June 4, 2022 - Dublin and Killarney

 This morning I headed out early to see a couple of “last things” before getting on the train for Killarney.  Stopped at Murphy’s for Eggs Benedict - again disappointed in Irish food.  It just isn’t there!

Grabbed my luggage and head out for the train station, even though it would be another 3 hours before I needed to board.  I figured I’d “waste” some of the time discovering a few places.  One of those places that I wanted to visit was St Patrick’s Cathedral.

The following pictures are from items on display within,

There are relics throughout the church, but oddly, I didn’t have the same feeling of emptiness that I had when I was in Spain at another church with many relics on display.  Here they felt integral to worship and part of the church.  Special Note - Johnathan Swift, a famous writer and Irishmen, is buried in the church.

Continuing on, I finally noticed that most of the older buildings in/Dublin are made of red brick.  I wonder if that is why the Irish found Pittsburgh to be so welcoming because of its brick buildings or whether they made Pittsburgh into a welcoming place by building so many brick buildings.

Passing a number of other churches, I just took quick snapshots of them.

St Andrews Catholic Church - Deo.Optimo.Maximo. (Which means “To God, most good, most great”)

St Mary’s Catholic Church

Saint Catherine’s Church 

I have no idea what this is, but thought it was an interesting building.

I’m very interested in learning more about this church.  Parish of St James.  The sign in the front says that the Camino begins here; referencing a pilgrimage walk called the Camino Santiago.  I thought this walk went from Italy through southern France into northern Spain.  So, I’m a bit confused how it begins all the way up here in Ireland.

And this church is now part of a whiskey distillery where tours and tasting take place.  They also have a tea room.  Take note of the glass spire!

I ended the day in Killarney after nearly a 4 hour train ride.  Here are two churches that I took pictures of and a picture of the street.  I’m already in love with Killarney!

I’m staying at a hostel called The Black Sheep.  The desk staff are wonderful and I’ve already had some fantastic conversations with them.  I’m in an upper bunk, though (This should be fun for a nearly 60 year old who needs to use the bathroom frequently during the night.  Ugh!)

And finally dinner….best meal I’ve had in Ireland so far.  It was lovely, as they say.  

Fish Chowder - Ok the Irish know how to make a proper Chowder.   I will definitely give that to them.

And two mini Irish Potato Cakes stuffed with pieces of chicken in a mushroom sauce, accompanied by a light salad of pickled cucumber slices, carrots and lettuce.

Tomorrow I’m headed to an area called The Ring of Kerry.  I’m told it is amazing.

Dublin - June 3, 2022

During my wanderings yesterday, I kept seeing many restaurants advertising a full Irish Breakfast.  So, this morning I got up and was determined to find a local spot to partake of whatever this is.  Down the street, not far from the Hostel, is a restaurant called Murphy’s.  It looked pretty popular, so I stopped there and indeed ordered the full Irish Breakfast.  Evidently, a full Irish breakfast includes a little bit of everything.  Starting at 6 o’clock going clockwise; a small container of beans, mushrooms, half of a cooked tomato, hash browns, two eggs over easy, bacon, sausage (the two long links) and black pudding/white pudding (not sure how these two are different) - but the really dark round disk is black pudding and the lighter colored one is white pudding.  It is similar to Spanish Morcilla, if you are familiar with that - basically, sausage made with the blood of the animal.  The two long links of sausage are made from pork, but they tasted mostly of the fat of the animal and very little meat.

Following breakfast, I took a 45 minute canal boat tour.  It was interesting and told me a lot about Dublin; how it was established, grew, declined and became what it is today.  A lot of architecture is mixed in Dublin with very old buildings standing next to very modern ones.  This is the tallest building in Dublin - 23 stories.  

But across the river, a plot of land stands empty waiting for the ok for a 48 story building to be erected.  The builder and the government are at a standstill, so nothing has been developed there for a number of years.  

Yesterday, Brian had mentioned that I really needed to see the National Museum of Ireland - Archeology building.  I’m so glad he mentioned it and that I went.  It is a fascinating museum - small, but the building itself is beautiful.  It was fascinating to see the Bogmen - mummified bodies recovered from the peat bogs in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe - how preserved they are.  The preservation of the details of the body suggests that he had a mustache and beard, was 5’9” tall, and had been on a plant-based diet months before his death.  He also sported a unique hairstyle which was held in place by an ancient type of hair gel that came from France or , suggesting that he was a man of considerable financial means. The second photo is a reproduction of his head.

I was also excited to see the Fadden More Psalter, a book from Medieval times.  Finding a book in the preserved environment of a peat bog is nearly unprecedented and this manuscript is amazing, written in the old Latin text, about 800 C.E.  The special conditions of a peat bog make preservation of organic matter possible.  Low oxygen levels and the presence of sphapnum moss, produces an antibiotic substance sphagnan that binds with proteins on the surface of microorganisms, immobilizing them, and causing an altered chemical changes that make anything hidden or lost within the bog nearly impervious to rot.

Reliquaries were important to the early church.  The first is a cross that allegedly contains within it a piece of the original cross from Golgotha.  The second one is a book shrine, containing a hand written book.  Since very few books were written during this time period, they were revered with great respect and often kept “safe” within such a reliquary.  The last one is St. Patrick’s Bell and it’s own case.

I then visited Christ Cathedral.  I’m obsessed with those floors!

