Ciao, Dublin.
Well, for starters, it would be an understatement to say that today was a day of mixed emotions.
We woke up relatively early this morning (relative to our regular schedule in the 'states, that is) to a halfway decent Avalon House breakfast of coffee, orange juice, toast and jam. We were expecting our luggage at noon, but we couldn't sit around that long, so we went out to get (more) coffee instead. We called numerous times to the airport service desk to see if our luggage was yet in Dublin, but the ServisAir people don't seem to like answering their phone too much, so we ended up leaving a lot of messages. As I said in yesterday's post, I wouldn't mind our luggage getting delayed a day or so, but when we're without clothes in inclement weather, it's much easier to get irritated. We decided, after a few hours of frustrating phone tag, to forget about our worries and enjoy Dublin while we could. So we did. And it was an amazing day. We started at the Guinness Storehouse (which is local speak for the Guinness Brewery- in fact, when I asked a bus driver which bus to hop to get to the Brewery, she looked at me a bit cockeyed and said "Wot?" "Oh, the storehouse I mean" "Oh! Take the 16A then!") early in the afternoon. Luckily, it was only €9.00 with a student ID, and with each entry ticket comes a free pint, once you reach the top of the Brewery, so essentially it was €3.50 (if you judge by the average pub price) to tour the factory. Quite a bargain, I must say.
Afterward we did a lot of other things. Including, but not limited to: viewing authentic James Joyce and W.B. Yeats manuscripts at the Dublin Writers Musuem; riding on the top level of a double decker bus in the pooring rain with loud-mouthed Dubliner pre-teens at our back; listening to a 70 year old man named Valentine talk to us about the "days of yore" (his words, not mine) while he showed us his horse Rocky's worn down horseshoes; closing down John Kehoes Irish Pub with a group of raucus but insanely hospitable Irishman, all the while singing a mix of traditional, Smith's, and Otis Redding songs. We did a lot of things.
Oh, and our luggage arrived somewhere in between. And we did the latter of the list above with our two new, really nice roommates, Kathy and Ian.
It was a good day.
But enough of my half-sleepy, halfp-tipsy rant, because with my luggage came my laptop, and the USB cable for my camera.
So here are some pictures.
The sky over Ireland.
Some streets near our hostel.
Our first proper pint.
Brilliant!
The view from atop the brewery, at Gravity Bar (with the Joyce quote looming over his city).
Valentine the ex-Guinness worker, who wanted some change in exchange for a picture, to buy his horse Rocky some new shoes.
Frankie and the Brilliant! gate.
The road outside the Dublin Writers Museum.
One of the many streets in the main shopping district, near Temple Bar.
Our last meal in Dublin, from an excellent pub/restaurant called Cornucopia.
Today was a good day.
And tomorrow morning we're off to Rome, where I'm certain we'll have two equally if not better days.
So, as the title of this post implies, goodbye Dublin. You've been an unspeakably nice host.
We woke up relatively early this morning (relative to our regular schedule in the 'states, that is) to a halfway decent Avalon House breakfast of coffee, orange juice, toast and jam. We were expecting our luggage at noon, but we couldn't sit around that long, so we went out to get (more) coffee instead. We called numerous times to the airport service desk to see if our luggage was yet in Dublin, but the ServisAir people don't seem to like answering their phone too much, so we ended up leaving a lot of messages. As I said in yesterday's post, I wouldn't mind our luggage getting delayed a day or so, but when we're without clothes in inclement weather, it's much easier to get irritated. We decided, after a few hours of frustrating phone tag, to forget about our worries and enjoy Dublin while we could. So we did. And it was an amazing day. We started at the Guinness Storehouse (which is local speak for the Guinness Brewery- in fact, when I asked a bus driver which bus to hop to get to the Brewery, she looked at me a bit cockeyed and said "Wot?" "Oh, the storehouse I mean" "Oh! Take the 16A then!") early in the afternoon. Luckily, it was only €9.00 with a student ID, and with each entry ticket comes a free pint, once you reach the top of the Brewery, so essentially it was €3.50 (if you judge by the average pub price) to tour the factory. Quite a bargain, I must say.
Afterward we did a lot of other things. Including, but not limited to: viewing authentic James Joyce and W.B. Yeats manuscripts at the Dublin Writers Musuem; riding on the top level of a double decker bus in the pooring rain with loud-mouthed Dubliner pre-teens at our back; listening to a 70 year old man named Valentine talk to us about the "days of yore" (his words, not mine) while he showed us his horse Rocky's worn down horseshoes; closing down John Kehoes Irish Pub with a group of raucus but insanely hospitable Irishman, all the while singing a mix of traditional, Smith's, and Otis Redding songs. We did a lot of things.
Oh, and our luggage arrived somewhere in between. And we did the latter of the list above with our two new, really nice roommates, Kathy and Ian.
It was a good day.
But enough of my half-sleepy, halfp-tipsy rant, because with my luggage came my laptop, and the USB cable for my camera.
So here are some pictures.
Some streets near our hostel.
Our first proper pint.
Brilliant!
The view from atop the brewery, at Gravity Bar (with the Joyce quote looming over his city).
Valentine the ex-Guinness worker, who wanted some change in exchange for a picture, to buy his horse Rocky some new shoes.
Frankie and the Brilliant! gate.
The road outside the Dublin Writers Museum.
One of the many streets in the main shopping district, near Temple Bar.
Our last meal in Dublin, from an excellent pub/restaurant called Cornucopia.
Today was a good day.
And tomorrow morning we're off to Rome, where I'm certain we'll have two equally if not better days.
So, as the title of this post implies, goodbye Dublin. You've been an unspeakably nice host.
posted by John Cropper at
8:30 PM
1 Comments:
I must say you two look like you ate well. I'm yearning for Dublin again already. However, my own journey took me farther north to Scotland the day after you - and I got to Glasgow when the terrorists did! However, I only really heard about it from the receptionist at the Inverness Youth Hostel, who was actually at the airport when the bombing occured. He said everyone there was just glad to have their lives. Glad to have had such a rousing time with you in Dublin, glad to see your Roma excursion is going well.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home