If you chose the first one, you lose. It is the second library that is real, and is, in fact, the library at which I will be studying this semester. Now I know, it's no Olin (library at Wash U), but there must be something special about it if George Lucas modeled the Jedi Library in Star Wars after it...(that's the one on the left...good job).
This particular room is known as the Long Room, a massive chamber that houses most of the early printed books and old manuscripts of Trinity College. It is only one wing of three that comprise the Trinity College Library complex--the other two are actually quite modern in design. It is here that tourists come to pay 8 Euro a visit to see the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels that dates back to 9th century. Each day, the page is turned, and it is one of those artifacts that is preserved in a bomb-bullet-proof, humidity-regulated chamber that has an escape chute to the middle of the earth in case of a nuclear war.
I got lost in this library yesterday. It was a fascinating time, actually. All of the wings and floors are connected, but because of the staggering of the construction of each of the sections, there are some crazy passages that lead no where, and thin spiral staircases that you can enter but not exit. It was on one of these staircases that I finally capitulated, and asked a woman how to get out (I was lucky she was there).
I have not yet seen the Book of Kells, but I do imagine there will be at least one day that I decide to brave the throng of tourists. Why wouldn't I? They are paying 8 Euro a visit, and I get free admission with my student card!
In other news, a Dublin pigeon relieved himself on my left shoulder today, perhaps 30 seconds after I walked into St. Stephen's Green, the city park right by campus. No picture for evidence though...
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