Sarah: Dublin, Ireland - It's grand!
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2007
1
72
80
Trip End
Dec 28, 2008
Dublin,
County Dublin,
Ireland
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
We only stayed one night in Belfast. Arriving at about 10:30pm, the city centre was virtually deserted - a strange feeling. We'd been told that Belfast's tensions have calmed down a lot in the last decade since the Good Friday agreements of 1998. As I said, we didn't see any evidence of conflict because there was no one there! However, riding the train out of the city down to Belfast we passed towns where whole neighbourhoods were decked out with orange flags/streamers and every house or street corner was flying at least one Union Jack. I think the Orangemen have there biggest celebration on or about the 12 July, so it was only a few days before we went through.
For our first three nights in Dubin we stayed in a hostel right on the Liffey River, a couple of blocks from Trinity College. Dublin had a really nice feel to it. People we very friendly, and the Liffey, with its numerous bridges, boardwalks and riverside cafes created a real bohemian atmosphere. What really enchanted me however, were all the pubs, cafes and street lamps, adorned with pots of petunias, geraniums and other lovely summer flowers.
The first morning I walked to Trinity College and joined up for an historic walking tour of the city centre. Our guide, Lisa, was doing her PhD in history at Trinity, and she took us round the College, the old Parliament, City Hall and Dublin Castle while educating us, with that unique Irish talent for story-telling, on the history of Ireland from the Celts to the Good Friday Accords. It really was so entertaining. Imagine someone with a passion for history combined with the gift of the shanachie (the ancient Irish bard/historian). She was able to make the history of the Irish into one big (often tragic) adventure.
Having not had my thirst for Irish histoyry quenched, I signed up for another walking tour the following day, this time focussed on the famous, fateful Easter Rising of 1916. Well, if I thought Lisa had the gift of the gab, Lorcan was an absolute genius. He runs the tour and has written a book on the Rising, so he knows every character and every angle. He's staunchly and proudly Irish, and this also plays a big part in his "story." It was a great tour as well, andI highly recommend both the tours if you're ever in Dublin.
While I was on the tour, Ray had to do the obligatory tour of the Guiness factory. He enjoyed walking through the exhibition, which is inside a giant Guiness class, and then getting his complimentary pint at the top of the building with a 360 degree view of the city.
After three nights in the hostel, we were going to have to pay double for the weekend. Nice huh? That is, 35 Euro each, or NZ$70 EACH, per night. For a DORM bed! Ah, no thanks. Man, I thought London was expensive! Luckily for us, my friend Speedy from uni (no, not THE Speedy, Dunedinites) is living in a tiny flat in Dublin but said she'd put us up in her lounge for the weekend, bless her. Of course, this meant hitting the town with her on Friday and Saturday night, as she was determined to show us what Dublin was about (music and beer basically!)
Friday night she had a going-away party for her touch coach - she's playing in the Irish touch team and just went to France for a tournament, cool eh? Half the patrons were inside the pub and half were on the street outside. Her friends were really cool, several NZers in the bunch, including a girl Karina who, Louise, Alf, Lote ... is Elwyn's cousin. Geez, talk about the small world thing.
Saturday morning we went to The Woolshed, Dublin's Antipodean pub, and, amongst hundreds of Kiwis and Aussies, watched the All Blacks lose to Robbie Deans's Wallabies. Not fair, considering we cheered a LOT louder than the Aussies. That night Speedy and her friends took us to The Brazenhead, the oldest pub in Ireland, opened in 1198, and then into the famous Temple Bar region for some crazy times and loud Irish music - I still have "The Girl from Belfast City" going round in my head!
We managed to fit a couple of day trips to some lovely, small seaside towns: Howth to the North and Dalkey to the South, were Bono of U2 lives. It was nice to see a part of Ireland other than Dublin, and made us wish we had a lot more time to see the rest of the country.
As I mentioned, my interest in Irish history had been reignited (I enjoyed that module in school) and it just so happened that as I finished the book I'd bought in Carlisle, Leon Uris's Trinity was sitting on the hostel bookshelf, so I swapped it. Part of what drew me to it was the fact that one of my students read it for his Level 2 reading log last year and, reading his response to it, I thought it sounded really interesting (thanks Luke). So I've been reading that for the past week or so. It covers Irish history from the famine to the Easter Rising through the lives of three Ulster families. I didn't truly appreciate until reading this book just how harsh, brutal and unjust life was for Irish Catholics during these times, and earlier. It's a bit slow at times but I am really enjoying it.
From Dublin, we flew back to London for another two nights at Susannah's. I spent the first night up in Billingshurst with my friend from school, Jane Paterson. It was really nice to see her after so many years. Our last night in London we were really keen to go to another show. The Phantom of the Opera was our first choice, but considering I didn't get back til lunch time, and then we went to The Dark Knight at the movies (the latest Batman flick, pretty good) we actually missed out on tickets. We had to make a snap decision so we went to The Sound of Music instead. I really love the film, but the show was very pantomimesque. The woman playing Maria played her like she was a bit goofy, and everyone else over-acted, so as Ray said, it was like a very good high school production. Apart from the set, that was fantastic. Have set envy. The highlight was the Mother Superior singing "Climb Every Mountain." Wow. She must be an actual opera singer or something, she was phenomenal. Like tingle -down-your-spine , goosebumps-on-your-arms awesome.
I had a great time in Ireland and the UK. I found the landscape very pretty, the people welcoming, and the facilities top-notch. It certainly bit into our bank balance, and once more I was reminded of how much it sucks to travel on NZ money. However, we made many new friends through couchsurfing and caught up with several old ones, so it's been a great 6 weeks. Now bring on the Mediterranean sun!
