Another day, another tour =)
This day, our day began with another hotel breakfast that was quite enjoyable. Again with the ham/bacon, but this time they did also have like oatmeal, eggs, fruit, all sorts of juices, yogurt...coffee, of course. Good stuff!
We then got on a bus to take a driving tour of Belfast. This was quite an interesting contrast, as the tour guide this time was a non-religious atheist, who really sort of skimmed over the Troubles and stuff that had happened. She showed us the murals, but sort of rolled her eyes and thought the talking about the religious fanaticism was a lot of bother that, but her actions, seemed silly to her. She seemed slightly, however, to lean towards British Loyalism. Just a feeling, there...
From there, we drove over near the Titanic memorial. We were able to get off the bus, see the dry dock, which I believe is still the largest in the world, and see where they built the Titanic. The quote of the day for this portion of the trip was the bus driver said "You know what we say here in Belfast, don'tcha lass?" "No, please share..." "Well, we say 'she was afloat when she left Belfast'", said with a brogue and a chuckle. The sheer scale of what occurred there, like a hundred years ago is incredibly impressive. I wanted to take a picture of the picture that represents the ship inside the dry dock, because I don't really think you can get a sense of it otherwise...
At any rate, it was a super fun thing to visit and say that I've seen. I bought a 100 year anniversary post card, enjoyed the view, read about the pump house, saw the new museum that's being erected and resembles a giant iceburg, which I find incredibly ironic. Apparently from the air, it's supposed to look like the WHITE STAR from the WHITE STAR LINE that built the Titanic, but it's all silver and shiny. Here's the most current pic I could find on the Interwebs. There's one in my pics, as well. I guess the big celebration for the 100 year thing happens next year in 2012.
As we were driving around, we stopped at this house that reminded me of the US White House that's set back down this looong drive. It's closed behind iron gates, and the gates say "NO PARKING: GATE TO BE KEPT CLEAR AT ALL TIME". Apparently, such signs are merely a suggestion, as our tour bus backed up right to the sign, actually, and then allowed us all to go out and look at the house =) Irony, that =)
As we were driving back to the hotel, we passed this, COMPOUND is the only work I can think to express it, of the Police Headquarters of Northern Ireland. This looked like military bases look in the US. It was...interesting to see a police force like that...
After we got back to the hotel, we had some time to kill before eating a group dinner that night, so we decided to walk down the street and see if we could find a market or something interesting to see. We found St. George's market, an indoor market that was pretty amazing! There was lots of cool stuff in there! Everything from pastries, cheeses and amazing Indian food to textiles, beautiful knitted and crafted scarves, wood work items, Irish memorabilia and history stuff, used and new books, toys, jams and jellies, you name it, it was there and it was incredible! I managed to purchase a beautiful scarf that I cannot wait to make a part of some belly dance costume! We shopped....man, this was seriously one of the few times I wish I had had unlimited funds! One of my favorite things was a tabletop trebuchet! I wanted to buy it for my honey so badly, but it would have been bulky and hard to transport back home and was also pricey for a girl in a severe budget. I got his card, though, and might still absolutely need to own something like that!
For dinner this night, we went to the Opera House, which was next to our hotel, maybe ten steps away. The food was okay, the dessert was funky looking and odd, with freeze dried meringue, or something like that, but it was an adventure! After dinner, some of us went to the Crown Pub and Bar. We had heard about this bar, and actually went in the day before, but it was SO packed that we couldn't find a place to sit, so we went to the pub across the street. They have these little cubby holes, with closed doors to give those inside a measure of privacy. These were used for noble and nefarious practices in the past, to be sure =) We were also told a story about how the builder of the original building was for Irish independence, and his wife was a loyalist. She agreed to let him build the bar if he paid homage to England's king. So, there is a Crown at the threshold where folks can wipe their feet as they enter =) I LIKE this Irish humor! The grand total? I think we fit 11 people in one of the cubbies and managed a group picture. Good times!
