23
Feb
2010
Dispatches From Dublin
Wow, it’s been nearly a month since my last update! The main reason for this post is that I’ve completed the photos from Dublin, but I realize for anyone who doesn’t check Facebook, you may not know I ever got back! It was a mostly uneventful return. I did manage to leave my power adapter and a USB cord behind in the hostel. Some people leave their heart places, I appear to leave other bits behind… I actually remembered it on the train to the airport but did the math for what the train ticket cost me and realized I’d come out ahead just buying replacements rather than turning around. The airport in Paris was… an experience… I have experienced a good number of airports in multiple countries. From the cold and mechanical experience with security in Frankfurt to the cattle treatment at Atlanta Hartsfield, this was the first time I experienced someone who was personally hateful. I actually spoke back to him which I rarely do in these situations! I’ll save the details, but I was happy to be bound for the states! My last gift from France was a lingering cough that turned into an infection. This has not been a healthy winter for me. So much for lowering my stress and becoming healthier! But a good round of antibiotics and steroids and all better, which allowed me to begin working on my photos from Ireland in earnest!
Normally, I edit photos in chronological order. I very rarely deviate from that pattern, but I have this time. I think it helped me to attack the pile of photos by going at them in an order that doesn’t highlight how much is left to go. Thus, my first round of photos is from Dublin. Those who read the travel logs, know that I passed through Dublin multiple times in my trip, so the photos literally span the beginning, middle, and end of my time there. I will now be attacking other sections of the trip. I’m attaching a handful of photos to this post, but these are somewhat randomly selected. I rely on your collective feedback as well as my own second review to really cull the best of the lot any time I edit my photos.
Winter Skies
A view from Dublin’s Phoenix Park, one of the largest enclosed parks in Europe. The cross was erected in 1979 for a visit by Pope John Paul II. He conducted an outdoor mass here that was attended by more than a million people. The frost on the ground is just a taste of the winter that’s coming for my trip in Ireland!
The Distance - Glasnevin Cemetery
One of those predictable (from me) cemetery photos – Dublin’s Glasnevin cemetery in the snow – apparently snow is not common for Dublin, but I saw plenty of it. I’m just lucky like that!
Dublin's An Post
A view of Dublin’s main post office taken from O’Connell Street. It was the last of the grand Georgian buildings built in Dublin and still serves as the main branch post office in Dublin and the headquarters for the Irish postal service, An Post. The lady in red makes this photo for me.
Ridiculous River Liffey Panorama
While I certainly hope you will click through to see this and the other photos larger, this one demands it to fully appreciate. This is a panorama beyond reason, one of many photos I took along the River Liffey on this day (the light and skies were exceptional). It’s, if memory serves, six vertical images stitched together in photoshop. It’s probably around 160 degrees of view of the north bank of the river. The O’Connell street bridge to the right actually runs parallel to where I’m standing in reality. Despite the inherent distortions, or maybe because of them, I really love this shot.
Bright Lights, Big City - Dublin's Temple Bar
From my last night in Dublin is this fisheye photo of a pub in Temple Bar. Temple Bar is actually the name of a neighborhood, and not a specific pub, although I guess this one claims to be THE Temple Bar. I really liked the color, lights, symmetry, even the people waiting along the sidewalk outside. It’s my favorite of several shots I took that evening.
I certainly hope you’ll all check out the rest of the gallery and let me know what you like most amongst the lot of them!
22
Jan
2010
Dublin Dénouement
Ah, my time in Dublin is rapdily diminshing like the grains of sand between my fingers. If all goes as planned, this time tomorrow I’ll be in France!
Yesterday I awoke to a gray and misty wet day. I immediately recognized it as a classic museum day! I set off after breakfast for the national museum. I had been once before weeks ago but I was suffering from a sinus infection and didn’t enjoy it fully or really look at everything, so it was a natural start. It was much better this time. I almost feel I should have re-done the whole thing, but instead, I focused on taking in the details on all the finds from the gold hoardes. I also checked out an exhibition on the excavations at Tara, knowing I’d be there today. I’m sure I must have walked through there before but had no memory of it at all.