I had arranged a tour to see Trinity College, one of the first Protestant Colleges established in 1598, and the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels.  It was written by Irish monks living in Iona, Scotland but brought back to Ireland for safe keeping when the Vikings were raiding the area.  Every 6 weeks, a page is turned to preserve the integrity and wear of the book itself.  You are unable to take pictures of the book itself, but I’ve included a photo of a replica page.  After the tour, we were able to visit the Long Library within the college.  Like our Library of Congress, a copy of every book written was sent to this library.  The entire experience took my breath away.  In our tour group, I met some wonderful people.  We all exchanged stories.  Within the group I met a retired couple from Vancouver, British Columbia, who were ticking off their bucket list of things to see and do before they are no longer able to travel.  Their next adventure is to New Zealand!  And a family of three generations from Chicago.  The grandfather was an eye surgeon.  His son and daughter-in-law are both Ophthalmologists.  The oldest grandson is studying to become an Optometrist and the youngest who is 16 years old, Cooper, wants to be an artist.  They laughed about that when they were ticking off what each of them did for a living or aspired to do.  I told them that Cooper was just taking a different perspective on what we see and how we see it - we need both science and art!  When the tour was over as we were parting, the mother came over and gave me a hug, telling me how much she loved meeting me - she looked like she was ready to cry.  It was a surreal moment.  I think that perhaps she had been disappointed in her youngest son and his choice of “following a different drummer”.

Dublin Castle was a bit of a disappointment as it is now much more modern, having suffered destruction several hundred years ago.  The only thing left of the original structure is the one tower which is attached to the Gothic looking church - the private chapel of the Lord of Ireland.  I’ve included a picture of the original structure.

After the tour, I stopped for dinner at a restaurant advertising Irish Burgers.  However, I chose to have a salad - Rock and Parmesan.  Rock is the name of a type of lettuce similar to Arugula with Sun-dried tomatoes.  I paired it with a Red Ale produced 20 minutes away.  Both were decent!

Finally, I stopped at Temple Bar, the famous Bar in Dublin that carries the name of the neighborhood called Temple Bar.  It was packed and I only stayed long enough to take a 45 second video of the entire bar singing and drinking.  For some reason, it won’t let me upload it.

Tomorrow, I’m going to try and get up early enough to visit St Patrick’s Cathedral before I head to Killarney.

Breaking Bread with our Ancestors - Sabbatical Leave Part #2 - June 1-2, 2022

 I had purchased my flight for this second part of my Sabbatical leave many months ago with British Airways finding a great fare round trip to Dublin.  As the months grew closer, they continued to change (or rather update as they called it) my reservation.  Each time additional connections were added or changed until they had my whole itinerary completely messed up.  I tried using their website, calling, even going to the airport to get it resolved - nothing worked.  I had resolved to go extra early on the day of departure to have all the issues worked out.  However, the day before departure I proceeded to their online check-in.  Oddly enough, from there I was able to resolve nearly all of the conflicts I had.  So, things went smoothly until I arrived in Philadelphia, where I literally had minutes to get from Terminal F to Terminal A by shuttle service.  I arrived at gate A8 huffing and puffing, while they closed the airplane’s door behind me.  In retrospect, I suppose that is why they changed my flight and had me going to New York instead, but that route had me going to Paris, then London, then Dublin.  Anyway, the flights themselves were without incident and the flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was particularly beautiful.

I arrived in Dublin at 10am (local time), but it took nearly two hours to get from the gate to the Hostel where I am staying.  The rooms were not ready until 2:30pm, so I went to local Pub for a Guinness.

Not my favorite type of beer as I prefer lighter, citrusy beers like a Blue Moon (I think this is only available in the states) or a Hefeweisen - a wheat beer.  But, I have to admit, it wasn’t too bad.  I then stopped at a little sidewalk cafe which ended up being a Brazilian coffee shop and had a Pao de Queijo (cheese bread).  

At the table next to me was a man who was eating cake that looked like a piece of Tres Leches cake.  I remarked on it and he told me that it was very similar, but made with tapioca and coconut.  We chatted.  His name was Brian and he has lived in Dublin his whole life.  His girlfriend is from Colombia and this particular cafe was the closest thing that Dublin had to a Colombian eatery.  He gave me lots of pointers of things to see and do.

I walked around a bit more and found a statue of Molly Malone and the Irish Whiskey Museum before heading back to Abbey Court Hostel for a nap.

After a much needed nap, I got up for dinner at 8pm and went to Merchant’s Arch for Irish Stew and Brown Bread.

First, a word about the Hostel.  It is not my preferred choice of accommodation, but every other possible type of stay (Airbnb, Motel/Hotels, even through Booking, etc…) were outrageously expensive.  And the only way to do this trip was to cut down on expenses somewhere; hence, hostels.  It is extremely clean and has all kinds of sitting areas, study areas - inside/outside, etc… huge shared kitchen, dining room, and laundry facilities.  The hostel advertised that it was in a “mixed dorm” format.  I assumed that this meant separate rooms for men and women, like in college.  But no, it means a shared room with mixed gender.  There are five women and four men in my room.  The room itself is quite spacious.  Normally, I wouldn’t bat an eye at sharing space with others as I have done on multiple occasions for mission trips, but the whole concept these days makes me a bit anxious. 

Second, a word about the Irish Stew and Brown Bread.  I don’t think Ireland will ever win any culinary art awards.  Even Brian remarked that he really couldn’t think of any food that Ireland was particularly noted for, that was absolutely a “must have” when you visit.  He said, “I think we are better known for drinking!”  For me, the stew was rather tasteless and the broth weak, even though I was told by the desk clerk that this was the place to go and the dish to order.  Brian did tell me that when I get to Galway to definitely have the Fish Chowder, so we’ll see.  Our brown bread tends to have just a touch of sweetness to it.  Irish brown bread has none of that and is quite heavy, so I didn’t eat both slices.

Tomorrow I plan to visit Dublin Castle, Trinity College and see the Book of Kells.