What a nice weekend. I was going to write about all about it on Sunday evening but I was so happy doing nothing with my hubby and son that I put it off. The food adventures started on Friday night when we ordered pizza. Since Ireland appears to be some sort of Google dead zone the only two places listed for pizza delivery were Dominoes and Pizza Hut. Joy of Joys. We might as well eat at McDonalds. We found a deal at Pizza Hut's website offering a pizza, wedges (fries) and garlic bread for 20euro. So Craig called to order and the guy on the line did not understand a word he was saying and kept asking us what kind of cookies we wanted. Naturally Craig was puzzled and went over the add with the guy again since it didn't mention anything about cookies. 30 mins later our steaming pile of processed food arrived and we realised why the guy taking the order didn't understand what Craig was talking about: the boxes had "Dominoes" written all over it. We had meant to order from Pizza Hut but Craig's phone called Dominoes instead. It appears that they have competing, and very similar, promotions right now.
http://www.pizzahutdelivery.ie/ THE PHD WINNING DEAL
http://www.dominos.ie/ THE MEGA DEAL
On Saturday we took the train to Pearse station and walked over to Grafton Street and St.Stephen's Green playground before heading to Trinity College to see the book of Kells. We went for lunch at a little place called Pasta Fresca. Food okay, service bad. An official Going Out to Eat Pet Peeve of mine is having people seated after you served before you. Especially when all we ordered was spagetti...not like I was asking for a turkey here. When the food arrived William stuffed his little face with fresh noodles as fast as he could. The feeding frenzy lasted for about 5 minutes and then he promptly fell asleep. Noodle bliss.
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| Awesome painting/sculpture at Pasta Fresca. |
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| Alive, alive-o The Molly Malone statue: "The Tart with the Cart" near Grafton St |
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| View up Grafton St. |
I'd been putting off doing some of the touristy stuff for when we have visitors but if this climate lives up to it's reputation we will probably remain in shamrocked isolation for the rest of time so we gave in. I'm so glad we did. I've wanted to see the book of Kells since I studied the Chi Rho page in Art History way back in the day. The exhibit was fascinating; lots of history (just in case you want to know how many times the monastery in Kells burned down), huge blown up copies of the illustrated pages, information about the people who wrote and drew the book etc. A few too many stairs to make it easy with the stroller but I was game. The books (Kells and Darrow, the older of the two) are displayed in a lit case in the centre of a dark room. It was so beautiful and strange that tears came to my eyes when I saw it. I stared at them for at least 30 minutes. We were in for another treat upstairs.
The Trinity College Library. Love. Love, love, love, love, love. We
hauled the stroller with the little prince sitting in it up two flights
of stairs and as soon as we levelled out again you could smell the books.
Books older than Canada. Books bound and written by hand. Books made on
the earliest printing presses. Books on shelves to the ceiling in
alcove after alcove. I could have stood there all day looking up.
Understandably the guardians of the library are against photography so I
wasn't able to get that shot but I'll never forget it.
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| There was a wedding taking place at the chapel and we got to
see the bride and her attendants enter the church. So lovely. Weddings
are such nice things. |
After Trinity College we stopped for coffee to wait for our train. I can't remember the name of the place but it was pretty, made strong coffee and gave us a free brownie. Actually the waiter offered it to another couple first, but they had given up chocolate for Lent. I said we'd jump on that temptation for them. You know...for God :) To hell with the calories. Craig also asked the waiter for a slice of walnut cake and he brought us two glasses of water instead. Apparently we aren't the only ones having trouble with accents.
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| Interior of awesome coffee shop |
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| ceiling of the Pearse Station |
We made it back to Castleknock before 5. I love coming home early because it cuts the stress about dinner and diminishes the grumpy child factor by 6%.
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