I spent hours there before deciding to move on. I planned to take in the Natural History Museum which is nearby. The museum itself might not interest me, but it’s apparently become renowned as a museum of 19th century museums as it’s not been updated in well, quite some time. There are signs all over advertising it. I don’t just mean street signs, we’re talking flash vinyl outdoor adverts. So, I walk up and there’s a sign it’s closed. I thought maybe for the day or afternoon or something. No, the guard told me a section of the ceiling collapsed and it’s closed indefinitely. Ah, would be nice to remove the signs saying to come see it, eh!
Defeated on that point and really over the urge to see any museums, I just did some aimless wandering. I stopped by HMV and got the new CD from Codeine Velvet Club (side project of the lead singer of the Fratellis) as I discovered unlike the other albums I wanted to get here, it would actually cost me more to import that one than to buy it here. Why, I know not!
After dinner, I had it in mind to find somewhere for some live rock music. I found a place that sounded promising and set off to find it. An hour later I had accomplished my mission. It’s not that it was THAT far away, it’s just that Dublin (as a lot of old cities do) likes for its streets to change names any old place for any old reason. That coupled with very poor signage caused me to totally miss my destination despite once being within a block of it! Ah well! Once there, not much seemed to be going on despite the advertised start time. Having a tour this morning, I didn’t fancy staying out late so made a meandering path back to the hostel. I spent another hour in that misty wet, not because I was lost but just taking in the sights of a part of the city I’d missed to date.
My Italian room-mate and I had, until last night, been mysteriously in sync. Typically when I came in, he was just getting ready for bed so that saved both of us the whole fumbling around in the dark trying not to wake up the other person in the room deal. Last night my going to bed early broke that routine. Still, it worked for me because I sleep soundly I barely heard him come in enough to register he was there but not enough to put a time to it. Tonight may well be a repeat.
This morning, I was likewise up earlier than him and did my best to quietly get ready before dashing off to meet up with a tour group bound for Newgrange and the Hill of Tara. It was a fab day for a tour, bright, sunny, and nearly cloud free. The Hill of Tara, while there’s not a lot for the naked eye to see, was a gorgeous green place with an amazing view. You can definitely appreciate why it was strategically an important spot in ancient times. It was once, among, other things, the site of the coronation of the high kings of ancient Ireland.
The second stop was Newgrange, a chamber tomb that was 1,000 years old when the pyramids at Giza were built. We were told that it was the oldest intact astronomical observatory in the world. For six days each year around the winter solstice, sunlight penetrates the door into the inner chamber where burials of cremated remains once took place. The exact reasons and meaning for this neolithic monument are lost to us, but its amazing nonetheless. And, being a month late for the solstice, as we stood inside the tomb, the sunrise was simulated and it was truly amazing! Newgrange definitely ranks high on my list of things I’ve seen in Ireland if not at the top.
While I’m at it, let me put in a word for Mary Gibbons, the tour guide. If you’re ever in Dublin, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend you take a tour from her. I think she only offers two, and I’m sorry I won’t get to take the other before I leave. She was truly a professional. She provided information to us pretty much non-stop from beginning to end. And while 8,000 years of Irish History is a lot to absorb, I felt like I probably got the most retained information from her tour. And I thought I had some excellent guides up until now! Her style of delivery and tone was perfect. If she’s not also teaching somewhere (or didn’t in the past), then she’s missed her calling.
Arriving back in town, it was near dusk. While I wish there could have been two of me today, one who stayed here and enjoyed the bright light of day in town and one who took the tour, there was only the one of me. So, I made do enjoying that deep blue dusk sky that you only get on a clear night and wandered around taking photos until it turned to inky black. And still I wandered some more before calling it a night. I need to get my bags in order before bed tonight! I’ve been here close to a month and I am ready to move on, but it’s always a bit sad to bid farewell to a place for me. So, keeping it brief, au revoir Dublin – next stop Paris!
