A Day In My Life - In Dublin
Apr. 22nd, 2012 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stapsdoes101thingsSo far I have spent about four days of my life in Dublin. This is one of them. Specifically, this is Sunday 15th April 2012, the final day of the 2012 BookCrossing convention, which was the reason for my being in Dublin in the first place - well, that and the cheap rail'n'sail deal, and a desire to see the world.
Here's what I saw on 15th April:
7.45am - Waking up in my lovely hostel bed. See, you can even phone them if you want to!
My hostel room. I had the whole room to myself, which was a blessing. If only I'd been able to turn the radiator down...
The view from my window, with bonus tram. I have tried to keep trams to a minimum in this series, but a few more may have crept in.
En-suite hostel bathroom. Not bad, all things considered.
Harpycumber, the convention logo, on a pinbadge.
Programme for the day.
8.15am - I set off to get some breakfast before all that kicked off. Dublin in the morning:
(The outside of the hostel)
(Whoops, there's another tram)
(In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone. You can't see much of her later in the day; there are tourists and giant leprechauns crowded six deep around her)
(busker outside Bewley's café - be back there in a moment for breakfast)
(you'd think such a wonderful gate would have something more interesting to see through it)
8.45am - Grab a seat in Bewley's; have a look at the breakfast menu
I spent most of the day trying to finish this book...
Breakfast
The lady in the blue coat is taking a photo of St Ann's Church. I don't know what the lady in black is taking a photo of, but then I am taking a photo of random photographing ladies, so I can't talk.
Walking back to the convention venue through St Stephen's Park
10am - Gathering with other BookCrossers at the Camden Court Hotel, with a frankly terrifying number of godawful tourist hats...
... which were distributed by the convention committee, all ready for the flashmob
And all the books that hadn't been claimed the day before were rounded up and labelled.
This is a tiny sample.
Gathering at the top of Grafton Street, ready for the flashmob
11am - When the whistle blew, we put our hats on and started reading.
Then we split up into ones and twos and went off on a treasure hunt...
11.15am - Releasing books into the wild in St Stephen's Park
olagorie, my treasure hunt partner
I'm not convinced that James Joyce would approve. The park keepers certainly didn't, so we took all the books away again and released them elsewhere
The Three Fates
The Huguenot Cemetery
Unhelpful self-portrait with some Oscar Wilde quotations
Lemon soap at Sweny's - which is not a chemist's any more, but a shop devoted to James Joyce
12.00pm Entering the Trinity College campus, and wild-releasing a book at this DNA sculpture
An accidental themed release - Keane and Keane
olagorie adds a book to the 'sphere within sphere' sculpture - it rather looked as if several BookCrossers had got there before us
And the choir was just coming out of chapel. (I wonder what the reaction would be if I turned up to choir with blue hair? Mind you, the robes are better than the academic-gown-plus-miniskirt combo that one used to see a lot at university chapel choir)
And out the other end of the campus and onto Dame Street. We stopped for a coffee (not pictured) and then pressed on.
I'm resisting the urge to make an Irish joke, here...
12.50pm - At this point it started raining.
Rain aside, Dublin is a fantastic city just to wander around.
1.36pm - Duck in St Patrick's Park - getting towards the end of our treasure hunt now
(I really have no idea)
2.15pm - Treasure hunt over, olagorie went off to join the group going on the Viking Splash and I went back to my hostel...
... made notes on the books I'd released on the walk
finished 'Threshold' and left it on the windowsill as I went out again...
Timecheck in the hostel lobby
2.50pm - I headed back up to Grafton Street, the spot where we did the flashmob, and thought about setting off on another treasure hunt...
... but gave up after a short while in St Stephen's Park
3.20pm - I wandered around Dublin instead...
... where you see all sorts of things
... see what I mean?
By 4.15pm I was getting cold and hungry and grumpy, so stopped for a bowl of hot soup and a toasted sandwich. Best ham sandwich I've ever eaten, I swear.
I arrived back at the Camden Court Hotel, the convention venue, at a quarter to five, in time to hear the results of the treasure hunt...
... and have a pint
Results in (we didn't win, but we didn't do badly), I wandered back to my hostel again
... wrote in my journal (6.40pm) ...
... and some postcards (7.30pm) ...
and set off to join the group at the Long Stone pub for the quiz at 8
Only slightly late (this is the Bank of Ireland)
Go Team Ballycumber! (9pm)
It's a fantastic pub, with amazingly eccentric décor. (9.50pm)
10.30pm - refreshments were distributed to keep us sweet while the committee totted up the results
10.40pm - after a nailbiting tie-breaker, we came in second place
I left at about 11.10pm
Back at the hostel - here's all the stuff I'd accumulated over the course of the day
11.50pm - in bed with a book. (Don't ask about the spider confetti.)