We had to leave SUPER early for the airport the next morning, so it was an early night, lots of relaxation, repacking, for me a tad bit of laundry, and appreciating the fact that I got to room by myself. It caused a huge amount of stress when it was happening, but there were many times during the trip that I would not have asked for a roomie. =) Thank you, Universe, for knowing what I needed even when I didn't =)
~Peace.
Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts
Saturday, June 18, 2011
6-18-11 Dublin-Belfast Day Four
This day dawned, and it was time to say good-bye to beautiful Dublin, Ireland. You were good to me, Dublin. You showed me Bullmer's Cider, the Guiness plant, Malahide Castle, and so very many other things. I was serenaded, got to be drunk while my nephew was celebrating his birthday in another part of the world, and walk home at 3am with a gallant gentleman! I hope that I can return and visit you again some day!
We got on the bus and got to enjoy the gorgeous green countryside of Ireland in the Summer. It rained off and on, but all we saw was beautiful and worthy of appreciation. About half way there, we stopped at this very cool "applegreen" store. It was part play area for small children, had a Burger King inside, and what looked like a gourmet deli and food store too! I got some drinks, took a picture of the "you are here" sign, and got back on the bus. It was a short excursion, but good to stretch the legs...
We arrived in Belfast, and pulled up to our hotel, the Europa! We later found out that our hotel was in the Guiness Book of World Records....as the most BOMBED hotel in the world! There's a whole lot of story behind that, but suffice to say, I am relieved that I didn't know that until our last night there =) I would have been a bit more nervous...
The Europa, though, was pretty cool. I was almost immediately surprised that things seemed very formal in Belfast. Of course, we were in a fancy hotel with lots of weddings and other things happening in and around it, but lots of people were dressed up. We live in Reno. We don't dress up, really. We had to wait awhile for our rooms, and they left our luggage in the lobby. Sure, the concierge was right there, but it still made me nervous to leave my stuff there...
We walked across the street and ate lunch at a pub. It was the only time, the entire time I was there, that I ate a burger and it was pretty disappointing. I might live in the cheap food capitol of the world, but I also appreciate good food. Should have had the salad....that will teach me to eat poorly =) The cider was good, though, as was the company =)
We walked down and immediately encountered great buildings and it turned out there was a festival and parade happening at one of the city's center buildings that day! It couldn't have been more perfect! It was the Lord Mayor's Parade, and it's theme was "One World, One Future, One Vision". I can't tell you how much this appealed to me! We saw a pink, colorful dog or large animal thingie, a metallic robot, and lots of colorful costumes, dancing, vendors....looked like a great time with lots of people! The atmosphere was very festive! Since returning home, I've discovered that Belfast has its youngest mayor ever, and he's doing pretty cool things. I wish him luck, there is a lot of healing that needs to take place in this community!
We were trying to find a place to exchange money and we asked these young men who were selling the tour bus tickets. They fought about it for a bit, resulting in one of my favorite moments from Belfast, that was luckily caught on film. The ending comment between them was "feck ye". The people in Belfast were nothing if not genuine!
We made it back to the hotel and finally got to get our stuff into our rooms. My room was nice, very classy looking with glass doors in the bathroom. My immediate view wasn't great, but looking out and up, I got a gorgeous mountain view!
