Neither Sarah nor myself have ever seen asian elephants before and they put on quite a show eating, kicking and sliding down mounds of peat, drinking and generally being adorable and fascinating all at once.
Our bus pass allowed us to make it back to Temple Bar where we had Nepalese food for dinner in time for the early bird special price, as our last 'fancy' meal of the trip. We are also starting to get tired of standard Irish fare :)
We walked around quite a bit today, especially at the zoo where we had to hurry a bit in order to see everything before they closed at 6pm, and honestly can not wait to get back to YMCA and burn off this vacation! Tomorrow is another exercise day thankfully as the hop on, hop off bus pass expires around noon, so most of the sightseeing will be on foot.
I hear the rain is coming though, but being the bright young minds we are, saved all the major museums and art galleries for last just in case. Although they also said today would rain but we never felt a lick, although it was cloudy until around dinner hour. Fingers crossed!
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