"Meet me under the whale at the Natural History Museum."

*Donovan reference. That song was stuck in my head all day.

Well my goodness, my feet are dead. I spent today in most every museum I wanted to get to in Dublin City: The Natural History Museum, The National Library, The National Museum of Archaeology, and The Chester Beatty Library. The whole time I was thinking about how horrified Dad would be to hear about how much I saw in so little time. You would have loved them all, Dad, especially the Chester Beatty. But I by no means feel cheated of time - I saw pretty much what I wanted to see. Don't begrudge me too much for looking at things quickly. :)

Still to see: the inside of Christ Church Cathedral, and Trinity College. I think it's weird that so much of the college is a museum, while it's still an active university. I think that going on campus when I'm not a student would make me feel like a trespasser. BUT, the Book of Kells is there and I couldn't face myself if I went to Ireland and passed that by.

The Natural History Museum was neat, although seeing that many taxidermed animals made me feel quite claustrophobic. At one point I realized that I was unconsciously having a staring contest with a crouching tiger. I also saw a fish called an Opah, and I thought it said Oprah, which made me laugh. Then an old man came up to me while I was looking at the shell collection; he produced a shell from his own pocket and held it up to one in the case, and said, "Look! Does this not look like that one there?" I said that it sort of did. "I think I've found a match," he said, and then read the name off the case with pride. I asked him if he'd found a lot of those or just that one, and he said wryly, "There were about a hundred where I was!" I told him that he should try to sell it to the museum and make a profit from his secret stash; he seemed to think that was a good idea, and thanked me for confirming his suspicions.

The National Library had a wing on Yeats, which I enjoyed, although I realized that I actually know very little about the man. I've read some of his poems, though, obviously. Apparently he had a younger sister named Lolly (well, her real name was Elizabeth, but they called her Lolly) - which made me happy, because that's what Ami calls me. I wasn't sure what to do with the reading room - that sounds stupid. I mean that I was surprised to see it as an actual active READING ROOM, where students were sitting at desks and pouring over all the old books. It made me feel slight self-conscious for not having a specific reason to be there, so I made a round of the room and looked at a few of the books, and went out. I do remember that the ceiling was cool.

There was a sort of demonstration or protest between the Library and the National Museum, with a ton of police and pedestrians and a news crew. I walked around it and headed inside. That was by far the most interesting museum to me - it focused mostly on the history of Ireland, from the early stone-age days to the vikings and up through more recent years. There were also rooms on the Romans and the Egyptians. I spent a few hours in there, although by then my feet had started to hurt quite badly. It was really fascinating, though! (The museum, not my feet.)

By then it was 4 o'clock, and all museums close at 5. So I walked quickly to Dublin Castle and went into the Chester Beatty Library (because I know where these things are now, ha!). I was only there for probably 40 minutes because of closing-time, but I really enjoyed it. They had Japanese, Chinese, Islamic and early European documents and pictures. I especially enjoyed the case showing all the different book covers throughout the centuries. Oh! Illuminated manuscripts, too! Those are lovely. It makes me want to take up being really brilliant and artistic with paper. I'll have to figure out where to get gold, and discover how to write with it... hm. Homework. I wandered around for awhile after that, not really feeling quite ready to come home yet, but without a specific destination in mind. Eventually I found Pearse (I never CAN find that place without getting lost), got on a train, and then walked very slowly back home even though it was incredibly cold. My feet refused to do the quick-city-walk any more.

Tomorrow is going to be fabulous! I'm having my first official "tour" - in Limerick! I'll write about it when I get back though. For now I'm just praying that I actually wake UP when my alarm goes off at 6 AM. Or before... probably before. I need to walk out the door at 7.

Anywayyyy. I'm going to go see if there's anything on TV or anything. I'm too tired to be creative and write things. Have a good afternoon, folks at home!