How to Fit a Day of Touring into Two Hours

The handle to our room's door does not quite fit, so to keep it shut, you must lock it every time otherwise it will swing open unexpectedly.  This can happen at inopportune moments, as you can imagine. 

Betta and I told our landlord about our situation, and he said that he would swing by to fix the problem.  Just leave the door unlocked and he would take care of it.  This, obviously, left us feeling very uncomfortable - thieves step right up; no work necessary.  I asked him if he could tell me a specific time when he would stop by so that I could just wait for him at home.  After some hemming and hawing, he finally agreed to come between 10am and 12pm. 

Perfect. 

I eat breakfast and watch a UK talk show called Loose Women; it's like The View but with humour.  Afterwards, I sit through a UK soap opera called Holly Oaks.  Then, I eat lunch while watching BBC News.  All in all, it was a great morning filled with food and British entertainment, but now it is 1pm and I'm still sitting in my apartment when I could be out on the town.  I like my landlord a lot - he is very helpful, nice, and wonderful - but he is obviously not punctual.  I call him on my mobile and he says he has "an appointment change" and will come by at 4pm....no wait....actually he will come at 3pm. 

Not so perfect. 

But I refuse to be daunted!  I throw on my running shoes and sprint, yes sprint, down O'Connell Street.  The street is full of obstacles so I weave through the crowds, jump over baby carriages, and shove the elderly out of my way.....okay, so actually I did only one of the above (guess which one) but everything sounds much more dramatic this way.  I was bound and determined to go on the tour of Christchurch Cathedral like I had planned originally.   The church is in the old Temple Bar area so it should be easy to find.

Maybe easy for normal people anyway.  I take a wrong turn, but end up coming into the back entrance of Dublin Castle (sometimes getting lost turns into a bonus). 

Inside of the castle's chapel

 

The castle also houses the Revenue Museum.  This sounds awesome, but I find out that revenue actually refers to a history of tax collecting.  Nevertheless, I go inside anyway since there is no admission fee (hey, why not?).   I nod at the gaurd and he winks at me!  Granted, it was not at all an "I think you're hot" wink - it was completely fatherly since the guy was at least 65 years old, but it still made me happy.  My first wink in Dublin :-)

Fun Fact from the Revenue Museum: Dubh means black in Gaelic.  Dublin (or Dubhlinn) gets its name from the black pool which connected to the River Liffey.  The Vikings actually were the first to settle and create and name Dublin as a city so that they could raid towns and take the first form of "taxes" (aka pillaging).

It turned out that Christchurch was only a few streets over from Dublin Castle, and I still had an hour to spare so I finally got my tour. 

It is a relatively small cathedral compared to ones from other parts of Europe, but the intricate stonework carvings and stained glass have a special place in my heart.  While I was there, an orchestra was rehearsing for an upcoming concert so I sat in the pews and listened to some classical music.  Nothing is more beautiful and lyrical than violins and harps.   It added the perfect touch to an already gorgeous ambience. 

I also went down into the church's crypts.  Don't worry; they are not nearly as spooky as they sound.  Currently, the crypts display the church's relics which include gold chalices, crucifixes, ledgers, letters from kings, carvings for sarcophogi, etc.  (What is the plural of a sarcophogus?)   The letters and ledgers were amazing - I wish that I could do calligraphy like that.  Even the accountants had perfect penmanship with flourishes in the 15th century.  Meanwhile, I can barely scrawl my name ledgibly!  The crypt also housed an old gallows (I can think of a few people to throw in there), and some midieval wardrobe (see below).

Fun Fact from Christchurch Cathedral: Apparently, when the church staff was cleaning out the organ, they found a mummified cat and mouse stuffed inside a pipe.  The pipe proved to be the perfect environment for mummification and the two were forever preserved chasing each other (they presumably got stuck during said chase).  The exhibit's label further explained that James Joyce makes reference to them in "Finnegan's Wake" when he describes someone, "As stuck as that cat to that mouse in that tube of that Christchurch organ..." 

After touring the church, I looked at my watch.  2:30pm.  I had a half an hour to go so I made a mad dash back to the apartment and opened the door at 3:01.  Not bad....except my landlord didn't arrive until 4:00pm. 

Oh well.  At least our door is fixed :-) ....and that is how you cram a day's worth of touring into 2 hours.