Riding the elevator down to go to dinner, I ended up in the elevator with a very amusig bridal side of a wedding party, where the dad was teasing the daughter about farting in the elevator and leaving it for everyone else to stew in. She was mortified, and I spent the ride down chuckling...and holding my breath =)
We had some time to explore more before dinner, so we decided to walk up and head for the museum and Botanical Gardens. Along the way we passed the Queen's University, which was a beautiful place to snap pictures and they had a gorgeous garden right out front. Along this walk, I took a pretty major spill and fell hard! You will see in my pics, a golden colored mandala that was hanging on the wall. I saw it from outside the small park where it was, and rushed inside to take a picture of it. Along the way, the stones on the walk were very slick from rain and moss and I slid across the stones and ate shit hard! I scraped my elbow and knee and took quite a bit of a tumble, but was mostly okay. I WAS sore for several days, but was glad the injuries weren't more extensive. I did NOT need to end up with crutches or stitches during my trip! There was a little blood, but I didn't tear any of my clothing, and dirt washes off =)
The gardens were lovely. We saw many gorgeous trees, including one poor tree that looked as though it were in jail! I don't know what a poor little tree has to do to have a cage built around it, but maybe someone thought they were protecting the tree, or there's a reason not immediately clear why this happened, but it was quite a site! We came across this amazing giant green house that was called the Palm House. It reminds me of stories I've read of great manors that have huge green houses on their grounds, or perhaps solarium's or private inside gardens where rich people have gardeners that create wonderlands of plants and flowers to delight all those passing through. This was certainly that! Everything from plants that actually looked like huge, hairy spiders, reaching down to spin you inside their webs, to beautiful palm trees, and gorgeous flowers and grapes, it was a green wonderland! The beds outside the Palm House were bare, and we wondered if the greenery inside moved outside later in the year, but we never found out the answer to that...
We passed a mural, a fairy glenn or entrance to a fairy kingdom, surely, then we made our way to the arbor and rose gardens, which were also amazing, beautiful, and odiferously enchanting. We passed many awesome and ancient tree friends along the way, too. I saw one tree that looked like a Treant to me, from Tolkien. Gorgeous! It was interesting to me, in the rose garden, that the yellow and white roses smelled the best. Even if there was a hint of yellow, or mostly yellow with red rims, they smelled very much stronger than the red or purple or other colors of roses. Another grand adventure, and we met up with some others of our group here and chatted for a minute.
We walked to the museum, and got there just in time to be told that it was closing at 5pm and it was like, 5 minutes til. We thought we would come back later, but we never made it back. I am okay with this. We did see an amazing piece of metal sculpture outside that you will see in my pictures. I took the pic because it reminded me of my welding teacher John Septien and what he taught us about perspective and making sure a piece is interesting from all sides. This was certainly that, and I tipped my umbrella to John for being my teacher many times on my trip, and teaching me how to appreciate such things...
We walked back down on our free day in Belfast, and had seen or read something while on our travels that said if we wanted to know the "true story" of the history and troubles that have plagued Belfast, to find a black cab and ask the driver if he'd take us on a tour of the murals. We decided this sounded like a pretty nifty idea, and everyone else was shy, so I approached a cab driver. The first one we approached said he was a little young, but to go to cabs up and talk to that guy, he could help us...
We approached, and he was a rough looking guy, kinda, an obvious facial scar, gray hair, and it's interesting to understand the accents in this part of Ireland. We discussed what we wanted, and he said he could do that and we negotiated a price that seemed very reasonable to us and entered the cab. The cabs themselves are somewhat a wonder because I expected to be very cramped in the small space, but they are actually quite roomy for how small they are, and have forward and back facing seating as well as allowing a passenger to sit beside the driver. Then there's the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing and having the drivers side of the vehicle on the opposite side...but we won't go there...
Our guides name was Stevie, and he started out by showing us a large, black plastic bullet that was an example of those shot by British troops at civilians during the times of unrest in Northern Ireland, also called "The Troubles". This issue is huge and there are many sides to it. We saw the Catholic side, and I admit that the view we were presented by the guide was colored by his experiences, but it was fascinating, nonetheless. To read generally about the Troubles, check out the Wikipedia explanation for an overview, or the BBC for more detail.
One of the first photos that Stevie showed us was of himself as a young man, lobbing an anti-tank explosive device into a British tank. At first we were somewhat timid, and I regret I don't have a picture of that particular picture, but one of my travel mates does, and I hope to be able to add it at some point. As a result of that, he spent ten years in prison as a terrorist. He took us to the main mural that is at least a block long, there are many pictures of it in my stuff. We got out and he talked to us about what it was like to live during that time. In the pictures of the mural, notice the barbed wire that is still across the top of the wall. It was very disconcerting to see that everywhere, or to see the signs near people's homes that said "NOTICE: CCTV in use"...there, 'Big Brother' is truly watching. He says people weren't really scared because it was just the way it was. There was really no choice but to keep living and carrying on with day to day life. They were under curfew 22 hours a day. Anything they needed to obtain outside their homes had to be accomplished in two hours a day or you risked getting shot. In response to how he got involved with the IRA, he said everyone was involved, it's just what you did if you were young and male.