20
Jan
2010
Irish Ghosts
Yesterday was bus day. There’s no other name for it. I knew it was worth it to go ahead and waste a night than adding another night in Galway and losing today getting here, but it didn’t make it nicer knowing that.
I woke up and had a leisurely morning. I had walked enough of the area around Sleepzone Connemara already. I might have taken the stroll down to the fjord if the weather had been nice, but it wasn’t. The wind was gusting and it was misting rain constantly.
The best news of the day came that instead of having to walk the 15 minutes to the top of the road (and stand there who knows how long in the rain) the Galway Tour Company had sent a minibus that would come to the door to fetch the three of us! I literally cheered when our host at the hostel informed me!
The back end of the tour was marred by the weather and how quickly night descends here in winter. We stopped at Kylemore Abbey, the only stop of any length. I toured the Abbey and church for lack of anything better to do. Beautiful place (a mansion house before the nuns purchased it). The place is closing and will be in private hands soon, the nuns are aging and their ranks are not being replaced. I doubt I got any good photos, between the gray day and the gusting winds, it was a forced march to do anything. I was first back on the bus a good half hour before we had to be back. At least I had a muffin and a coke in the dining hall. It was my last meal for far too long.
The rest of the drive was rain and then darkness. When we got to Galway, the Brazillians and I scattered off the tour bus to the bus station as fast as we could, little more than 10 minutes after the 5:30 bus to Dublin had left. Ironically, we were heading the same way. Luckily there are buses evey hour until like 8:30pm. I hate to imagine being on that one as the 6:30 set down at the main Dublin station after 10:30pm! It was a soul crushing ride. I couldn’t sleep and the reading lights in the whole bus were broken so there went option two. It was a sea of headphones and I followed suit, pretty much four hours of my own soundtrack as we passed through countless anonymous towns and villages and took on and put off passengers. It was the dark ghost of my trip to Galway almost two weeks prior. The way out had been in the bright fullness of day, but the way back was dark, cold and wet.
When the bus finally landed here, a happy block from Jacobs Inn, I lost track of the Brazillians. I hated not getting to say farewell as they had been good travelling companions in that short span of time. But everyone off the bus scattered into the Dublin night.
I scampered up the street and checked in. This us my second time at the inn. Last time, I was in a six person dorm. I’m not sure if that was a financial decision or if there were no four person dorms when I booked. This time four person, and I have to say here this is literally the penthouse of this hostel. I’m on the 4th floor (which in American terms would be the 5th – in Europe, 1st floor is ground floor, second is first). The room even has a TV. I’m floored. I don’t really see the need, but it’s a nice room. So far, it’s only two of us in there. The other guy is Italian. Don’t ask me his name. I tried several times and I still think he just nodded that I had it to get me to stop mangling it. By this morning, not even a ghost of what I thought it was remained.
Today, I predictably slept in. The Italian was gone and I slowly prepared myself to face the day. I thought based on the gray weather that it would be museum day, but while I sat in the lobby checking out tours to Newgrange and the Hills of Tara, the sun began to peek out. So I got out and spent hours wandering the city with my camera. It turned out to be a gorgeous day. Even when the sun was behind the clouds, the clouds had such a depth and texture to them… It just had to be seen to appreciate it. I think I’ll have some neat city shots from today!
I did sign up for a Newgrange tour on Friday (keep a good thought for nice weather please) and I got on a Dublin city bus tour for tonight – Dublin’s ghost bus tour. It was great fun. The stories were genuine, but it was one of those tours where they try to scare you, no surprise to anyone. The interesting part was they had us take photos in a couple of reputedly haunted places. I got orbs in both, but I take those with a grain of salt. Too many easy explanations, but still interesting because we did not all get them. The really interesting one was the last stop where he said they routinely get some interesting stuff, two of us (including ME) got mist in our photos! I’ve never had anything like that before. I only wish I had a way to upload it to show but will not until I get home!
