My to-do list for Dublin wasn´t that long, I´ve been there before and after spending some days at the Causeway Coast I just wanted to enjoy city life.
- tea at Bewleys (which doesn´t exist anymore)
- hot chocolate at Butlers (done)
- having fun at the Glen Hansard concert (it was amazing)
- photographing a redhead
- strolling around Grafton Street and Temple Bar area
- finally visiting Trinity College
Besides Beweleys I did all of that an let´s start with Trinity College – as it was the centre (and origin) of modern-day Dublin.
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 as a new “mother” university like the ones in Cambridge or Oxford. Today it is one of the seven ancient universities (foundedn before 1600) of Britain and Ireland, as well as Ireland’s oldest surviving university and ones of the most elite universities in Europe.
Originally established outside Dublin’s city walls Trinity College now is surrounded by the city and is located on College Green, just opposite the historic Irish Houses of Parliament. Besides being one of the most elite European universities it also is known for its library housing more than 6 million of books and manuscripts including the Book of Kells.
The Long Room – the main chamber of the Old Library is 65 metres long and houses around 200.000 books. When I approached the Old Library I saw a huge queue of people waiting and saw a second (empty line) labelled “pre-booked-tickets”. So I just took my phone, went online and booked a ticket for the next possible time slot, 15 minutes later. Easy peasy and these pre-booked tickets were the first to enter, which gave me a little head start. I more or less ignored the Book of Kells exhibition and just went on to the Long Room – to get at least a little bit of time with not that many people. And it worked! It´s just such a beautiful and impressive room, you´d want to curl up with a book in a corner and read for hours.
During the summer month you could even stay at the campus, it is possible (like at many universities in the UK) to rent rooms in the student housing while they are on holiday.