He then showed us a piece of barbed wire. He said he dug that piece of wire out from the cell where he lived for those ten years and he looks at it every day to remember where he's been, how far he's come and where he is now. It's a reminder. He said it's important for people like us to visit Belfast and see how things were when stuff happened. He showed us many pictures where there were tanks and burned out buses, but we saw the current, nice and clean, civilized street. It was very, very striking, and very sobering. We saw memorials dedicated to those who've been killed in these conflicts, some going back to the early 1900's, up to very recent. There was one very poignant display where there were pictures along the entire wall and large red lettered words MURDERED and what date and general circumstances the individuals were killed under. Women, children, men, this violence was non-discriminatory. This was a very emotionally heavy tour, but it's sort of like visiting Auschwitz. It's our obligation as humans to know about stuff like this so it can't happen again.
At one point, because we had been in the cab for awhile, one of our members had to use the restroom. Stevie was nice enough to call his mum and ask if we could use her facilities, as we were near her home when we told him we needed to stop. He was a lovely man, his mum was very sweet, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience of getting to meet him and experience a few hours of him, having him share his memories with us.
We saw different sections of the "Freedom Wall", erected to "protect" the Protestant loyalists from the scourge of the Catholics. One of the memorials we saw was very near the edge of the wall. Stevie showed us that although everyone talks peacefully and like everything is better now, people are still afraid. They build cages around their porches facing the all, so no one gets hurt of killed if someone hefts a bomb over the wall. I CANNOT imagine living like that! I've never been more happy, or felt more ashamed to live in the safety and ease of the US. Stevie says he'd love to see that wall come down, but he doesn't think it will happen during his lifetime. He says as long as people like him, who remember everything that happened and lived through it, are alive, he doesn't think it will happen. I hope that isn't true. One of the final thoughts Stevie left us with was surprising and very thought-provoking...
He shared that the world cried with America after 9-11. Everyone mourned with us and for us, and the horrible loss of life that occurred on that day. We are now very near the 10th Anniversary of what occurred. He said no one would have wished that horrible act or loss of life on anyone, in any country. However, in a strange way, that event occurring helped the people of Northern Ireland. It helped them because it brought a global focus and spotlight onto terrorism, what terrorism is and was, and it began a global lack of tolerance for such things to continue to take place. Things got better for those in Northern Ireland after 9-11. I don't think one could ever put a "positive" spin on that horrible event, but it is good to know that perhaps, elsewhere in the world, the backlash from the event did some positive things.
As we finished up with Stevie, we asked him to take us to a good place for dinner. He dropped us at the Morning Star, where we had an excellent meal and tried to process everything from our tour. This seemed like one of the longest days we spent during the entire trip. I'd say we packed enough into this day that it seemed like at least three days! We walked back to the hotel, saw interesting stuff along the way that was mostly closed by the time we walked back, and it was time to fall exhausted into bed that night!
~Peace
We got on the bus and got to enjoy the gorgeous green countryside of Ireland in the Summer. It rained off and on, but all we saw was beautiful and worthy of appreciation. About half way there, we stopped at this very cool "applegreen" store. It was part play area for small children, had a Burger King inside, and what looked like a gourmet deli and food store too! I got some drinks, took a picture of the "you are here" sign, and got back on the bus. It was a short excursion, but good to stretch the legs...
We arrived in Belfast, and pulled up to our hotel, the Europa! We later found out that our hotel was in the Guiness Book of World Records....as the most BOMBED hotel in the world! There's a whole lot of story behind that, but suffice to say, I am relieved that I didn't know that until our last night there =) I would have been a bit more nervous...