And that’s another day in Ireland gone. Only two more before I’m hurtling for the airport for Paris. I should add hopefully, as today there was a several hour strike by the air traffic controllers union (think that’s the right group). Supposedly just today, hoping for no repeats. The irony is that I had travel troubles that kept me from Paris the last time I tried to go! Fingers crossed!
14
Jan
2010
Galway Potato
So, we’re working our way through day two of my planned couch potatoing.
Oh and yes, for those who didn’t see my post on Facebook, I am off the island at last! No disrespect for Inis Mor and the Aran Islands. I am sure they are a splendid place in the summer, spring, and fall probably, but in the winter, i spent too much time there. Especially that last marooned day! I think I also have a weird version of claustrophobia. it’s not fear of small places for me, but being trapped anywhere. Back when my home town had its flood many years past, the fact that the main roads were pretty much all washed out made me concerned even though I had probably spent MONTHS of my life there without leaving, never mind a few days! So, being trapped on an island was just… too much!
Anyway, yesterday, I wandered and wandered while I waited to be able to fully check into my room (I got here too soon). I found the section of Galway that is not so tourist, jammed with the irish version of American shopping malls, walkable, but very much built with the car in mind. I also found the movie theater! So, yesterday at 5pm, I was watching the new Sherlock Holmes film. I quite enjoyed! I’m not major Holmes fan. i have only a memory of reading one of the stories, The Hound of The Baskervilles, in school. So, bear that in mind with my saying it was a good film. It was funny, had a good pace that kept me awake (no mean feat yesterday), and i felt like the actors were really into their characters. So, there’s my take on it. That and apparently world over, movie theater popcorn is huge. I got a “regular” popcorn and a “regular” coke. I very well could have swam in the over-flowing TUB of popcorn that came across the counter. The coke, not as much as I would have liked.
After that, I spent the evening doing really thrilling things. Like what? Washing and folding laundry! I know. These are the types of edge of your seat stories that you come here for! Still, all told, it’s surprising (and, yes, lame) how much happiness you can get from a bag full of clean clothes! Never mind the joy of putting on clothes that aren’t “clean enough” in the morning.
This morning, I spent time going through my bags for my momentos and such from the trip. I have actually bought far less than on past trips, but it adds up no matter what you do. I bagged up everything and went out today and found an office supply store and got a box and packing tape. I haven’t mailed it yet, but tomorrow I’m mailing home some of my stuff along with a book I finished. Would that it was a week later so that I could also mail that honking big Ireland tour guide as well! But then I’d be wishing my trip away, eh?
This morning, I made the plans for the remainder of my time here. I’ll be in Galway until Sunday morning. I’m taking a tour of Connemara – lots of things on the tour. It can actually be completed in a day, but Sleepzone, the hostel I’m in here, has a hostel out there in this sleepy but beautiful place. I’m staying there two nights. Hopefully not a repeat of Inis Mor! Tuesday afternoon the bus will pick me up and I’ll finish the Connemara tour getting back into Galway late afternoon. And then hopping straight on to a bus for Dublin that night. Back to the Jacobs Inn for the rest of my time in Dublin, leaving from there for Paris. I will probably try to take a day tour out to Newgrange, one of the last places on my really wish to see list.
Today was to be day 2 of my Couch potato fest. And while it was very relaxing, there was very little couch. After I made my plans for the remainder of the trip, I read email for awhile and then wandered out to the Galway City Museum. I would have sworn to you that Lonely Planet said there was a fee for going there, but not so. Not a massive museum, but cool. There are displays on the history of the city, a large display on the traditional Irish boats – Currachs which means “skin boats.” Traditionally they were willow basket type affairs with animal skins wrapped around them. The lore is that they predate the Vikings and were the first boats that brought the ancient Irish to this land. According to the info. that accompanied it, they were originally used on the open sea as well before the vikings stamped them out. There was also a photo exhibition of a locally well known photographer. I had seen a few of his pieces here and there along the trip. He had some excellent stuff – sorry blanking on his name. The last exhibition was a changing exhibition, currently modern art… Some of it was beautiful and haunting, but all in all, I can’t help that I don’t always appreciate modern art. I still have respect for the work the artists put into it.
