Invading Dublin! (the last part)
Door: Sarajan Graanoogst
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Sarajan
20 April 2014 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Cardiff
Part 4 the Jedi Archives, mummies and the journey back
When my alarm (Laura Pausini’s Io Canto) woke me I felt much better. And since the sun was shining brightly through the large stained glass window of the breakfast hall, depicting a merry troupe of travelers, I was looking forward to today’s outings. Martina and I left immediately after breakfast to explore some of the sites we visited the day before more thoroughly.
After the first few places had been closed and would remain so until noon we figured that due to the fact that it was Sunday most, if not all, places would remain closed until then. So we decided to visit at least St Stephens Green (a park) in the meantime. We enjoyed a nice stroll in the garden but fairly quickly moved on to visit St Patrick’s Cathedral and afterwards the Christ church Cathedral. Martina decided to join mass at the first Cathedral and cut me free to visit Phoenix Park in the meantime. I never really got to that park, but have enjoyed at least the weather until we met up according to agreement at Christ Church Cathedral. In the Cathedral we saw the beautiful interior. I keep marveling at the effort and detail given to buildings. I’m not complaining, I just find it interesting, though in those times it was probably a symbol of status as well. In the crypts we saw the mummified cat and mouse and could follow the history of the church through the few centuries it had stood.
After the Cathedral we went on to the Chester Beatty library; the place where old manuscripts were on display. We have seen old manuscripts from different cultures and linked to different religions as well. It was beautiful, but for some reason I had expected more. I still enjoyed watching the beautifully decorated pages of the manuscripts; I had just expected to see more. When we had our fill of texts and illustrations we moved on to Trinity College where I had hoped to see the decorated book of the Celts and the very old library whereupon as rumor has it the Jedi Archives (seen in “the Attack of the Clones”). Due to the pretty large queue in front of the library there Martina decided to move on to the National Museum to see the mummified bodies of sacrifices left in Bogs in order to appease fertility gods. Supposedly in the old times (if memory serves me before the Celtic period) people were sacrificed in periods of less bountiful harvests had been brought in. People believed that in those instances the rulers had displeased the gods and as result the very land rebelled by providing less food. I was lucky enough to be able to visit this museum as well (I was able to browse through the exhibition in about an hour).
But let’s talk Star Wars. At the library of Trinity College I had learnt some interesting facts about how very old manuscripts (like the book of the Celts) had been made. The cover and pages of the book as well as the beautiful decorations within. When I left the exhibition of the book (I had expected to see more pages of the book than just the few on which the book was left open) and moved on to the “sacred place” for Star Wars fans I was not disappointed in what I saw, only in the measure of access the people were allowed. We were only allowed to traverse half of the main aisle of the library. Regardless of the limited access the visibly two-story library with aisles filled with bookshelves up to the ceiling could not fail to impress. Before every aisle a marble bust of a famous philosopher or scientist could be seen. And if you hold pictures of the main hall and the Jedi-Archives next to each other you can see that the only differing detail was caused by the “people” whose busts were in the library and the more modern outlook of the interior. Honestly if you search the differences by doing a google search you could say: “wow, it looks like a copy paste job with a bit of photo-shopping to make the outlook more modern”.
When I was done marveling the library of Trinity College and had browsed through the “National History Museum” I went to see St. Stephen’s Green one more time. On the way there I had quite the peculiar experience. I passed a hotel where police had been stationed at all the entrances. Additionally a few colored people were standing along the streets with boards that had a singular large poster on it. The focus of interest was named a murderer on the posters. So for as far as I know the police were either waiting for a murderer to leave or arrive at the hotel. The former seems more likely to me as the latter would give the culprit the opportunity to spot problems from afar. Either way, I enjoyed my last stroll in a park for that trip before rushing back to the hostel to take a shower, get packed and eat some food before we had to leave for the eleven-and-a-half hour journey home.
On the way home I barely got any sleep which was quite a bother as I had a programming assignment waiting for me at home. I did enjoy a nice football match, Barcelona vs Real Madrid, which was quite the thriller with a 4-3 outcome in Barcelona’s favor, but as soon as the match was over the ever eluding sleep began to get on my nerves. In the end I got home completely shattered. I had not been able to get any shuteye due to cold (feet). The following day was one of the hardest ever. Granted the assignment was not one for a grade, but it provided the (highly) necessary practice for a test that was rapidly approaching. And since that programming course had given me problems since the beginning and the professor pretty much left us to find the answers to our questions on the web with hardly any help at all. The teaching assistants were kind but asking them questions had the same result if they were unable to see the issue straight away. But I will tell you more about the trials I faced during my education in Cardiff.
So the next install will mostly be about me telling about the modules I have been following in Wales. If that fails to give enough interesting material don’t worry I can always move on to the Welsh Varsity competition. The great sports event in South Wales where two rival Universities met to compete in several sports. It is much like the Dutch students competition with one exception: The number of competing parties.
