When I die Dublin will be written in my heart.
Now that it’s spring break, I really don’t have any excuse to not update this right now, except for the fact that The Gun Seller is sitting next to my laptop, begging to be read. But it will have to wait, because I have a weekend in Ireland to catch everyone up on.
So, two weekends ago, Manuel and I took a little weekend trip to Dublin, my first time out of the UK so far. Since we only had a couple days, we were prepared to cram in as much as possible, and I don’t think we disappointed. If you want to save time reading this entry, I think I can sum up Dublin in four words: James Joyce and Guinness. If you don’t like at least one of those things, it takes a lot of the interest out of the city.
Saturday early afternoon we flew into the Emerald Isle with every intention to check into my hostel (he stayed at a different one for the first night because there wasn’t enough space) and then head over to the James Joyce Centre to take a Dubliner’s walking tour at 2. We didn’t even end up getting to the hostel until 2, but decided to have a go anyway; we didn’t get to the Centre until 2:30, but luckily the tour had barely just left and we were able to pay the piper and run to catch up with the group. The walk was really good, because the guide not only pointed out some James Joyce and Dubliner’s sights, but he talked a lot about general Dublin history as well which was really interesting, and the walk gave a pretty good feel for the city centre and where everything was.
I’m sure I’m the only one who cares, but this is the setting for the end of the story “The Dead,” probably one of the best short stories ever written (I wrote an 8 page paper about it last year). So happy.
My two favorite people on the tour: the one on the right being our cute Irish Joyce guide and the one on the left being the ridiculously pretentious American tourist.
After we finished the tour, Manuel went to check into his hostel and I went back to the Joyce Centre and looked around the shop and the exhibit, which I should have had to pay for, but the guy let me in for free. There wasn’t a whole lot to it but it was interesting and (for the most part) fulfilled my nerd quota for the day.
James Joyce Centre.
Parnell monument.
The Spire, or the “Stiletto in the Ghetto.”
Myself and my man James.
I hadn’t had enough James Joyce, however, so we took a walk down the River Liffey to the other setting of “The Dead.” It was quite a lovely walk, and the sun was getting low which made everything look beautiful.
Four Courts.
James Joyce Bridge.
The main setting for “The Dead.” Apparently they used to give tours of this building, but it’s not open anymore. :(
After we walked back and grabbed a cheap bite to eat (emphasis on the need for cheap: Dublin is even more expensive than London), we headed over to a pub to watch the second half of the Ireland v. Wales rugby game. If you don’t know anything about rugby, which is likely, this game was the Six Nations Championship Finals game, which is the rugby union of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, and Italy. For all I know I’m not getting the terminology correctly, but since most people reading this don’t know either, I can say whatever I want. In any case, it was a really intense game. I had never watched a rugby game before, but I actually highly enjoyed it (I think I like it more than football), and since it’s really easy for me to get into sports if I have a team to root for, I was yelling and cheering in no time. It was such an exciting game and Ireland come back up from behind at the end to win the game, meaning not only were they the Six Nations Champions, but they also won a Grand Slam, meaning they beat every other team, which hasn’t happened in over 60 years. Suffice it to say the celebrations in Dublin that night were all over the place. We did some pub hopping ourselves, going from the pub we watched the game at on Abbey Street up to a different pub on O’Connell Street (where there was a group of Irishmen singing who knows what), and then back down to the Temple Bar area where we went to another ridiculously crowded pub.
Champion Team
Everywhere we went, there was celebrating, people dancing in the streets, people with Irish flags wrapped around them, and music. If I remember nothing else about Dublin, I will remember the music. Between the group of singing pub patrons on O’Connell Street, the guitar duo in the pub in Temple Bar who alternated between Irish drinking songs and covers of pop songs, and the musicians in the street covering U2 and MGMT while bystanders danced in the streets, there was so much that Saturday night. Luckily, I recorded many of these on video. Also, I’m not sure what it is, but I heard people singing John Denver’s “Country Roads, Take Me Home” many times that weekend as well. I tried to search online if it was some kind of anthem, but as far as I can tell, people in Ireland are just huge John Denver fans. Now that’s something I can get behind.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=553998326109
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=553998495769
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=553999159439
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=553999264229
So that was my first (half) day in Dublin. I was going to do this all in one go, but I might break it up by day because I just decided I want ice cream. I’ll get onto day 2 as soon as I get back.
