Dublin: Ulysses, Madonna, and a surprise show

Getting to and through the airport in Paris was the easiest yet. This was in part because we had to leave our hotel at 6:40 am, but still. There were lines and procedures and a distinct absence of chaos.
Once aboard the plane, we found that aer lingus has the least legroom of any airline we have ever been on.




The weather on the day we arrived was pretty sad. It was cold and rainy. Check out the jogger in his safety gear, though. He was my favorite.








We opted to do the hop on hop off tour bus for Dublin since our time was limited and it's an easy way to get an introduction to the city. This is what we did in London and it was great. The problem here was that because of the rain, the double decker open top bus loses some of its appeal and the downstairs are crowded. We rode it for a couple stops, but weren't impressed with the commentary and couldn't see anything, so we got off at Dublin castle. Unlike Edinburgh castle, the grounds are open to the public, and several of the buildings on the grounds are still used for various services. During the uprising in the early 20th century, it was a place that really represented Ireland to the people. They had meetings and street markets inside, and declared it an area off limits to the British soldiers.




This is the oldest tower in Dublin (it didn't appear that much of the original castle was still standing; it's been built upon over the years).




These towers in the next two pictures (the first is the same Tower as above) were about 50 feet apart, and Dane loved it.




This one looks like a doll house.




There is, of course, a chapel on the grounds (we've learned a lot about castles during this trip, including that there is always a chapel).








Because of the rain, we didn't stay here long, but there was a beautiful little garden as well.












We stopped by the castle library (which is actually a functioning public library) and Dane was excited to sign the guest book. I don't know why.




Dane loves cappuccino, but the cups never have handles large enough for his fingers.




After the castle we headed through Merrion square, which is a park near Oscar Wilde's birthplace. In one corner, there is a little memorial to him. Here we are just chillin' on the rock.




I know it looks Ike the same kind of graffiti that was on his grave, but this is actually supposed to be here. It is a collection of his witticisms carved in his own handwriting.




Dane loves being back where it is cold and rainy, especially because it means he doesn't look as ridiculous carrying an umbrella. The way he swings it while he walks, though, brings back some of the silly.




This park is densely packed with plants and bushes along the edges near the street, but as you work your way in, it opens up in little clearings like this.




I love this flower combination. I have no idea what it is.




This is the is the door of a club. I should have taken a shot from farther away so you could see how huge these doors were. When you just glance at it, these little tiles look relative abstract, but when we really stopped to look, we realized they were face parts. Weird.




The first evening, we were very tired from traveling (we got up at 5 to get to the airport) so we grabbed some fish and chips to go and headed to our hotel to crash for the evening. As we walked home, we saw several people that we assume we're getting ready for the big concert. We found out from our hotel when we checked in that there was a Madonna concert at the stadium around the corner. We could hear some of it through our window, although sometimes it was drowned out by the torrential rain. We felt so sad for the audience, sitting in the rain in an open stadium having paid so much money for concert tickets.
The next morning, the sun was bright, and while it was not what I would call warm, it looked like it was going to be lovely. We meant to catch a shuttle into town to get on the bus (it was about a mile, maybe just over, walk to the nearest tour bus stop and we were trying to conserve energy) but missed it so we started our little hike into the city. We could comfortably ride on the top level this time, and our driver, who doubled as our guide, was hilarious. He pointed out the colorful doors, which are everywhere throughout the UK as well, and said that the tradition started as a means of helping gentlemen home from the pubs in a thick fog. I don't know if it's true, but I liked it.




This is a main shopping street that we had to come back to to buy tickets for our night out this evening.




This, I believe, is Christ Church Cathedral. There seems to be a cathedral with this name in every town in Ireland and the UK.








This made me hungry.




Here is the Guinness brewery! It's enormous.








I was amused by our outfits as we were out and about. This is what Dane wore,




and this is how I was dressed. Because it was freezing.




This is supposed to be the second tallest obelisk in the world, second only to the Washington monument. It doesn't seem like its a close second. It's in a giant park called Phoenix park that used to be a royal hunting ground. They would hunt deer and pheasants here. Today, there is a still a herd (?) of deer running around in here (though no more hunting) but no pheasants.




Can you see the statue in the middle of the pond?








The James Joyce bridge.




I just saw this and took a picture. I don't know why I seem to only have men's shoes.




Jameskn whiskey distillery.




