The First Day In Dublin: The Time We Accidentally Found Some Nuns

Imagine that today is the 30th of November, and that we are up to date with our blog (quite a big stretch of the imagination, we know). This is all about what we did today. 

The customhouse of Dublintown, affectionately known as "home" to us throughout our trip to Ireland. Not because we lived here, sadly, but because we lived at a rather homely (read: dilapidated but affordable) hostel that was behind it, just to the right in this photo, and we used the customhouse as a useful landmark. 

We started by exploring the grounds of Trinity College. It was very sunny so we sat on a bench and read our books for ages. We weren't sure if we were supposed to be using the benches, so we practiced speaking with Irish accents, and imagined what degrees we would be undertaking at Trinity, so that we could convincingly portray students of the university if challenged about the legitimacy of our bench-utilisation practices. Thankfully we were not challenged because our Irish accents remained about as convincing as the National Government's assertion that increased class size will improve learning outcomes for the children of New Zealand.

Though it is sunny and pretty, you will notice that we are still wearing a million layers. This is because it was still utterly fffreezing.

The angle of these pictures makes it look like these benches were suuuuuper long. They were not. It was nice and cosy. Helped with the cold problem.

Look how pretty our adopted university is! 

This is the building where Bryony has her russian politics classes (hence her look of fear).

The university science centre has a coffee shop which had won awards for being the best coffee shop in a science centre in the UK or something (judging by the quality of coffee at other science centres, we remain unconvinced as to how much of an honour this is) and served coffee in cups that said SCIENCE on them, thus combining two of our Favourite Things. It was joyous, and we cannot believe we didn't get a photo of this momentous occasion. Aside from the coffee, they actually had an exhibit as well. We saw and read quite a lot of stuff we didn't understand about Gaming, but it was super cool.  There was a game thing where you are the character in the game in real space, but you play all of it with goggles on that show you everything you're doing via video cameras, and you look at that rather than what you're actually doing. (Proud of us Kieran?) 

After being fortified by some Hot Caffeinated Goodness, we proceeded to get Lost On Purpose - our favourite (and, we have come to realise, the best) way to get to know a new city. There's nothing like a dodgy alleyway and a bit of adrenaline to help you get your bearings. And for any of you who know of Ally's Super Awesome sense of direction and are doubting the purposefulness of the getting lost, a) that's just mean, and b) Bryony was there, and she had a map, so it was on purpose. Shame on you. 

Bryony smiling aggressively by the Liffey.

Look how much this part of town looks like Wellington! Though lost, we felt remarkably at home.  

Alex was trying to take a picture of the calm harbour, and this boat came and placed itself in the middle of the picture.

A cute wee Dublin street. The houses were so cute and squished together in a big long line. 

This rather impressive looking building is an old Gasworks, which has been modified to house some very fancy apartments. 

In our adventures of Being Lost but vaguely trying to find Oscar Wilde's House, we found some stuff.

Bry being SUPER NAUGHTY by climbing over the fence that said "No Touching" on it. What a rebel - travel has changed her. 

We came across this little building, which was a museum about the history of the printing press in Ireland. We initially went in because we really needed to use the bathroom, but the museum turned out to be actually kind of interesting, so we stayed. The printing press played a pivotal role in the dissemination of revolutionary information that lead to Irish independence. It was all very interesting.

A church. There are a lot of these in Ireland. This one is called St Mary's Church. It was perhaps a foreshadowing of what was to come next...

While we were looking for Oscar's House (I'm pretty sure if he were still alive we would be on first name terms), we ended up on a street called Baggot Street. Alex began to feel uneasy. Somewhere in the back of her mind, some once-known knowledge was stirring to life, and she was experiencing a vague feeling of Knowing What She Would Find Around The Corner. 

Her vague feeling was correct, for Baggot Street is where Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy (who, in turn, founded St Mary's College, Wellington - Alex's beloved highschool) lived and did a lot of important things to help the poor of Dublin back in the day. It is now the location of the headquarters of Mercy International.

We went inside, and met some really nice nuns. One of them offered to give us a tour of the building and explained the history of Catherine, the Sisters of Mercy, and the House. It was like being in third form religious studies all over again.

Catherine McAuley's grave. 

Some people are trying to get Catherine made into a saint.

Catherine (just a statue, though). The nice nun gave us some free Sisters of Mercy pens.

Eventually, we made it to Oscar Wilde's house, which is now a part of the American Art School in Dublin, so sadly we couldn't have a look round or anything. We considered posing as students again, but decided against it.

It was a pretty fancy part of town that old Oscar grew up in. 

On our way home, we wandered into a shop which claimed to be a pharmacy, but wasn't. It was Sweny's Pharmacy, where Leopold Bloom buys his lemon soap in James Joyce's Ulysses. The shop has been preserved as it was in Joyce's time, and functions as a Joyce museum and bookshop. They also sell lemon soap. The girl behind the counter informed us that a group gather to hold readings of Joyce's works on Thursday and Sunday evenings, and invited us to come along. We think we may go, in the 'future'.  Disclaimer: despite the general aura of literary learnedness exuded by the authors in this paragraph, neither author has ever read any Joyce; indeed (spoiler) after Ireland shenanigans, Ally bought a copy of Ulysses and made it to page seven before abandoning all hope. She will 'try again when she is at Uni'. lol . 

We didn't take this photo, it was on the internet. 

A very beautiful street in Dublin somewhere. 

The Ha'penny Bridge over the Liffey.

We also went to the National Gallery of Ireland. Bryony doesn't want to write anymore about this, because all we did was mock the art, then leave (the uncultured, uncouth hooligans we are). 

We also made a friend today. His name is Lou and he is from France. We were going to go out and party with him, but were too sleepy, so we had tea and chats with him instead, then went to bed.