Afterwards a general wander. Another Mexican meal and then I checked out a book shop. Didn’t buy anything now but saw some books I may add to my Amazon wish list. There was one I was looking for that I’d heard about on the trip but couldn’t find. That one was added to my Amazon wish list! LOL
And thus my rampaging fest of fun goes on! I’m enjoying the down time. I may wander one more time with the camera here in Galway either Friday or Saturday (depending on which has the best light), but otherwise, I’m just being a bum here until I leave for Connemara. I’m hoping to get to do a little more camera wandering in Dublin when I get back since it was so cold and icy when I left. I haven’t looked at the weather recently but it’s much warmer here in the west than even last week when I first got here.
6
Jan
2010
Galway or Bust
Wow, long day! Actually long night, too!
Last evening, I was simply struggling to stay awake as early as 6pm! To be fair, little doubt that my sinus infection plus sore throat were not helping matters. Still I couldn’t go to bed so early, so I emailed friends and generally commented on half of what I saw on facebook. Finally, about 8:30pm, I gave up figuring with a shower that it would be 9pm when I called it a night. In fact making one more stab at reorganizing my poor backpack, I managed to stretch it to 9:30pm. Go me!
I managed on a funky way to use half of my blanket under my pillow to get my head really elevated and kind of turned sideways under it and curled up ala fetal position. It sounds awful but it was genuinely comfortable, I swear! And there’s a reason I’m telling this because I think that position combined with all the drugs provided some really funky dreams.
Skip the next paragraph or two to ignore my addled psyche! But I feel the need to put it down in words…
It’s hard to describe, and harder still as more water flows under ye olde bridge, but I was simply in a sort of magical place. I don’t remember getting there, but whatever you could dream up, the world around you bent to your wishes. There were others there. My impresion was they were more or less locals, but maybe fellow dreamers I’m not sure. I’d hazard at least some were there who belonged as they seemed like responsible forces.
When things started, I was simply exhausted and wanted nothing but a warm cozy spot to sleep. And there I was in what seemed to be a foxes den, and there I slept for what seemed ages. I even got up a couple of times to get water or clear out my sinuses, and each time I returned to that place when I curled up again
I wish i could remember more as it seemed so very fanciful and vivid at once. I know in the course of things I interacted more with the people and the world around me. I think the world could be whatever you wanted and you could at once share that reality with others or exist in your own spot but interact with others who just sort of incorporated you into their reality as they wished. I have one vivd memory of competing with others to shape the world in the most interesting way and then for the next person to attempt to top it. As for the police I mentioned, it seemed whenever I felt I had a fleeting grasp of the place, an understanding how and why it was, they would step in and blow things apart to fog things once more. It was like it was their job to maintain the mystery behind the magic.
When I finally woke, some 11 HOURS later I felt refreshed! I definitely think the meds are clearing things out. A ways to go yet, but a full nights sleep with only a few wakening moments was the real magic!
Okay, people who skipped, begin again right here, but you’ve really missed a show! Not often that I recount even the fragments of a dream! You may be pleased with the status quo!
Getting up, I got dressed and grabbed breakfast. When I got back to the room, the only remaining mystery room-mate was getting ready to go out and see the snow! Yes, it was snowing in Dublin (again), but I swear it’s rare! He turned out to be from San Francisco. Not sure where else he’d been but he barely made it out of Rome due to weather. He said Dublin airport had closed and he wasn’t sure he’d make his flight back home tomorrow. I wished him well and gathered my bags. Now I’d met everyone I’d roomed with (see a follow up comment on yesterday’s post for the stealth snorer). Wished him well and headed for the bus station. I think south I was alright, but I wanted to get moving before the snow loused up my departure!