The Europa, though, was pretty cool. I was almost immediately surprised that things seemed very formal in Belfast. Of course, we were in a fancy hotel with lots of weddings and other things happening in and around it, but lots of people were dressed up. We live in Reno. We don't dress up, really. We had to wait awhile for our rooms, and they left our luggage in the lobby. Sure, the concierge was right there, but it still made me nervous to leave my stuff there...
We walked across the street and ate lunch at a pub. It was the only time, the entire time I was there, that I ate a burger and it was pretty disappointing. I might live in the cheap food capitol of the world, but I also appreciate good food. Should have had the salad....that will teach me to eat poorly =) The cider was good, though, as was the company =)
We walked down and immediately encountered great buildings and it turned out there was a festival and parade happening at one of the city's center buildings that day! It couldn't have been more perfect! It was the Lord Mayor's Parade, and it's theme was "One World, One Future, One Vision". I can't tell you how much this appealed to me! We saw a pink, colorful dog or large animal thingie, a metallic robot, and lots of colorful costumes, dancing, vendors....looked like a great time with lots of people! The atmosphere was very festive! Since returning home, I've discovered that Belfast has its youngest mayor ever, and he's doing pretty cool things. I wish him luck, there is a lot of healing that needs to take place in this community!
We were trying to find a place to exchange money and we asked these young men who were selling the tour bus tickets. They fought about it for a bit, resulting in one of my favorite moments from Belfast, that was luckily caught on film. The ending comment between them was "feck ye". The people in Belfast were nothing if not genuine!
We made it back to the hotel and finally got to get our stuff into our rooms. My room was nice, very classy looking with glass doors in the bathroom. My immediate view wasn't great, but looking out and up, I got a gorgeous mountain view!
Riding the elevator down to go to dinner, I ended up in the elevator with a very amusig bridal side of a wedding party, where the dad was teasing the daughter about farting in the elevator and leaving it for everyone else to stew in. She was mortified, and I spent the ride down chuckling...and holding my breath =)
We had some time to explore more before dinner, so we decided to walk up and head for the museum and Botanical Gardens. Along the way we passed the Queen's University, which was a beautiful place to snap pictures and they had a gorgeous garden right out front. Along this walk, I took a pretty major spill and fell hard! You will see in my pics, a golden colored mandala that was hanging on the wall. I saw it from outside the small park where it was, and rushed inside to take a picture of it. Along the way, the stones on the walk were very slick from rain and moss and I slid across the stones and ate shit hard! I scraped my elbow and knee and took quite a bit of a tumble, but was mostly okay. I WAS sore for several days, but was glad the injuries weren't more extensive. I did NOT need to end up with crutches or stitches during my trip! There was a little blood, but I didn't tear any of my clothing, and dirt washes off =)
The gardens were lovely. We saw many gorgeous trees, including one poor tree that looked as though it were in jail! I don't know what a poor little tree has to do to have a cage built around it, but maybe someone thought they were protecting the tree, or there's a reason not immediately clear why this happened, but it was quite a site! We came across this amazing giant green house that was called the Palm House. It reminds me of stories I've read of great manors that have huge green houses on their grounds, or perhaps solarium's or private inside gardens where rich people have gardeners that create wonderlands of plants and flowers to delight all those passing through. This was certainly that! Everything from plants that actually looked like huge, hairy spiders, reaching down to spin you inside their webs, to beautiful palm trees, and gorgeous flowers and grapes, it was a green wonderland! The beds outside the Palm House were bare, and we wondered if the greenery inside moved outside later in the year, but we never found out the answer to that...
We passed a mural, a fairy glenn or entrance to a fairy kingdom, surely, then we made our way to the arbor and rose gardens, which were also amazing, beautiful, and odiferously enchanting. We passed many awesome and ancient tree friends along the way, too. I saw one tree that looked like a Treant to me, from Tolkien. Gorgeous! It was interesting to me, in the rose garden, that the yellow and white roses smelled the best. Even if there was a hint of yellow, or mostly yellow with red rims, they smelled very much stronger than the red or purple or other colors of roses. Another grand adventure, and we met up with some others of our group here and chatted for a minute.
