Adventures in Dublin! (May 2018)
May 28, 2018 12:24:28 GMT -5
Huntress, Celestial, and 8 more like this
Post by Thorn on May 28, 2018 12:24:28 GMT -5
Hark! A thrilling tale of adventure in which the dashing heroes Celestial , Liou , and Thorn embark on a quest for glory in Dublin, Ireland. Marvel at their navigator's unparalleled skill! Be tempted by exotic foodstuffs such as the wild haggis plant, bread of small length, and the delicacies of the Rolling Doughnut! Delight at the many and varied shenanigans undertaken by this trio!
i. Assembling the Party
So we all arrived individually at Dublin Airport: myself first, then Celes, and finally Liou. Celes and I found a really nice smoothie/milkshake place right next to Arrivals, which was a great spot to chill out and catch up while we waited for Liou's (delayed, sadface) flight to get in. We were passed by a few not-Lious and maybe-Lious before the REAL Liou arrived at last!
I've met Celestial rl before, but this was our first time meeting Liou. Meeting an internet friend in the outside world is the most wonderful experience, especially if you're never Skyped each other before. You've spent so long communicating with this person through text and gif and emoji, and now they are an actual fleshy being in front of you, and you can talk to them and hug them, and make silly vampire noises (more about that later.)
Anyway, with our little party thus assembl'd, we finally made the trek to our hostel (almost literally, as we had to walk ten minutes from the bus stop with our luggage. We got to see some beautiful scenery, though! Some of the bridges over the River Liffey are just so pretty.)
Once at the hostel, we exchanged gifts- Liou gave us beautifully wrapped homemade soap, I gave them and Celes plush animal companions, and Celestial had fresh wild haggis and bread of small length for later! Or, in the common tongue: vegetarian haggis and shortbread. Which were both awesome.
(from left to right: Moonbun (belonging to Celes), Dragon (belonging to Liou), and Marty (mine.) Featuring Liou and Celes' hands, they are here posed in front of the old city wall, which was super cool and had a medieval town-vibe in spite of the various random articles of clothing scattered near it...)
ii. The first quest: Hunting and Gathering
"Huh, it's like 8:30...should we actually get dinner?" Thus, our second quest began!
We ranged far and wide and eventually found a lovely Indian restaurant. With Liou and I poised to defend Navigator Celestial (who carried with her the precious foodstuffs) from wrongdoers seeking to steal the Goodness, we hunted for somewhere nice to consume the noms. Only...they'd forgotten the naan bread! Le gaspe! In an awful turn of events, it turned out we were looking for ne'er-do-wells in all the wrong places- we retrieved the naan and it was labelled and shoved in the hostel fridge, but some dastard nicked it!
Anyway it was a nice takeaway dinner, and we spent that evening hanging out and chatting. You may notice I mention food a lot in this write-up. That's because I love food. Especially sweet stuff. It is the quickest way to my heart, and Dublin definitely won my heart with its delicious restaurants (but mostly Butler's Chocolate Cafe, which is basically heaven on earth.)
(a lovely building discovered on day one.)
iii. The second quest: a Touch of Romance
There was once a beautiful book named The Book of Kells. It was at some point split into two books and rebound, but both halves are equal in the heart of our draconic overlord and navigator, Celestial. It was thus of utmost import that we visit its home at Trinity College, so that she may finally set eyes upon her bae, after too long apart.
Trinity College is amazing but absolutely not as grand as you'd expect, in some ways. The architecture is impressive, sure, and for fourteen pounds you get the grand tour as well as access to the library and the Book of Kells exhibition- what a bargain! But did you know that none of the architects who designed the buildings in Front Square were paid for their work? Or that students can live on the campus relatively inexpensively, if you don't mind poor heating and having to walk down to the ground floor to reach the ancient communal showers? Well, now you do!
(Dragon and Marty on the college lawn.)
The library is exquisite. It's so big, and something I could have only imagined seeing in a film. Books from floor to ceiling! But none of these books were the precious, the bae, the book Celestial so longed to see...