And the last thing I see before lights out is... the bunk above.
Here's what I saw on 15th April:
7.45am - Waking up in my lovely hostel bed. See, you can even phone them if you want to!
My hostel room. I had the whole room to myself, which was a blessing. If only I'd been able to turn the radiator down...
The view from my window, with bonus tram. I have tried to keep trams to a minimum in this series, but a few more may have crept in.
En-suite hostel bathroom. Not bad, all things considered.
Harpycumber, the convention logo, on a pinbadge.
Programme for the day.
8.15am - I set off to get some breakfast before all that kicked off. Dublin in the morning:
(The outside of the hostel)
(Whoops, there's another tram)
(In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone. You can't see much of her later in the day; there are tourists and giant leprechauns crowded six deep around her)
(busker outside Bewley's café - be back there in a moment for breakfast)
(you'd think such a wonderful gate would have something more interesting to see through it)
8.45am - Grab a seat in Bewley's; have a look at the breakfast menu
I spent most of the day trying to finish this book...
Breakfast
The lady in the blue coat is taking a photo of St Ann's Church. I don't know what the lady in black is taking a photo of, but then I am taking a photo of random photographing ladies, so I can't talk.
Walking back to the convention venue through St Stephen's Park
10am - Gathering with other BookCrossers at the Camden Court Hotel, with a frankly terrifying number of godawful tourist hats...
... which were distributed by the convention committee, all ready for the flashmob
And all the books that hadn't been claimed the day before were rounded up and labelled.
This is a tiny sample.
Gathering at the top of Grafton Street, ready for the flashmob
11am - When the whistle blew, we put our hats on and started reading.
Then we split up into ones and twos and went off on a treasure hunt...
11.15am - Releasing books into the wild in St Stephen's Park
olagorie, my treasure hunt partner
I'm not convinced that James Joyce would approve. The park keepers certainly didn't, so we took all the books away again and released them elsewhere
The Three Fates
The Huguenot Cemetery
Unhelpful self-portrait with some Oscar Wilde quotations
Lemon soap at Sweny's - which is not a chemist's any more, but a shop devoted to James Joyce
12.00pm Entering the Trinity College campus, and wild-releasing a book at this DNA sculpture
An accidental themed release - Keane and Keane
olagorie adds a book to the 'sphere within sphere' sculpture - it rather looked as if several BookCrossers had got there before us
And the choir was just coming out of chapel. (I wonder what the reaction would be if I turned up to choir with blue hair? Mind you, the robes are better than the academic-gown-plus-miniskirt combo that one used to see a lot at university chapel choir)
And out the other end of the campus and onto Dame Street. We stopped for a coffee (not pictured) and then pressed on.
I'm resisting the urge to make an Irish joke, here...
12.50pm - At this point it started raining.
Rain aside, Dublin is a fantastic city just to wander around.
1.36pm - Duck in St Patrick's Park - getting towards the end of our treasure hunt now
(I really have no idea)
2.15pm - Treasure hunt over, olagorie went off to join the group going on the Viking Splash and I went back to my hostel...
... made notes on the books I'd released on the walk
finished 'Threshold' and left it on the windowsill as I went out again...
Timecheck in the hostel lobby
2.50pm - I headed back up to Grafton Street, the spot where we did the flashmob, and thought about setting off on another treasure hunt...
... but gave up after a short while in St Stephen's Park
3.20pm - I wandered around Dublin instead...
... where you see all sorts of things
... see what I mean?
By 4.15pm I was getting cold and hungry and grumpy, so stopped for a bowl of hot soup and a toasted sandwich. Best ham sandwich I've ever eaten, I swear.
I arrived back at the Camden Court Hotel, the convention venue, at a quarter to five, in time to hear the results of the treasure hunt...
... and have a pint
Results in (we didn't win, but we didn't do badly), I wandered back to my hostel again
... wrote in my journal (6.40pm) ...
... and some postcards (7.30pm) ...
and set off to join the group at the Long Stone pub for the quiz at 8
Only slightly late (this is the Bank of Ireland)
Go Team Ballycumber! (9pm)
It's a fantastic pub, with amazingly eccentric décor. (9.50pm)
10.30pm - refreshments were distributed to keep us sweet while the committee totted up the results
10.40pm - after a nailbiting tie-breaker, we came in second place
I left at about 11.10pm
Back at the hostel - here's all the stuff I'd accumulated over the course of the day
11.50pm - in bed with a book. (Don't ask about the spider confetti.)
And the last thing I see before lights out is... the bunk above.