Greetings! Happy you’re here :). This post is about Saturday the 10th of January, a week ago, so I have some work to do to catch up, but in the meantime enjoy reading (or just looking at the pictures haha) about my first campus introduction and visiting the stunning Trinity College Dublin.
First UCD Exploration
Jet lag meant I woke up at 4:30am and wasn’t able to return to sleep on Saturday morning. So, I set my sights on the James Joyce Library as an early morning activity. Before I left I noticed the weather app had an alert for something I didn’t quite recognize, freezing fog. I didn’t make much of it but put on my hat, gloves, scarf, and down coat and the outside greeted me with what looked like a light sheet of snow on the ground, see cover image.
I quickly realized my misconception when I *gracefully* slipped while crossing the road. In the early morning not many people were there to witness except kind Irish man who made a joke as I nervously picked my self up.
I continued my walk to the library but soon realized that it was closed, disappointing; however, excitingly, I stumbled across a large pond with many unfamiliar birds. Overall, the morning walk and my first introduction to campus was perfectly endearing. Despite my plans being curbed, the crisp air, early morning light, and green campus littered with sculptures painted a beautiful image of my new campus.
Trinity College Dublin
Later in the day, after a nap, I returned to the City Centre with a larger group of people with the main objective of visiting the historic 18th century Trinity College Dublin in the city centre. To get onto campus grounds we had to walk through an odd tunnel and once we emerged I felt like I transported back in time. The towering stone buildings of Georgian and Gothic architecture were larger life. It truly felt like another world.
I received a recommendation to visit the Library of TCD, so this is what we did after ogling at Parliament Square. The pictures online made it seems larger than life as well, so I sucked up the 20 euro it cost to be admitted to the library which included the Book of Kells Experience. As I have since learned, the Book of Kells is a Celtic Gospel book that was written in 800 AD on calf hide with a bird’s quill and has survived some 1200 years.
Trinity College was given the book in 1661 and is their most prized possession, no photography and a security guard to enforce it. The library’s purpose centers around preservation of literature, every published book in Ireland must be provided to The Old Library, which explains the cleared out shelves for our visit. While slightly disappointing in that regard it was very cool to learn about and see such an old and historic piece of literature and art in person.
Additionally, I loved seeing the oldest harp in Ireland which the library also houses. The harp is Ireland’s national symbol and you can see it everywhere here, think Guinness and also the two cent euro coin I found today. Fun fact, Guinness (1759) is older than the nation of Ireland (1922), so when deciding on the harp as iconography, the Irish were concerned about being associated with drinking (haha), so instead of using a different symbol their solution was since Guinness’ harp faces to the right Ireland’s faces to the left. Problem solved!
I regret not capturing more pictures of the gorgeous campus, but that just means I will have to return!
Bonus!
The night was still young after our Trinity College visit, so after getting dinner at a New York style pizza place, Bambino’s (9/10!), we wandered around the city centre and Grafton street for a while. One of my friends had pub recommendations from a family friend, so we went to go check them out. However, it turns out that is what every other tourist and Dubliner is doing on a Saturday night. So we popped in and out of at least five pubs, looking for enough seats for us all, but mostly just admiring the beauty and culture of the town and enjoying each others company before we threw in the towel ready for a good nights rest.
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