Stay tuned for the next installment!
When my alarm (Laura Pausini’s Io Canto) woke me I felt much better. And since the sun was shining brightly through the large stained glass window of the breakfast hall, depicting a merry troupe of travelers, I was looking forward to today’s outings. Martina and I left immediately after breakfast to explore some of the sites we visited the day before more thoroughly.
After the first few places had been closed and would remain so until noon we figured that due to the fact that it was Sunday most, if not all, places would remain closed until then. So we decided to visit at least St Stephens Green (a park) in the meantime. We enjoyed a nice stroll in the garden but fairly quickly moved on to visit St Patrick’s Cathedral and afterwards the Christ church Cathedral. Martina decided to join mass at the first Cathedral and cut me free to visit Phoenix Park in the meantime. I never really got to that park, but have enjoyed at least the weather until we met up according to agreement at Christ Church Cathedral. In the Cathedral we saw the beautiful interior. I keep marveling at the effort and detail given to buildings. I’m not complaining, I just find it interesting, though in those times it was probably a symbol of status as well. In the crypts we saw the mummified cat and mouse and could follow the history of the church through the few centuries it had stood.
After the Cathedral we went on to the Chester Beatty library; the place where old manuscripts were on display. We have seen old manuscripts from different cultures and linked to different religions as well. It was beautiful, but for some reason I had expected more. I still enjoyed watching the beautifully decorated pages of the manuscripts; I had just expected to see more. When we had our fill of texts and illustrations we moved on to Trinity College where I had hoped to see the decorated book of the Celts and the very old library whereupon as rumor has it the Jedi Archives (seen in “the Attack of the Clones”). Due to the pretty large queue in front of the library there Martina decided to move on to the National Museum to see the mummified bodies of sacrifices left in Bogs in order to appease fertility gods. Supposedly in the old times (if memory serves me before the Celtic period) people were sacrificed in periods of less bountiful harvests had been brought in. People believed that in those instances the rulers had displeased the gods and as result the very land rebelled by providing less food. I was lucky enough to be able to visit this museum as well (I was able to browse through the exhibition in about an hour).
But let’s talk Star Wars. At the library of Trinity College I had learnt some interesting facts about how very old manuscripts (like the book of the Celts) had been made. The cover and pages of the book as well as the beautiful decorations within. When I left the exhibition of the book (I had expected to see more pages of the book than just the few on which the book was left open) and moved on to the “sacred place” for Star Wars fans I was not disappointed in what I saw, only in the measure of access the people were allowed. We were only allowed to traverse half of the main aisle of the library. Regardless of the limited access the visibly two-story library with aisles filled with bookshelves up to the ceiling could not fail to impress. Before every aisle a marble bust of a famous philosopher or scientist could be seen. And if you hold pictures of the main hall and the Jedi-Archives next to each other you can see that the only differing detail was caused by the “people” whose busts were in the library and the more modern outlook of the interior. Honestly if you search the differences by doing a google search you could say: “wow, it looks like a copy paste job with a bit of photo-shopping to make the outlook more modern”.
When I was done marveling the library of Trinity College and had browsed through the “National History Museum” I went to see St. Stephen’s Green one more time. On the way there I had quite the peculiar experience. I passed a hotel where police had been stationed at all the entrances. Additionally a few colored people were standing along the streets with boards that had a singular large poster on it. The focus of interest was named a murderer on the posters. So for as far as I know the police were either waiting for a murderer to leave or arrive at the hotel. The former seems more likely to me as the latter would give the culprit the opportunity to spot problems from afar. Either way, I enjoyed my last stroll in a park for that trip before rushing back to the hostel to take a shower, get packed and eat some food before we had to leave for the eleven-and-a-half hour journey home.
On the way home I barely got any sleep which was quite a bother as I had a programming assignment waiting for me at home. I did enjoy a nice football match, Barcelona vs Real Madrid, which was quite the thriller with a 4-3 outcome in Barcelona’s favor, but as soon as the match was over the ever eluding sleep began to get on my nerves. In the end I got home completely shattered. I had not been able to get any shuteye due to cold (feet). The following day was one of the hardest ever. Granted the assignment was not one for a grade, but it provided the (highly) necessary practice for a test that was rapidly approaching. And since that programming course had given me problems since the beginning and the professor pretty much left us to find the answers to our questions on the web with hardly any help at all. The teaching assistants were kind but asking them questions had the same result if they were unable to see the issue straight away. But I will tell you more about the trials I faced during my education in Cardiff.
So the next install will mostly be about me telling about the modules I have been following in Wales. If that fails to give enough interesting material don’t worry I can always move on to the Welsh Varsity competition. The great sports event in South Wales where two rival Universities met to compete in several sports. It is much like the Dutch students competition with one exception: The number of competing parties.
Stay tuned for the next installment!
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
