After another breakfast in the church (today we will see a lot of non-church churches) we were off to a bus station. We had decided today to venture outside the immediate city in hopes of seeing a castle, a model railway museum, and a museum of childhood. The bus ride was an enjoyable trip as we watched the landscape transition from city to not quite city but not quite rural countryside along with a group of other traveling Americans. The bus dropped us off a bit down the road from our castle destination, so we had to trek back a bit. Lo and behold, the other American students were headed to the same place (though fools that they were, they had not invested in the mighty Dublin Pass), so we walked with them on the treacherous, sidewalk-free terrain, forced to choose between erring to close to the roadway or the deep gully of brambles and rocks. Our roadside voyage brought us to a wooded trail, where we left our American compatriots in the dust and hiked to...
Malahide Castle
On the outside, this place has a very classic castle look to it. The kind of castle you draw in elementary school, and the teacher says, "What a nice castle," without you having to point at it and say, "That is a castle." It was, quite clearly, a castle. Though as Ryan was quick to observe, it was lacking in the moat department. Ah well... The inside, on the other hand, lacked the traditionally imagined castle qualities, seeming a bit more modern in its decor. I would show you pictures, but as I recall, they were not allowed. Not that it would have mattered, because it is at this point, Dear Reader, that my camera battery called it quits for the trip. Alas. But what I recall from the castle is a room with lots of portraits, including one of Oliver Cromwell, and a great deal of lions in the decor, as I believe it was an animal of importance to the family. Oh, and a room that sought to recreate a child's room, and was filled with lots of toys and some pieces of a model railroad. Of course, we saw this as a perfect introduction to the next stops on our visit to the Malahide area, since we were planning to see...
The Fry Model Railway Museum & Tara's Place Museum of Childhood
But what did we find but a sign reading: Closed From Monday 28th September. It seems that they'd be opening up again on April 1st. Now, by post date of this entry, you are probably thinking, "Well, why weren't they open?" But remember, that all these events are taking place on the 20th of February, just about two months ago now. (Boy, I'm really on top of this blogging thing, huh?) So, disappointed that we wouldn't see trains or toys, we headed to the Malahide Castle Cafe (What would a castle be without a cafe?) for an expensive cup of tea and chocolate muffin.
From there, it was back to the bus stop after a walk through the park. One stop after getting on, look who boards with us but the other American students, who boarded, saw us, and said, "Well look who made the bus!" A comment which still sticks in my head as illogical, as it was not the last bus of the day and we were on it before them and in plenty of time. We also got to see the antics of a small child whose neglectful caretakers (kidnappers?) allowed her to repeatedly bang her head against the front window of the bus. These fellow passengers made it difficult to enjoy the semi-country scenery on our return to the heart of Dublin.
Once back, we realized that our time with the Dublin Pass was running short, and we still had a variety of stops to make before the last day was up and our horses turned back into mice and our carriage went back to a pumpkin and all that. So we decided to meander over to...
St. Patrick's Cathedral
But this proved to be strike three of the day! The cathedral turned out to be closed for a graduation that afternoon! Just our luck. The one real church we tried to go to this day was closed to us. The only way to make this up would be to visit two other faux-churches later that day. But first, we had more free stuff to claim at...
The National Gallery of Ireland
Entry here is free, so to draw Dublin Pass users in, they offer a free book to anyone who presents the pass at the Information Desk. Unfortunately, the old guy at the desk who is probably allowed out of the home every Saturday afternoon to work down at the Gallery thought we got them in the gift shop. The ladies in the gift shop were frustrated when we went to them with our request, but gave us the free books and mentioned something about having a talk with whoever was at information. So that's how we may have made some poor old man lose the one thing that got him out into the world every week. Oops. And we didn't even stay to see the museum. We figured we'd just come back on Sunday, when we weren't trying to check things off a list of free stuff and discounts. So we continued museuming to check off...
The Chester Beatty Library
Here we were offered not only free admission, but also a free gift! And we even got our choice of gift from a selection of three books. One about the museum in general, one about a special "Blue" exhibit they'd held recently, and one all about the Rembrandt House. Well, recalling how, due to the lack of Free-Marts in Amsterdam, we'd failed to purchase any souvenirs in Amsterdam, we both decided to take them up on the very nice Rembrandt book. Proudly carrying our free books and tickets, we wandered the "Library" for a while, spending most of our time looking at an impressive collection of art and rare books from the major world religions.
From here we were running out of time in the day and the museums of Dublin would be closing soon, so we hustled over to...
The Guinness Storehouse
Once again, we made our way quickly up to the Gravity Bar to enjoy the view, and our final free pint of Guinness at the source. This liquid nourishment would provide us with the strength to trek over to our dinner at...
The Church Bar & Restaurant
Drawn in under the influence of good reviews and a 10% Dublin Pass discount, we found ourselves in yet another building that used to be a house of worship. This one, it seems, had fallen the farthest. Pews had been replaced with tables, comfortable seating, and a large bar. The wine list was significantly longer than it used to be, and there were lots of beers on tap, and a wide selection of (not so Holy) spirits. As for the food... Well, I wouldn't have it as my last supper or anything, but it was pretty good. The Church fries were especially delicious, seasoned in all sorts of spices. I admit, I was a bit disappointed our meal didn't come with bread.
Dublin Literary Pub Crawl
I had hinted on Day 2 that we would be learning about the lives of Dublin's writers in a more interesting fashion later in the adventure. Well here it is. Dear Reader, if you ever find yourselves in Dublin and enjoy books and good times, do take this tour. It has been rated by the Sunday Times as #4 in a list of the world's 50 best walks, and it does not disappoint. Plus, if you have a Dublin Pass, you get a ticket at a reduced price! And here's what you get with that reduced price ticket: Two actors will take you around to four different pubs (unfortunately, pints not included), recounting all sorts of interesting tidbits about Dublin's famous writers, all while being extremely hilarious as they do so. They will act out scenes from various works, including "Waiting for Godot" (remember, I had seen that on Day Zero!) and one bit will be performed in front of the Dublin Tourist Information center, which is housed in... You guessed, an old church! They will teach you interesting things, like that Oscar Wilde was a heavy-weight boxer when he was a student. And then everything will wrap up with a quiz to test your knowledge and see if you are worthy of a t-shirt. Unfortunately, Ryan and I fell just short of the t-shirt level of knowledge, but we did each manage to get a question right, which was pretty impressive, considering we'd each had a pint at every stop.
Somewhat disappointed to realize that no one had ended up physically crawling on our pub crawl, we decided to head back to the hostel and call it a night.
Thus ends our adventures with the Dublin Pass. Tune in to Day 4, when we try to get around having to actually spend money to do things.