The Book of Kells.
It's in a case our guide jokingly referred to as 'Queen-proof', because back in the day Queen Victoria visited and autographed the book. Which is probably the most amazing anecdote ever. As I mentioned before, in its present form it is bound in two volumes- one of which is open to Jesus' genealogy, I'm not sure what the other is open to. There's some lovely illuminated lettering, which we were able to read more about around the room, while discussing the most scholarly point: which of the letters was the most 'extra.'
Celestial can probably say more about the Book of Kells than myself, but I assume they'd like to do their own write-up anyway, so you'll probably be able to read more about it there!
iv. Interlude: Going Postal
We stopped at Dublin's General Post Office to experience their exhibition on the Easter Rising. It was so worth it. Loads of information, interactive stations to reinforce information, and displays of uniforms, documents, and other items from the era.
v. The third quest: Preparing the Wild Haggis
So plant-based haggis is undoubtedly better than the regular stuff (I, a vegetarian who was always squeamish about offal anyway, am totally not biased in this matter.) It was full of lovely spices, and made with lentils and beans and probably pulses (good healthy stuff!) 10/10 Thorn recommends. I may or may not have opened up google to see if any stores in England sell the stuff while working on this section...the Scots have good taste in veggie foodstuffs!
vi. The fourth quest: Here there be Vampires (and other beasties)
(gif from 'What We Do in the Shadows.')
When Celestial and I realised Liou hadn't seen 'What We Do in the Shadows', another quest began! It had disappeared from Netflix, but we eventually tracked it down on Amazon. And can I just say, as somebody who obviously has absolutely no bias towards a New Zealand film about her favourite supernatural monster: this movie is hilarious. Afterwards we hissed at each other and stalked the corridors like vampires, holding the edges of imaginary cloaks, on our way upstairs to do some select readings from 'Hero City' and 'Wrighton'. I locked myself out of the room for one, which turned out to be TWELVE MINUTES LONG (I am an utter fool); so I can't comment on how that went. But I personally spent a lot of time sitting outside the door humming, singing, and finger-gunning the security camera (I assume the staff were used to us by this stage- as mentioned previously, we had already vampire-stalked down the corridor. And velociraptor-ran as well, come to think of it.)
Celestial Irish'd it up as Fionn, Liou managed to pull off both Ayo and Zenith like WOW MUCH IMPRESS, and I had the realisation that I have no idea how Nyx is supposed to sound. But we had fun. I made them laugh at least once, and they made each other laugh a few times as well, so we had a good time and that's the main thing!
vii. The fifth quest: Getting Scholarly
We stumbled upon the beautiful St Aldeon's Church. Used as a site of Christian worship since about 600 AD (before there were even people in New Zealand! =0), it's a beautiful old building. Between the crypts and the ruins, you can really feel the weight of history. We read up on the building (including how it was rebuilt and expanded over time), explored aforementioned ruins, and even investigated the chapel which is still in use (it smelled of incense- I find church incense to be a lovely and relaxing smell, so that was very nice!)
(the ruins)
(from in the chapel)
viii. Interlude 2: Doughnuts in the Park
We bought six and have no regrets (there was a deal- it was only a euro more than buying five!)
Fionn would be so proud.
(front left was my favourite- Terry's chocolate orange flavoured!)
ix. Adventures in Archaeology!
So we didn't manage to see everything we wanted at Dublin's archaeology museum before close, but we did get through a decent chunk. Celestial even managed to find a book about her bae in the gift shop- one she'd wanted to go back to Trinity to buy, but we ran out of time- which was an awesome bonus!
