A Scoop of Dublin and a Pinch of Aberdeen

So at the moment I am sitting in my room at Aberdeen which is fantastic. First of all, my residence building is the first in the row and therefore generally has the best view of the river. Second, our flat faces out and away from all the other buildings, towards the river. Third, we are on the top floor which means that the view is fantastic, it’s lovely and private, and we get a work-out every day climbing up and down the stairs.

I left Dublin at 9:30 this morning but luckily before I left I got to do some of my old favourite things. One of them was the hop-on, hop-off tour. I know that every driver says the exact same thing but I just love it. And they drop me in all the places that I want to go most. On Monday and Wednesday, for example, I spent a good amount of time in St. Stephen’s Green which is absolutely one of my favourite places in Dublin. It is just such a beautiful park. On Wednesday, though, I discovered another park which gives St. Stephen’s a good run for its money. I think it is technically called Merrion Park or something like that but I am just going to call it Wilde’s Park because apparently that’s where Oscar Wilde grew up. Now there is a statue of him and I suppose his house. Anyways, it’s beautiful. It’s in an area which is a little bit quieter than St. Stephen’s and I think the park is less well known so there aren’t as many people wandering through it. But on Wednesday I got my lunch downtown and then hopped back on my bus tour to get there. When I got off I found a lovely bench under a huge tree and just sort of munched and admired. There was also a pigeon who stayed with me while I ate. I named him Fred and gave him lots of little nibbles because he turned out to be very loyal. Then I just sort of wandered around the park and snapped pictures. Even though I’ve been here for a while I am still getting used to just how green it all is. The other thing I did on Monday was go to see the Book of Kells. It was really amazing just to see how much work went into making a single book. Even just making the blank book took an extensive amount of time and effort but what they produced was magnificent.

On Tuesday Bry and I went to Malahide Castle which was fantastic. It was actually owned and lived in by the same family for over 800 years, save a few during the Cromwellian era. It was only sold finally in like the 60s or 70s. That’s just fantastic, I think. And the grounds are magnificent. They have what may be my favourite kind of forest where the trees are all wrapped in ivy. I just love it because no matter the season it’s always green.

On Wednesday I was supposed to go on a tour to Newgrange but it didn’t end up running. It’s alright, I’ll go on it when I visit again. Instead I got another day around the city. It turned out to be fantastic because I got to go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I had thought I wasn’t going to be able to go which I wasn’t too happy about because it is a place I absolutely adore and could spend hours in. When I got there the visa machine was actually broken so I thought I wasn’t going to be able to go in because I didn’t have enough cash. But then the lady said I could go so I ended up buying something from the gift shop to make up for it. It’s a lovely little guardian angel made of crystal and right now it’s hanging with my keys. But I just sort of walked around for a bit and looked at things and snapped pictures. I was taking a picture of a giant stained glass window at one point and a nice, elderly man just came up and asked if I knew the story on the window. I didn’t so he told me that it was actually the story of St. Patrick’s life. This one explanation evolved into a fantastic tour when I started asking more general questions about the windows. I must have been there for an hour and a half, just taking this wonderful, impromptu tour. It was really, really a brilliant visit.

So now I am sitting in my room. All of my flatmates are lovely. After I got settled they even volunteered to take me out to a shop so I could get a duvet. I haven’t gotten sheets yet but that’s on the itinerary for tomorrow and I’ve been loaned them for tonight. They also showed me how to get to the university which was brilliant. You have to go through Seaton Park and then the main university buildings are sort of on the other side of a main road which the park leads to. What I was super excited about though was that the whole “Main Street” of the university is cobbled. All the buildings along it are so lovely and old as well, it’s just beautiful. At the end of Seaton Park too there’s an old church whose name is escaping me but it’s fantastic as well. The whole place is just so old and lovely.

Anyways, it is getting rather late so I’d better toddle off and get some sleep.

From Aberdeen with love,

Haley