This is the river Liffey, which runs through the center of the city and historically and still divides the city into two different socioeconomic areas. Today there is a major shopping street just above the river, but until recently it was not uncommon for affluent people who were born and raised on the south side to never have crossed over to the north. When Dane and I walked up to the James Joyce center a little later, we could clearly see the difference between the two.




It was also near here on our bus tour that our driver sang a pub song for us. We were the only passengers on the bus at this point. He had w
quite a good singing voice, too.
We got off the bus near the Dublin Writer's museum. Dublin has had 4 different authors awarded the nobel prize for literature, as well as several other prolific and significant writers. The museum was small, and I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I enjoyed it. It gave a great overview of the history of literature in Ireland (and aligned nicely with my Irish lit class this last semester). After that, we went to the James Joyce center, which was much more exciting and interesting for me than for Dane. If you've ever read Ulysses, you will be more interested in the things here. This is the door from 7 Eccles street. The building that had been there when Joyce was writing the book was torn down, but this door was preserved.




This is a mural that illustrates the 18 episodes of the book. It is a long, complex, difficult book to read, but this mural does a good job of capturing many of its qualities.








There were also examples of how people have emulated or paid homage to Joyce. This is a graphic novel of the first episode,




Tom Stoppard (who wrote Rosencrantz and Guidenstern are Dead) wrote this imaginary interaction between Joyce and Lenin.




This is the book nerd in me; Ulysses had a complicated publishing process because it was banned in the US and UK for a while, but only after half of it had been published. This shows the publishing process.




We walked down the main street of Dublin, O'Connell street and stopped in front of the Grand Post Office, which was the base of the rebel forces during the Easter Rising in 1916. This was one of the last of a long series of uprisings to attempt to throw off British rule. When the British captured the rebels, they executed 14 or 15 of the leaders, and that act shocked the country into action. Ireland finally gained its independence in the early 1920s. If you've seen the movie Michael Collins with Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman, this is where the fighting at the beginning takes place (because it begins with the Easter Rising).




You can see the damage from the fight, bullet holes and chunks missing from the pillars,








From here we went to Trinity College Duboin to see the Book of Kells. I was disappointed. For what it cost to see it, I expected more access and substance. I would recommend other illuminated manuscript exhibits at other museums over this one. We were kind of bummed.




While waiting to go in, we stood behind this school group. They looked like high schoolers, and it threw us off that they were smoking and no staff seemed to mind. If I haven't mentioned it yet, people smoke like chimneys here. I'm so excited to get back to a place where you can't just smoke in a grocery store.




You can't really see it, but this street had a musician of some kind about every 40 feet.




Time for a brief rest in the park before dinner.








We ate dinner at a place called Pasta Fresca, where they make their own pasta each day. You could tell. The pasta itself was so good! They sauce was also quite tasty. It made us decide that we need to try our hand at fresh pasta again.
While we had been walking around Dublin on the first day, we walked by a theatre and decided to get tickets for the show the next night. We were so excited when we got there.








Dane was especially excited because he's never seen even a recording of it before.




We saw Riverdance in Ireland!!! It made us so happy. I highly recommend the show if you like Celtic music. I think it does a good job of showcasing its different characteristics and intricacies.
The next day, we were headed to Belfast to pick up a car at the airport, and en head back down towards Dublin and across to the west coast of Ireland. We decided to take a taxi instead of trying to navigate 2 buses to go less than 4 km, and it was so wonderful to just hop in a car and not worry about where we were going. We did learn that from the car park, the entrance to the train station dumps you directly on the platform, and you need a ticket to exit the platform. Luckily, everyone we've encountered in Ireland is super friendly and helpful so we were able to sort things out and get our tickets.




On the train, we had a Harry potter moment when we were asked if we'd like anything from the trolley. His hair was spectacular.




Another first for Dane on this trips, he's gotten to ride trains! In Rome and now Ireland. When we got on this train, it was a little chaotic because we had reserved seats, but most of the train is free seating, so there
was a lot of shuffling of seats, but not much room in which to do it.




In the days leading up to this one, I had asked Dane how he was feeling about driving, and he'd said he'd been fine, Then when we were actually getting into the car, he said, "I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous.".




He did a great job, though. It took a good half hour before I was starting to feel less nervous (the lanes here are tiny, and I was often not in the same one as Dane) and we got a little lost because we didn't have a real map, just the one on the phone, but we got the hang of it and then it was a beautifully pleasant little drive.












We pulled into Galway around dinner time.