Remember that we no longer have the privileges of our wonderful Dublin Pass. We were now on our own financially. Which means that if ever there was a day to do free stuff, this was it. So we started by heading to...
The National Gallery of Ireland
But when we got there, it was still closed! On Sundays they don't open up shop until noon. So to pass the time we decided to check out the nearby park and the surrounding area. The park was nice, and had several nice statues in it. A really sort of creepy one of Oscar Wilde sitting on a rock, though. Didn't really like that, though I did like the columns nearby with some of his witty quotes on them. Eventually, though, the museum opened up, and we stormed the entrance along with the other art lovers and parents hoping to raise cultured children. They had some good stuff. Favorites include: Francis Danby's The Opening of the Sixth Seal and Jacob van Ruisdael's The Castle of Bentheim, 1653. After seeing pretty much every painting there we decided to swing by a nearby free museum...
The National Museum of Ireland Archeology
But they were running strange hours that day, so, yet again, we had to kill some time. After a quick stop at a cafe, we were seeing all sorts of artifacts. To be honest, at this point my memory of this museum is extremely vague now. I remember an Egyptian room. And a boat. And the bodies of all sorts of people who had fallen into peat bogs. They had those carefully set off in little alcoves, so you couldn't see them unless you really wanted to. Not for the faint of heart, I suppose. Ultimately, we weren't there for very long before we set off to...
The Irish Museum of Modern Art
I say 'set off to' because the journey to the museum was a struggle. It was way out on the fringe of our map, near where we had visited the Gaol, but our map wasn't clear, and Eunice was really struggling to find us and the museum. Eventually, though, in all our resourcefulness we trekked up the hill where the museum was, checked our bags in their lockers so we wouldn't steal the art, and went in to check it out. As is often the case with modern art, it was strange. We got to watch a film where someone basically destroys a house while dropping mattresses through a hole in the floor. We saw an exhibit that they intend to change every couple of days without telling anyone, to see if repeat visitors will notice the changes and be intrigued by them and wonder how art that isn't there anymore interacts with art that is there now. We got to stand in the middle of a big spinning white piece of fabric. And we got a souvenir from one exhibit that included eight large stacks of paper, each one with a book title on it, the intention being you take the top paper off whatever stack you like. Ryan ended up with Flowers for Hitler. I got The Great Gatsby. And it's still hanging on my bulletin board now.
That Evening
On our way back toward the heart of the city, we stopped off at some really cheap store to see what junk we could find. We ended up getting some ski socks for our Norway trip, which I may someday blog about. And a pack of six Crunchie bars. All for very cheap.
Then, as part of our continuing attempts to eat at "Oldest" places, we went to The Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Dublin. I got fish and chips, Ryan got what he described as one of the best sandwiches he'd ever had, in spite of the fact that it had sauce on it, and Ryan does not like sauces. (This is a frequent point of dinner conversations with Ryan.)
After that, we wandered around Dublin for a while, then headed back to the Hostel. Dedicated readers with excellent memories will recall that I still had to finish my paper on Frank Capra, which was due the following day. So I stayed up and cranked that out, sending it off before going to bed in that room of twelve for the last time.
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