With our trio consisting of an anthropology/archaeology graduate, a history nerd, and a fan of all things Ancient Egyptian, there really was something for everyone here! We learned about Ireland during the Stone Age (I got to see three bog mummies, which was one of my personal highlights- I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh, and definitely not this well-preserved.) We also learned about Ancient Egypt (Liou had lots of interesting info on the twelve thousand billion gods), and medieval Ireland/possibly Europe in general. Celestial had a lot to say on Christianity, from what I overheard...admittedly, I got distracted by giant shiny broaches and went away to examine those. I prefer everyday items (like bling, reliquaries, and leetle carvings of gods) over swords, halberds and slashy things; so when I saw a whole bunch of these things together I was all like YES GOOD LET US LEARN ABOUT THE PEOPLE.
Boss Fight: Preparing a Curry (whilst fending off walking stereotypes)
So for our final night in Dublin, Celestial made use of the hostel's fairly decent facilities to make us a delicious curry! Liou and I choppychopped lots of veggies (I learned how to prepare garlic! Liou conquered the Onions of Many Cry!), and our wonderful navigator-turned-chef prepared the most delicious curry I've had in a long time.
We were somewhat inconvenienced by a pair of stereotypical nuiscence Straight White Young Men, who made it their job to....flirt? With everyone in the vicinity. I dunno, it wasn't even really flirting, it was just awful. But the curry turned out amazing regardless and, paired with some naan from Tesco (I still curse those dastards who stole that original fancy naan!), was a great meal for our last evening in Dublin.
(Our navigator-chef hard at work!)
*undignified drooling noises* (pretty sure, based on the angle, this was an accidental photo.)
Afterwards we went back to our room and watched 'The Backstroke of the West', a true masterpiece of modern cinema, in which the Hopeless Situation Warriors (Jedi) combat the Big (Sith), and everyone is either 'on the hoof' or 'strong and big' (or both.) I might need to write some more fanfic for it, it is a truly inspirational piece....
(then Celes and I had to get up at 4:00am, after going to bed at midnight, but we managed! We both made our flights! We win at life!)
****
UNLOCKABLE SECRET CONTENT:
Stumbled upon ♥ Azzie in a shop window!
Airport tieeeeeeem.
(Celes and I sat by the window drinking Butler's hot chocolates (or iced, in Celes' case), because they are THE BEST. Do you know Butler's give you a complimentary chocolate? And they taste like heaven in a paper cup? I miss them already...)
When Ireland voted to repeal the 8th, things got very loud and colourful:
The Cool Kids (ft. Celestial, Thorn, and the hairmonster known as Liou.)
i. Assembling the Party
So we all arrived individually at Dublin Airport: myself first, then Celes, and finally Liou. Celes and I found a really nice smoothie/milkshake place right next to Arrivals, which was a great spot to chill out and catch up while we waited for Liou's (delayed, sadface) flight to get in. We were passed by a few not-Lious and maybe-Lious before the REAL Liou arrived at last!
I've met Celestial rl before, but this was our first time meeting Liou. Meeting an internet friend in the outside world is the most wonderful experience, especially if you're never Skyped each other before. You've spent so long communicating with this person through text and gif and emoji, and now they are an actual fleshy being in front of you, and you can talk to them and hug them, and make silly vampire noises (more about that later.)
Anyway, with our little party thus assembl'd, we finally made the trek to our hostel (almost literally, as we had to walk ten minutes from the bus stop with our luggage. We got to see some beautiful scenery, though! Some of the bridges over the River Liffey are just so pretty.)
Once at the hostel, we exchanged gifts- Liou gave us beautifully wrapped homemade soap, I gave them and Celes plush animal companions, and Celestial had fresh wild haggis and bread of small length for later! Or, in the common tongue: vegetarian haggis and shortbread. Which were both awesome.
(from left to right: Moonbun (belonging to Celes), Dragon (belonging to Liou), and Marty (mine.) Featuring Liou and Celes' hands, they are here posed in front of the old city wall, which was super cool and had a medieval town-vibe in spite of the various random articles of clothing scattered near it...)
ii. The first quest: Hunting and Gathering
"Huh, it's like 8:30...should we actually get dinner?" Thus, our second quest began!