Got my ticket and waited for the 11am for Galway. Now there was a direct bus an hour later that would have gotten me here in less than 3 hours, but I didn’t want to hang and wait because of the weather. More time on the bus but I pictured sleeping. Far from it, comfy seats, lots of room. I turned on my iPod and pulled out Steinbeck’s “Travels With Charley In Search of America”. I read a fair chunk on the plane here but had never had a quiet moment to wend through the rest. Fab book. My uncle suggested it because of my passing fancy of getting a motor home and getting to see some of America. That was fascinating, but in the end, it was a great read on any level. Reading Steinbeck describing the America he found around the early 60’s (I gather both by his setting the scene and the original publication being 1962). Here was someone of my grandparents vintage relating a world much changed, homogenized, sacrificing quality and meaning for bigger and faster. It’s truly timeless. Minus some of the trappings and his stopping in New Orleans to witness the spectacle of school dessegregarion, it could have been written today. Definitely timeless and has made me of mind to finally get around to some of his other writings.
Along the road, I saw snowy roads give way to the random icy patch. While it may have snowed here when I was through last week, it felt warmer and sunnier today. I passed through countless little and anonymous towns and villages, much as you would on a Grayhound back home, complete with random stops that were little more than a wide spot in the road. Otherwise this was nothing like home. In America, somehow, some way, bus travel became the mode of last resort. Buses are literally regarded as the home of the unwashed masses. The last night of the Paddywagon trip, I finally met the other Americans on the trip, a foursome from Chicago. They were on the B&B plan which aside from the large group explains why we hadn’t met. They mentioned road tripping, one of their fav things to do in the States ( which was how theyhad come to pass through Georgia). I don’t recall why but I mentioned that the first time I saw Chicago was from a Grayhound bus – the sheer look of horror on their faces was humorous. I could tell they’d never set foot on a bus, not even in college (my own last time). And thus is the average American reaction. One day, we’ll have to change our tune on buses and trains need to become more than a novelty (with apologies to our northeast where trains are common).
Anyway, arrived in Galway, found the hostel relatively easy and checked in. Awesome place so far. Stayed in a place on the way through with Paddywagon that although decent on the surface was filled with what I’d call a frat school element. Not my scene. I have my own room for 3 nights. Glory, glory, halleilujah! I need some me time to get well and not have random people listening to my coughing and sinus mayhem all night.
Got here just before sundown. Being warmer and rested, I wandered down to the harbor and got some photos of the light hitting the buildings there before the sun was gone. Perfect! One of the challenges in Dublin so far (aside from my cold) has been the sun being so low on the horizon. Some buildings never see light in the canyons of narrow streets and tall buildings. I’m sure a problem here too, but at least it’s small enough to wander and find the edges! Otherwise, seems a nice place to linger. I’ve always liked college towns. Very friendly here, even chatted with two fellow guests in the lounge downstairs, an outgoing German woman and a guy from Spain. She was explaining that in Germany people wouldn’t go out of their way to help a stranger, where here a local led her from Eyre Square literally to the hostel. Wow! The guy from Spain said there people were likely to be as helpful as here, very friendly. Hmmm, Germany off the list, Spain on. LOL
Didn’t really want dinner. My stomach has not been happy. I figured it was the antibiotics. Sure enough, listed among the side effects. So I had some yogurt with dinner to try to help things along. Likewise, I found among the common side effects, a metallic taste. Well that explains the taste in my mouth all day. I thought something I ate and hoped to clear it brushing my teeth. Oh well – 10 more doses! Oh dinner was another wrap (love wraps, like the natural evolution of the sandwich). My near fav has long been chicken ceasar. I practically do a jig when I find a place that makes them. Tonight, I may have found a new fav chicken ceasar with bacon! Num num!
And now off to beddybye and a quiet hopefully restful sleep. I am not even going to bother publishing this right now. Too tired and lazy to go downstairs for the wifi! Later gators!
