We got up today and headed to Trinity College after a cereal and scones breakfast. We were one of first few people in to the Book of Kells exhibition; to see the book and the Long Room library. The Book of Kells is the four gospels written in around 800 AD in Latin and ornately decorated. Learning how it was created, bound, and written was really cool but the actual book was underwhelming. They do show different pages of it and today’s page was not as fancy in decoration as some. It was still cool to see though.

The Long Room was above the Book of Kells exibit and it was amazing. It houses a lot of old books and important books for Ireland. It is two stories and made of beautiful wood. It smelled of old paper and dust. Very neat to see for a book lover such as myself. There was a librarian putting away books and he did not have gloves on which surprised me. There was an exibit on European revolutionary books on display.

We then met up with my cousin Lindsey on the campus and we hung out the rest of the day. We all walked over to Dublin castle for a self guided tour that ended up being free!! It was free Wednesday there today. The surviving castle part is now a chapel and the reat are state rooms for governmental ceremonies. The exhibition was on the Easter risings in Dublin in 1916 and the fight for independence.

We then walked to the park next to it and then to Jo Burger for lunch. It wasn’t open yet so we wandered around St. George’s arcade and the Powerscourt Shopping Center. I bought a non traditional Irish Cladagh ring with an abolone shell as a stone. We ate our giant, delicious burgers and headed back closer to Trinity College to the Irish Whiskey Museum for a look around the gift shop. Tours were too expensive since we learned so much about whiskey at Jameson. Brandon wanted to get more Writer’s Tears whiskey that he had liked at the Whiskey Experience, so we went to the Palace Bar which was recommended to us at the Museum.

We then walked to the Ha’pennny bridge and the Temple Bar District. We stopped for a cider in the Temple Bar and enjoyed their live music. It was packed in there. The place is also huge; there are indoor and outdoor spaces to sit and eat and drink. We then went in gift shops in the area. It was misty off and on throughout the afternoon. We returned home for some cards and to wait for Megan to get out of work and go to dinner. She joined us and we went to an Indian place not too far away. They shoveled our plates high full of all different dishes; Lindsey and I ended up splitting a small.

After, we walked Grafton street looking for a chocolate shop for Megan and Lindsey. Brad, Ciara and I ended up getting crapes and Gelato from a place called Gino’s. I got a nutella, marshmallows one, even though I was stuffed from supper. Megan and Lindsey headed home and so did we, getting to bed early for our big Game of Thrones Tour tomorrow.

We got up early today to walk 40 min north to the pick up point for our Game of Thrones Tour. We got on the bus and our guide Aenne explained our plan of the day and then showed making of and effects dvds. After about an hour we stopped at a travel plaza to buy some sandwiches and snacks for lunch and the afternoon.

Everyone was really nice on the bus. We met an Australian couple and a dad and son from England who had been to Oshkosh for EAA.

Aenne is an actress and did fight training. She is also a huge Game of Thrones fan. We did a quiz and found the King of the North; James, he knew ever answer. Aenne also taught us about Irish and Northern Irish history. The natural boarder of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are the Cooley Mountains. There is no official sign marking the boarders anymore. Before the late 80s there were check points.

In 1170 Strongbow took over Ireland and started the architecture of events we saw today.

We stopped at Tullymore forest for a few hours hike through the woods. We got to wear awesome cloaks since it was a Winterfell tour and had walking sticks. We saw where they filmed finding the Wildlings camp, Tyrion and Jon Snow camped, and the bridge and stream where they found the direwolves. It was a beautiful walk in the woods with streams. The family who owned the wood were wealthy and well traveled and brought back trees from the Himalayas, India and America. So we saw a Himalayan fern and California Redwood. They also built a hermatige in honor of a family friend that died. Hermatiges are just random stone structures that don’t really serve any purpose; this one was built in the 1770s. We met the bus and started off to the next stop.

We arrived in Strangerford and ate our sandwiches on a bench in the square. Most everyone else got food from a restaurant. Then we saw two of the Northern Inuit dogs that played the direwolves as puppies. Summer and Greywind, really Odin and Thor. Their owner explained how he was contacted by his breeder and they were trained. Their owner and their owner’s brothers played extras in GoT and Vikings. His dad played a Dorthraki slave trader. Strangerford was a cute sea side town.

After Strangerford we Drove past new Castle Ward (designed and decorated in half because the Lord and Lady could bot agree on anything) to Old Castle Ward, used as some of the outdoor Winterfell sets. Ward was a tower house and outbulidings. We walked around the Castleford park and Strangerford Loch to Audley Castle, another tower house overlooking the Loch. Scenes with Brieanne and Jamie and some with Rob’s army were shot at Audley Castle and along the path.

We then drove to Inch Abbey where they shot the north men swearing fealty to Rob. We all got our cloaks on and swords, axes, and shields. Certain people got main character’s fancy swords and Brad got to wear The Hound’s helmet. We got awesome pictures in the Abbey. We had to swear fealty to James who won the quiz and then we had a few minutes to wander around. Everyone shared weapons and took pictures.

We watched a spoof Coldplay making of the GoT musical with the cast and the first two episodes of season one. We arrived back in Dublin and walked back to our apartment. Brad and Ciara went out to get something to eat but Brandon and I had eaten enough snacks that we just went to bed.