We ranged far and wide and eventually found a lovely Indian restaurant. With Liou and I poised to defend Navigator Celestial (who carried with her the precious foodstuffs) from wrongdoers seeking to steal the Goodness, we hunted for somewhere nice to consume the noms. Only...they'd forgotten the naan bread! Le gaspe! In an awful turn of events, it turned out we were looking for ne'er-do-wells in all the wrong places- we retrieved the naan and it was labelled and shoved in the hostel fridge, but some dastard nicked it!
Anyway it was a nice takeaway dinner, and we spent that evening hanging out and chatting. You may notice I mention food a lot in this write-up. That's because I love food. Especially sweet stuff. It is the quickest way to my heart, and Dublin definitely won my heart with its delicious restaurants (but mostly Butler's Chocolate Cafe, which is basically heaven on earth.)
(a lovely building discovered on day one.)
iii. The second quest: a Touch of Romance
There was once a beautiful book named The Book of Kells. It was at some point split into two books and rebound, but both halves are equal in the heart of our draconic overlord and navigator, Celestial. It was thus of utmost import that we visit its home at Trinity College, so that she may finally set eyes upon her bae, after too long apart.
Trinity College is amazing but absolutely not as grand as you'd expect, in some ways. The architecture is impressive, sure, and for fourteen pounds you get the grand tour as well as access to the library and the Book of Kells exhibition- what a bargain! But did you know that none of the architects who designed the buildings in Front Square were paid for their work? Or that students can live on the campus relatively inexpensively, if you don't mind poor heating and having to walk down to the ground floor to reach the ancient communal showers? Well, now you do!
(Dragon and Marty on the college lawn.)
The library is exquisite. It's so big, and something I could have only imagined seeing in a film. Books from floor to ceiling! But none of these books were the precious, the bae, the book Celestial so longed to see...
The Book of Kells.
It's in a case our guide jokingly referred to as 'Queen-proof', because back in the day Queen Victoria visited and autographed the book. Which is probably the most amazing anecdote ever. As I mentioned before, in its present form it is bound in two volumes- one of which is open to Jesus' genealogy, I'm not sure what the other is open to. There's some lovely illuminated lettering, which we were able to read more about around the room, while discussing the most scholarly point: which of the letters was the most 'extra.'
Celestial can probably say more about the Book of Kells than myself, but I assume they'd like to do their own write-up anyway, so you'll probably be able to read more about it there!
iv. Interlude: Going Postal
We stopped at Dublin's General Post Office to experience their exhibition on the Easter Rising. It was so worth it. Loads of information, interactive stations to reinforce information, and displays of uniforms, documents, and other items from the era.
v. The third quest: Preparing the Wild Haggis
So plant-based haggis is undoubtedly better than the regular stuff (I, a vegetarian who was always squeamish about offal anyway, am totally not biased in this matter.) It was full of lovely spices, and made with lentils and beans and probably pulses (good healthy stuff!) 10/10 Thorn recommends. I may or may not have opened up google to see if any stores in England sell the stuff while working on this section...the Scots have good taste in veggie foodstuffs!
vi. The fourth quest: Here there be Vampires (and other beasties)
(gif from 'What We Do in the Shadows.')
When Celestial and I realised Liou hadn't seen 'What We Do in the Shadows', another quest began! It had disappeared from Netflix, but we eventually tracked it down on Amazon. And can I just say, as somebody who obviously has absolutely no bias towards a New Zealand film about her favourite supernatural monster: this movie is hilarious. Afterwards we hissed at each other and stalked the corridors like vampires, holding the edges of imaginary cloaks, on our way upstairs to do some select readings from 'Hero City' and 'Wrighton'. I locked myself out of the room for one, which turned out to be TWELVE MINUTES LONG (I am an utter fool); so I can't comment on how that went. But I personally spent a lot of time sitting outside the door humming, singing, and finger-gunning the security camera (I assume the staff were used to us by this stage- as mentioned previously, we had already vampire-stalked down the corridor. And velociraptor-ran as well, come to think of it.)
