For Chuck Beatty...we owe him so much

Whirlwind. As I sit here writing this blog post, I'm having a hard time even remembering what I've done the past few days. I have seen more museums, sights of historical importance, and pretty stuff in the last two weeks than in my whole life, maybe.
So anyways, yesterday we started off the morning with a thoroughly confusing class on how to define culture. I always feel like their trying to trick us into discussions like these were there's no real answer or the answer is simply, you can't define culture. Don't get me started. It makes my head hurt. But after that stimulating class we went to the National Museum of Ireland--Archaeology. If was like a labyrinth in there and they had so much stuff. The early things were just rocks and gold but they had some beautiful chalices, crosses and things like that as we went along. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any pictures.
Some highlights of the museum:
-some random Egyptian mummies (yeah in an IRISH museum, I know)
-the bell of St. Patrick...I don't think this was actually owned by him but it was still cool
-Mary Helen informing me that I am not allowed to bring my furby in the museum (dang it)
-the bog people...Allow me to elaborate. These are people who were killed for some reason or another and thrown into bogs as a burial. These murders or executions took place as far back as the 1700s. Their bodies have been preserved because of the condition of the bogs. Their skin, hair, clothes, teeth and organs are mostly in tact. It was kinda creepy. Here's a picture of one of the less creepy ones that I found online.
Some of them were definitely terrifying to see. It is fascinating to me how they are so well preserved. Scientists could even see what they ate for their last meal and therefore estimate the time of year of their death because of the types of food they ate. Gross.
Then we went to the National Library. Like my mecca, right? Well you just wait til I entertain you with story's of Chuck Beatty's lib. Anyways, they had this exhibition to W.B. Yeats, who was Irish. I learned cool stuff and really weird stuff about him. Like he was really into the occult. It was just cool to be in there in the presence of things that had his personal handwriting on it. They had early hand written drafts of his poetry as well as wonderful things like the Nobel Prize he won. Not even fair. Unfortunately the reading room and genealogy area of the 'brary were closed but while the economics and poli sci kids peaced out, we English majors had the time of our lives.
So last night we ate at a yummy little cafe down in the Temple Bar area. Temple Bar is one two large areas of town that are shopping centers/restaurant/bar parts of town that are closed to cars so they are very pedestrian friendly. There are street performers EVERYWHERE. You name it someone's doing it on the street. Bands? Check. Rapper? Check. Chalk artist? Check. Sand sculpturerer? Check. Firebreather? Easy, check.
Today half of our group had to go to some economical thing at a bank (HA) so I got to sleep in and then head over to the Chester Beatty Library. Words can't describe...I mean...It was just...aggghh!
Me and MH with our new hero
Ok Chester was an American citizen who was a mining engineer and multimillionaire. Over the years through his travels he amassed a collection of books, manuscripts and artifacts from all over the world that was so large he hired his own librarians and researchers to catalog and research his findings. He became an honorary Irish citizen as he lived here awhile I think. When he died he left his entire collection to the people of Ireland to be preserved as a free museum. Pretty cool right?
Let's just say that the average age of the things in this museum was probably somewhere around 1300 AD at the latest. The collection opened with 900 oriental snuff bottles. There were extensive collections of art and manuscripts from China, Thailand and India. He had so much stuff that the entire collection is not even on display. He has something like 30,000 manuscripts. How does one person gather that much stuff in a lifetime?
Things that were just the most ridiculous:
-Prints by Albrecht Durer
-Korans (as in more than one) dating back to the 9th and 10th century
-Complete Atlas of the world from the 1500s
-a map of Virginia that looked more like South Carolina
And finally probably the most ridiculous was the Egyptian papyrus manuscripts. These fragments of papyrus contain some of the oldest known pieces of the Bible. They date between 100-200AD. OLD. Here's a picture of one that I found on the internet, but it gives you the idea of what I saw.
Some of the oldest fragments were from the various gospels. They also have the oldest copies of Pauls letters. All I saw were fragments but apparently they came in codexes so only a small part of the collection was even on display. That was one of those moments when I just wanted to sit in the room and soak it in. I had finished looking at everything and I just stood there in the presence of such amazing artifacts.
So after we experienced that awesomeness I went back to the room to decompress. And what better way to decompress than to shop! I went to my first H&M and blew so much money (sorry dad)! I've got to keep up with the European fashion here after all!