Part 1: Dublin.
Day 1
We flew Aer Lingus, which has direct flights (2 hrs) to Hamburg and is a discount airline, just a smidge above Ryanair.
We got into Dublin in the early evening, and decided to find somewhere to eat, take a walk around and stop into a pub. We stayed at the Townhouse, near the corner of Lower Gardiner and Talbot. We stopped at O'Shea's for dinner, which was catty corner from the hotel. I had Irish stew, and realized that what people seem to call Irish stew in the states is somewhere between Irish stew and beef-and-Guinness stew.
Afterwards, we walked around Temple Bar area and stopped into Farrington's to grab a beer (I think I had something of O'Hara's, wouldn't swear to it) and a piece of dessert, which was Banoffee pie("Ban" from "banana" and "offee" from "toffee"). Layer of "biscuit" (not-so-sweet plain cookie-esque) crust, layer of toffee, layer of banana slices, mound of cream on the side. Delish. Topped off by a very drunk barister striking up a conversation based on the fact that I have glasses, and he has (new) glasses, obtained recently on vacation to Florida, and he claimed he owned the place (the internet believes it's owned by some random company, so, probably not?).
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| Farrington's during the day |
Day 2 - Co. Wicklow and Glendalough (Glen-da-lock) Tour
We resolved to get out of town when it's beautiful out and the next day (after a "full irish breakfast" (beans, black & white "pudding", eggs and some very dense bread) we rushed out of the hotel to n to take a Dublin Unplugged half-day tour to Co. Wicklow and Glendalough. Our driver (Damien) gave us sort of a mini Dublin tour/intro as we headed out of town, and various points of advice.
Example:
Damien: You're all entrepreneurs, right? Well, in 12 months time, all the taxis in Dublin have to be wheelchair accessible and not Diesel ([t's not clear if they have to then be electric, or just not diesel). There are some 40,000 cabs in the Dublin area. There's a real opportunity there.
Important point which we were told there are exactly two official tourist info places. The rest of the things that say tourist info are actually private companies. One of the official ones is inside a former church on Suffolk street, which is where we were later dropped off on to go find some food and whatnot.
While driving along by the river Liffey, he pointed out a stone pillar nearby, off the side of the road (on dry land) and said that that was where the vikings had tied up their ships , that the land we were on used to be under water. When I get to the archaeological museum part of this trip, I can say some more (about Dublin being founded by vikings etc).
For the best seafood in the area, he recommended the restaurants in Howth (where all the fresh fish was brought in) [see Thursday post] and he said that everyone would find something they'd like in Dalkey (which has several "castles", one of which Enya lives in) [see Wednesday post].
He said the weather in Ireland has changed completely, even in the last five years. Now they get snow (and have still no snow plows). So, this is the first year in the last 3 where they've been able to take tours down to Glendalough -- the last few were all snowed out.
We stopped at a lookout on the way to Glendalough, on the edge of the Guinness family estate. The lake and attached land and house was a bridal gift to one of the women marrying into the Guinness family.
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| Valley by Lough Tay |
The TV-series Vikings (2?) was partially filmed down there, complete replica of a viking village had been set up. It'd been taken apart the week before we got there.
He was apparently around Glendalough on the day when the Obamas came to visit. It'd been dry and sunny for too long, and this bred a batch of mosquitos/bugs, making their visit uncomfortable. No one asked for bug spray, and none was offered.
Glendalough was settled in the 5th century by "Saint Kevin" as a monastic settlement. Here's a map of his route around the area.
Our tour-guide Damien, under one of the two arches at the entrance to the former monastic settlement:
Apparently this cross is famous as the "Glendalough cross":
Our tour-guide Damien, under one of the two arches at the entrance to the former monastic settlement:
Apparently this cross is famous as the "Glendalough cross":
We learned that churches open from the west and spread eastwards. Not sure why. Inside of the former chapel:
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| View back out to the cemetary from inside the church |
One of the tombstones was for someone aged 102 in 1759:
Walking out of the cathedral was this nice view -- hills, gravestones, bit of sun:
There's a tower there, with a door starting some 2m off the ground -- to keep the rain out, as the tower was for storing documents/scriptures.
Republic of Ireland never got food and mouth disease. They "cancelled tourism" for 29 weeks (not sure what that means) and shot any animals that tried to wander south. and tested all of their own animals twice over.
There are signs about people shooting dogs. They are serious -- the dogs tend to worry at the sheep, which can cause them to miscarry :/.
Back in Dublin, lunch at Avoca.
I really enjoyed the name of this little mexican food place (only makes sense if you know a small amount of Spanish):
Walked around, through Trinity college grounds.
Overheard people speaking. Sounds strange hearing "like" thrown into the other somewhat musical-sounding English (that is, I was sort of sad that at least the college kids seem to have picked up this American-ism).
Saw these cute posters everywhere advertising an exhibit at "the Ark":
Stopped in at the Science Gallery and their "Fail better" exhibit.
It was an interesting idea.:
FREE EXHIBITION OF BEAUTIFUL, HEROIC AND INSTRUCTIVE FAILURES AT SCIENCE GALLERY, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
Everything from a centrifugal-force birth-aid (never built & used, just patented) to the story of how Dyson disassembled and rebuilt vacuums until he came up with his "cyclone", bag-less thing.
Tune in next time for Dublin Castle/Dublin City and Dalkey. Later, Howth. Then, the story of our time in Galway!
What a great trip. I was in Dublin for a long weekend on my way back to the States from England one summer. I didn't get out of town at all but rather walked around, saw the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College, went to the history museum in the old barracks, and saw the book museum twice, I liked it so much. Stayed in the absolutely cheapest hostel, which meant 13 of us in a 12-bunk room (don't ask) and wretched breakfast (white bread toast with nutella and OJ). I was so mad about breakfast that I made myself sandwiches for lunch, too. At least there was a guest kitchen so I could cook my own dinners. They had an impressive DVD collection, and one night another girl and I showed up in the middle of some other people watching the Dr. Zhivago tv movie. We sat through the end, then checked out the other DVDs so we could watch from the beginning. Good times. Also, very nice bus drivers who helped me out when I did know where I was going. And one sketchy foreign worker who took me to dinner with the hare krishnas (!) but never showed the next day to see more sights. I've never known whether that was a good thing or not...
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