Wednesday morning I had class again and we started workshopping people's 2-page stories. It was lovely to hear everyone's writing, especially since Mr. Roper only allows us to say things we liked and observations. Takes a lot of the stress off. Was also pleased to note that we're pretty much all on the same level writing-wise: all clearly meant to be here, but no James Joyce's. Speaking of him, we've been discussing many of his stories in class as well. I find him a tad too depressing, but he certainly has beautiful writing.
After class we relaxed at home (and ate some burritos filled with our stuffed pepper filling) before heading to St. Stephen's Green to catch some pre-Bloomsday music. It was fairly classical and sounded lovely. Then we went to a bar called the International House which is supposed to have great comedy and music, but it was fairly dead when we got there. We left after a pint to meet up with some Iowa Writing friends for more pints at The Bleeding Horse which was lovely. Much less crowded than the first time we'd been there. After a Bulmers cider (soooo good, not as sweet as American hard ciders), I headed home early to work on homework. How responsible!
Thursday was Bloomsday! For those who don't know, Bloomsday commemorates the walk around Dublin that was taken by Leopold Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses. It began for me with more workshop class and the first workshop of one of my pieces! People seemed to like it much more than I expected which was pleasing. After class, many of us (including Mr. Roper) headed to Grafton St. to check out the Davy Byrnes, which is where Leopold Bloom had his famous lunch of gorgonzola cheese and burgandy. It was INCREDIBLY packed with people all dressed up and reciting Ulysses, so we didn't stay long. Instead, we headed just down the street to The Duke which is a lovely old and quite large pub. We had pints and discussed the merits of writing and reading (because we're all such English nerds) with Mr. Roper and it was all very interesting and fun.
The Davy Byrnes!
One of the pondy areas.
The entrance to the large green area, so many flowers and trees!
After a lovely dinner of homemade bruschetta (om nom nom), my roommates and I took a cab to the home of a few of our fellow writers where we proceeded to celebrate making it through our first week of classes. We eventually moved on to O'Connell's bar, which is mainly populated by locals, and had a fantastic rest of the evening.
Friday was not the best for me. I woke up with a horrible allergy cold and am still trying to get over it. I did manage to leave the house to go for a full Irish breakfast with my roommates at a cafe called Moda. While I had a somewhat smaller version, the full Irish breakfast consists of eggs, toast, sausage, rashers (Irish bacon), tomato, black pudding, white pudding, and beans. My plate lacked the puddings and the beans, but I'm determined to get the full course on a day where my head isn't so achey. The rest of the day was spent doing readings for class and drinking tea.
Virginia Woolf, another local cat, kept me company.
Today, while still a little sickly, I managed to be much more productive! Went to downtown Dublin with a few of my roommates and wandered over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells! The Book of Kells is an incredibly beautiful and ornate gospel book created by Celtic monks around 800AD. It's regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure. We weren't allowed to take pictures of it, but it was quite lovely. I couldn't believe how much detail went into even the smallest areas of the illustration. There was also a little pre-exhibit that talked about other old and famous books and even showed you the stones that the monks used to create various color pigments. Once you see the Book of Kells, the exhibit takes you upstairs to the Old Trinity Library which is almost MORE beautiful. I wish I could've taken pictures because there are simply thousands of old and rare books in a library that looks like it came straight out of Beauty and the Beast. There are also a bunch of glass cases with cool history stuff including Ireland's oldest harp and the skeleton of an "Irish giant" who I believe stood over 7 foot and weighed 30 stone. Very excellent.
Pretty much the only thing you can take a picture of: the outside.
Afterwards, we wandered down Grafton St. and stopped at a large cafe called Bewley's where I had some pink lemonade and a chocolate eclaire. Very tasty, and the cafe was super cute. Later on, my roommates and I had a dinner of blue cheese burgers with potatoes and are now about to dig into a Bailey's cheesecake. I'm eager to try it, so I'm gonna get going! Laters!
Home of tasty eclairs and many other yummy things!
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