Celestial Irish'd it up as Fionn, Liou managed to pull off both Ayo and Zenith like WOW MUCH IMPRESS, and I had the realisation that I have no idea how Nyx is supposed to sound. But we had fun. I made them laugh at least once, and they made each other laugh a few times as well, so we had a good time and that's the main thing!
vii. The fifth quest: Getting Scholarly
We stumbled upon the beautiful St Aldeon's Church. Used as a site of Christian worship since about 600 AD (before there were even people in New Zealand! =0), it's a beautiful old building. Between the crypts and the ruins, you can really feel the weight of history. We read up on the building (including how it was rebuilt and expanded over time), explored aforementioned ruins, and even investigated the chapel which is still in use (it smelled of incense- I find church incense to be a lovely and relaxing smell, so that was very nice!)
(the ruins)
(from in the chapel)
viii. Interlude 2: Doughnuts in the Park
We bought six and have no regrets (there was a deal- it was only a euro more than buying five!)
Fionn would be so proud.
(front left was my favourite- Terry's chocolate orange flavoured!)
ix. Adventures in Archaeology!
So we didn't manage to see everything we wanted at Dublin's archaeology museum before close, but we did get through a decent chunk. Celestial even managed to find a book about her bae in the gift shop- one she'd wanted to go back to Trinity to buy, but we ran out of time- which was an awesome bonus!
With our trio consisting of an anthropology/archaeology graduate, a history nerd, and a fan of all things Ancient Egyptian, there really was something for everyone here! We learned about Ireland during the Stone Age (I got to see three bog mummies, which was one of my personal highlights- I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh, and definitely not this well-preserved.) We also learned about Ancient Egypt (Liou had lots of interesting info on the twelve thousand billion gods), and medieval Ireland/possibly Europe in general. Celestial had a lot to say on Christianity, from what I overheard...admittedly, I got distracted by giant shiny broaches and went away to examine those. I prefer everyday items (like bling, reliquaries, and leetle carvings of gods) over swords, halberds and slashy things; so when I saw a whole bunch of these things together I was all like YES GOOD LET US LEARN ABOUT THE PEOPLE.
Boss Fight: Preparing a Curry (whilst fending off walking stereotypes)
So for our final night in Dublin, Celestial made use of the hostel's fairly decent facilities to make us a delicious curry! Liou and I choppychopped lots of veggies (I learned how to prepare garlic! Liou conquered the Onions of Many Cry!), and our wonderful navigator-turned-chef prepared the most delicious curry I've had in a long time.
We were somewhat inconvenienced by a pair of stereotypical nuiscence Straight White Young Men, who made it their job to....flirt? With everyone in the vicinity. I dunno, it wasn't even really flirting, it was just awful. But the curry turned out amazing regardless and, paired with some naan from Tesco (I still curse those dastards who stole that original fancy naan!), was a great meal for our last evening in Dublin.
(Our navigator-chef hard at work!)
*undignified drooling noises* (pretty sure, based on the angle, this was an accidental photo.)
Afterwards we went back to our room and watched 'The Backstroke of the West', a true masterpiece of modern cinema, in which the Hopeless Situation Warriors (Jedi) combat the Big (Sith), and everyone is either 'on the hoof' or 'strong and big' (or both.) I might need to write some more fanfic for it, it is a truly inspirational piece....
(then Celes and I had to get up at 4:00am, after going to bed at midnight, but we managed! We both made our flights! We win at life!)
****
UNLOCKABLE SECRET CONTENT:
Stumbled upon ♥ Azzie in a shop window!
Airport tieeeeeeem.
(Celes and I sat by the window drinking Butler's hot chocolates (or iced, in Celes' case), because they are THE BEST. Do you know Butler's give you a complimentary chocolate? And they taste like heaven in a paper cup? I miss them already...)
When Ireland voted to repeal the 8th, things got very loud and colourful:
The Cool Kids (ft. Celestial, Thorn, and the hairmonster known as Liou.)
