Dublin, Ireland

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finding

Last week I was lucky to spend 72 hours in Dublin, Ireland.
This was my first time travelling here, but I knew what I wanted to find.
After some light research I found the sights that I wanted to see.

These were the:

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and

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My first stop was Dublin Castle, which is home for the Chester Beatty Library.
The library was established in 1950 to hold the collections of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty.
This library contains many historical artifacts, from manuscripts, prints, rare books and more.

 

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The article from this library that stuck with me the most I found in the temporary exhibit, “Chester Beatty’s A-Z from Amulet to Zodiac”. Under P, for Papyrus.

Follow this link to see the artifact I was looking at: http://www.cbl.ie/cbl_image_gallery/exhibition/detail.aspx?imageId=1497&ImageNumber=T0005909&exhibitionId=19&page=1

This article stuck with me because I could physically see the age of this papyrus. All I could think about was that there was someone who was actually responsible for writing this. Someone took this sheet of papyrus, and wrote out each character, somewhere in time and history.

 

My next stop was Trinity College University campus, to see the library there.

trinity college

After the exhibits at the Chester Beatty Library, I was excited to see the books and book shelves in the long room of Trinity College Library.

This library holds 200,000 books, most of which required a second level expansion of the library for accommodation.

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The library was so quiet, and felt just like a library should. It smelt like a library, and you could feel the history and how old the building and the books were. Before entering the long room there is a small area where two workers were cleaning and preserving books. It must be a tedious job.

In this library I tried to picture people actually coming in to use the library, people using the ladders to reach the top shelves, taking a book down and reading it. I was imagining the number of hands each book must have touched, and the amount of knowledge people acquired from these books.
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Booky Smells

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So my birthday is just over a month away and I am getting a head start on dropping the subtle hints of what I would like for my birthday.

Subtle hint #1. These candles from “Frostbeard” on Etsy. Um..this may be one of the best book buys for book lovers that isn’t an actual book. Bonus points for creativity, even though I gave you the idea for the gift.

https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/159184877/old-books-book-lovers-scented-soy-candle