Trinity University and North of the River Liffey

The Liffey at night

This morning I was awakened early by the sounds of garbage crushing in a truck.  Having heard this many times behind my place in Cleveland, I rolled over to ignore it.  Only it kept going.  And going.  I think there may be some kind of recycling center below my hotel window.  After awhile it stopped, and then the clanging began.  I looked at the window and saw men in Guinness shirts rolling countless empty kegs into a truck, and unloading countless more.  I gave in at 7:30 and got up.

I went to breakfast at the Queen of Tarts... Cafe, where I ordered Irish smoked salmon and eggs.  By far the best part of the meal was a brown soda bread toast.  The bread had pistachios baked in it and was delicious with butter.

Trinity University

From there I took a bus to Trinity University and took the tour, led by a charming, Chris O'Donnell look alike.
The Trinity student taught us how the university was founded,  all the political changes from Henry VIII, Cromwell, and onward,  and how it is now a public university where anyone in Ireland can go for 3000 Euros a year.  Beneath the gorgeous "long room" library there was an exhibit of an ancient illuminated manuscript of the four gospels called the Book of Kells.

The Long Room Library

The Trinity residences where Oscar Wilde lived, nic-named "Botany Bay" for their reputation for debauchery

From there I wandered up the shopping boulevard, O'Connell street.  I stopped by the Abbey Theater and bought a ticket for Brain Friel's Aristocrats tonight.  I got a discount because I belong to Actors' Equity-- 20 Euros for a ticket!  As I kept walking, the day began getting hot, and the crowds grew oppressive.  Most of the shops were chain stores, many of which you could find in any city of the U.S.  I ducked into a Marks and Spencer store to buy a sandwich and a soda for lunch.  Once out in the throng again, all I wanted to was to find a quiet spot of green to eat my lunch.  But somehow I couldn't get away from the crowds.  I got out my bus pass, intending to take the bus back to the hotel, but between the one way boulevards and the construction around Trinity University, I couldn't find a bus stop.  I ended up walking back to my hotel, which wasn't really that far, but I was hot, tired, hungry, and my bum knee was aching.  And of course, this made me cranky about all the tourists on the narrow sidewalks.  Yes, I realize I'm a tourist too, but I don't travel in packs of fifteen blocking the sidewalks, I don't stop mid-pace in crowded stairwells to stare at my phone, and I don't travel on the sidewalks like the Spaniards do, four abreast, so that no one can get by in the opposite direction.  I finally had it with a bunch of young Spaniards and just mowed through their sidewalk blockade.

Once back to the hotel I was able to eat a picnic on the grounds of Christchurch, which considerably lightened my mood.  Then back to the hotel to ice my tired knee (even though I had surgery two years ago, the flight did not agree with the muscles of my knee) and rest before going to dinner and the theater tonight.  This guy was my lunch companion:

He was hoping for some scraps, but alas, his hope was for naught.