One Cathedral, Two Cathedral...

If you read my blog regularly, which I hope you do, you'll find I've changed my layout. As much as I loved the old one, all of my pictures were getting squished! They didn't care for it. So I decided to try out a new look for the time being, see how it catches on. Let me know what you think!

In other news, my schedule is awesome because I have Mondays and Fridays off. So I took Monday to go visit the Cathedrals of Dublin. 
I took the bus downtown around noon, ran a few errands, then took a connecting bus over to St. Patrick's Cathedral, stop numero uno on my day of single sightseeing.

And that's just the outside. When you walk in, You see the main Sanctuary area where they do hold regular services. But around the perimeter, it's more like a museum. Artifacts, statues, monuments, even tombs line the walls, lending themselves to a short walking tour of the whole inside of the Cathedral, ending up back at the entrance to walk through the little gift shop, and hit the Baptism Area on the way out.

This was especially interesting for me to see, since 18th June is my birthday. So this stone (below) was found exactly 93 years before I was born.

This is a wooden model of the whole Cathedral. Beautiful craftsmanship.

The below description belongs to the door above. I thought it was a pretty interesting, if nothing but comical, story, and it was worth sharing with my readers. Enjoy!

This is a nice little prayer that was on a card in front of a candle shrine. I lit a candle for peace and prayed a few prayers on the card, and this one stuck with me.

St. Peter's Chapel. It sits right behind the main Sanctuary. Even though it is not entirely enclosed, as I sat and meditated in here, it was mysteriously quiet and serene. 

One of the things I loved about visiting these Cathedrals was being able to see the differences between how the ancient church and contemporary churches have been set up. For example, in both the Cathedrals I went to, I saw the Eagle Podium several times, and the Ambo was raised up like this. I also noted how the Altar is so far removed from the Congregation, rather than the extreme accessibility we see in Churches now.

These are actual burial sites... A little eerie.

This is where baptisms would take place in the Cathedral. It's a separate little room just inside the entrance, with the old stone Baptismal Font on the right and some kneelers on the left.

After I left the Cathedral, I noticed a park on the other side of it. I walked around for a few minutes and took some photos, since it was such a gorgeous day.

After St. Patrick's, it was a short, windy walk up the hill to Christ Church Cathedral. I preferred this Cathedral for it's Worship space, but I definitely liked the chapels in St. Patrick's better than the ones at Christ Church.

This was the biggest chapel. Not much compared to St. Patrick's, but still very lovely.

The doors were one of the most interesting features of this place...

I stood in front of this organ for at least ten minutes, just looking at its ornate beauty.

Christ Church also had a Crypt area downstairs, where we were able to see several artifacts and sculptures. There was even a gift shop and a cafe in the Crypt, which I thought was a little strange, but hey.

The Baptismal Area was not in the Crypt, but I didn't know how to really incorporate it otherwise... I thought this Baptism Area was much nicer than the one at St. Patrick's, being a stone room with a more ornate font in the middle.

With my ticket to Christ Church, I also got a ticket to Dublinia, a museum of Dublin's past. It was a cute little self-guided-tour museum, with some interactive components, making it geared towards families with children. I was alone, but I still enjoyed flipping up the cards to answer trivia questions, and watching the little TV screens as they showed short animated sequences about life in Ancient Dublin. The first floor talked about the Viking times, when Dublin was first founded. Then it skipped ahead to the Middle Ages, when disease and famine were prevalent. It ended with an "exploration" area, where we could see how scientists and historians have found all of the information they presented us with. They even had on display a real human skeleton that had been found, a female, probably around 40-60 years old. There was even a model of what scientists thought she might have looked like, based on her bone structure, the way her skin decayed, and so on. I didn't take any pictures while in the museum, but I still thought it was a pretty neat place to visit.

I enjoyed taking the day to myself, seeing the sights I really wanted to see whilst going at my own pace. Of course I love spending time with my friends, I in fact went to my friend's apartment for stir-fry that night. But sometimes it is worthwhile just to have a day for me. As a spiritual person, being in those Cathedrals is a completely indescribable feeling. The beauty of the architecture and the timelessness of it all is not something that can be portrayed through pictures. I hope I am able to visit again before my time here is done.