day 68

Yesterday was a day of museums. I went to two! and all the way in Belfast. Maybe I'll write a bit about Belfast tomorrow. Today I want to write about museums.

I actually went to one in Dublin on Saturday as well – the Natural History Museum. It might have been because it was a weekend, but the atmosphere there was great! There were mostly families with little kids running around declaring their love for such and such an animal.

"Oh look at that! I love elephants."

And on your right the skeleton of an elephant

There was quite a selection of animals on display. Unfortunately nearly half of them weren't open to public because of some renovation works. I might have to go back when its done.

I thought the curation was slightly odd though. It had a lot of animals that weren't local to the region (like elephants). The ground floor was somewhat dedicated to local and marine animals. In general the grouping and flow of the displays didn't work so well.

Also the quality of taxidermy wasn't that great. Some animals looked a bit odd:

A head too full of stuff

Someone had a facelift

I still enjoyed the museum a lot anyway. I wonder if there are taxidermy courses I can take... Anyway, here are a few more pictures from the Natural History Museum.

Death whales swimming overhead

Tall persons view of giraffe

Surprise!

How do you do?

This is what it must look like to ride a zebra

Supermodel working her stripes

Jaws of death

Public display of affection

Its expression before the car hit

Oh good you aren't bored yet. Now to the two Northern museums. The first one I went to yesterday was the Titanic Experience. True to the Titanic experience, it had a hefty entrance fee (considering entrance to most museums here are free).

Even the building looks Titanicy

Okay you knew that

Actually I thought it was interesting that the entire area (what used to be a ship yard and all) was named after Titanic. On the maps its called the Titanic Quarters.

The streets are sort of part of the exhibition. There's a Titanic trail that leads from the city centre to the museum, which has sign boards along the way that give you little bits of history. Oh and there are outdoor displays too.



One of the cranes used to build those massive ships

The last surviving ship from White Star Line

And that's just outside the museum. Inside was pretty impressive too. The museum presented a comprehensive story about the Titanic, going through the historical context of how Belfast grew from flax fibre spinners to major ship builders.

It then went through the construction, sailing, sinking and locating of the Titanic (and its wreckage). It even covered the personal to the public, going through memorials of passengers lost and the political disputes that ensued after Titanic's sinking.

First class luxury

Pretty drawing

Pretty handwriting (also a list of ships built by White Star Line)

Sail away, sail away

Okay this is turning out to be a very long post. The last museum I saw was the Ulster Museum. It was very strange, but I enjoyed it. It had everything! Bits of natural, political and geological history as well as science and art (paintings and sculpture) quite interestingly strung together in one place.

The architecture of the museum was intriguing. Instead of having distinct 'levels', the gallery space kind of spiralled up like one big staircase across the building. I think that really helped the curating of the exhibit flow, particularly with such a breadth of seemingly irreconcilable topics. Okay some things felt out of place, but it was cool to see how they used the space to fit or separate the different sections.

There was also an exhibition of Victorian animal prints. Unfortunately the museum was being paranoid about copyright and stuff so I couldn't take pictures. I did get pictures of their animal mounts though.

Dried lizard

I would like one of these for my birthday

A more handsome polar bear

With what few specimens the Ulster Museum had, their animal mounts were all of much nicer quality than those in Dublin's Natural History Museum. I think it's very clear when you compare the polar bear ones.

And the Irish Deer! (That majestic beast above.) It's the only replica I've found so far. Most other mountings of it I've seen were of fossils only, and those alone are quite amazing. Imagine them alive and walking. They're the kind of creatures that would make a great Patronus. I wish they were not extinct.

Anyway, I just looked up taxidermy courses that they cost like five grand. Not even in Singapore dollars. Have to fly to the US or Australia to do them. Sigh.

Maybe I'll ask the natural history museums if they do internships or something.