first on the agenda this morning was the book of kells, so after breakfast we headed over to trinity college. beautiful buildings. and my husband was fascinated by some sort of solar powered trash/recycling receptacle... men. anyhoo, really enjoyed seeing the exhibits in the long hall. again, me and old books can't go wrong. :) it's too bad you can't take photos of the library-- it's just so lovely. and the crowd wasn't too bad either. there were a ton of people right as you walk in, in the area talking about the book of kells but as you passed thru the doorways, no one was actually in the room looking at the pages of book itself. pretty cool to have some alone time with major sites (which would be a major recurrance on this trip.)
after seeing the long room, we hopped on the good ol' hop on/hop off bus and rode out to kilmainham gaol. this was a really interesting place to visit. our tour guide was very informative and great to listen to. i'm the first to admit that while i know a fair amount about irish history pre-1600, the modern history is not my strong suit. this was definitely the place to learn about that though. my husband really enjoyed seeing the architecture and learning the history of the uprising here as well.

once we had completed our tour at kilmainham (including the museum, which is certainly worth a look while you're there), we headed to what turned out to be my favorite place in dublin - st. michan's church. we got to st. michan's at the tail end of the lunch break, so we walked around outside of the church taking a few pictures before we could get in for the tour of the crypts. once we did get in, it was just myself, my husband, and a gentleman from australia off to visit st. michan's mummies. the tour guide was kitschy and hilarious, and fairly informative. seeing the actual mummies was pretty cool too -- not to mention the fact that we got to molest the crusading knight, ::ahem::.

after st. michan's, we headed back across the liffey and did a little shopping and walking around in the city center. after walking around for a bit, we realized we still had some time before dinner, so we decided to head over to christchurch catheral. this site has such a wonderful history and the building has some amazing architectural details.

for dinner, we decided to eat in temple bar and found gallagher's boxty house. the food and service were both excellent. we also enjoyed some fine murphy's stout and live music. after dinner, we bought tickets for the ghostbus and headed out for some spooky fun. (i know, i know... more kitsch, but hey- we'd already played with mummies that day, why not??) the ghostbus is perhaps a little overpriced for what it is, but we did have fun and got lots of orbs/dust in our photos (any other ghosthunter fans out there?!?)

after the ghost tour ended, we walked back to the hotel and headed for bed. however, sleep was not easy. i was nervous. what can i say? day 3 was ::dun, dun, dun:: driving day...
to be continued...