We walked to the museum, and got there just in time to be told that it was closing at 5pm and it was like, 5 minutes til. We thought we would come back later, but we never made it back. I am okay with this. We did see an amazing piece of metal sculpture outside that you will see in my pictures. I took the pic because it reminded me of my welding teacher John Septien and what he taught us about perspective and making sure a piece is interesting from all sides. This was certainly that, and I tipped my umbrella to John for being my teacher many times on my trip, and teaching me how to appreciate such things...
We walked back down on our free day in Belfast, and had seen or read something while on our travels that said if we wanted to know the "true story" of the history and troubles that have plagued Belfast, to find a black cab and ask the driver if he'd take us on a tour of the murals. We decided this sounded like a pretty nifty idea, and everyone else was shy, so I approached a cab driver. The first one we approached said he was a little young, but to go to cabs up and talk to that guy, he could help us...
We approached, and he was a rough looking guy, kinda, an obvious facial scar, gray hair, and it's interesting to understand the accents in this part of Ireland. We discussed what we wanted, and he said he could do that and we negotiated a price that seemed very reasonable to us and entered the cab. The cabs themselves are somewhat a wonder because I expected to be very cramped in the small space, but they are actually quite roomy for how small they are, and have forward and back facing seating as well as allowing a passenger to sit beside the driver. Then there's the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing and having the drivers side of the vehicle on the opposite side...but we won't go there...
Our guides name was Stevie, and he started out by showing us a large, black plastic bullet that was an example of those shot by British troops at civilians during the times of unrest in Northern Ireland, also called "The Troubles". This issue is huge and there are many sides to it. We saw the Catholic side, and I admit that the view we were presented by the guide was colored by his experiences, but it was fascinating, nonetheless. To read generally about the Troubles, check out the Wikipedia explanation for an overview, or the BBC for more detail.
One of the first photos that Stevie showed us was of himself as a young man, lobbing an anti-tank explosive device into a British tank. At first we were somewhat timid, and I regret I don't have a picture of that particular picture, but one of my travel mates does, and I hope to be able to add it at some point. As a result of that, he spent ten years in prison as a terrorist. He took us to the main mural that is at least a block long, there are many pictures of it in my stuff. We got out and he talked to us about what it was like to live during that time. In the pictures of the mural, notice the barbed wire that is still across the top of the wall. It was very disconcerting to see that everywhere, or to see the signs near people's homes that said "NOTICE: CCTV in use"...there, 'Big Brother' is truly watching. He says people weren't really scared because it was just the way it was. There was really no choice but to keep living and carrying on with day to day life. They were under curfew 22 hours a day. Anything they needed to obtain outside their homes had to be accomplished in two hours a day or you risked getting shot. In response to how he got involved with the IRA, he said everyone was involved, it's just what you did if you were young and male.
He then showed us a piece of barbed wire. He said he dug that piece of wire out from the cell where he lived for those ten years and he looks at it every day to remember where he's been, how far he's come and where he is now. It's a reminder. He said it's important for people like us to visit Belfast and see how things were when stuff happened. He showed us many pictures where there were tanks and burned out buses, but we saw the current, nice and clean, civilized street. It was very, very striking, and very sobering. We saw memorials dedicated to those who've been killed in these conflicts, some going back to the early 1900's, up to very recent. There was one very poignant display where there were pictures along the entire wall and large red lettered words MURDERED and what date and general circumstances the individuals were killed under. Women, children, men, this violence was non-discriminatory. This was a very emotionally heavy tour, but it's sort of like visiting Auschwitz. It's our obligation as humans to know about stuff like this so it can't happen again.
At one point, because we had been in the cab for awhile, one of our members had to use the restroom. Stevie was nice enough to call his mum and ask if we could use her facilities, as we were near her home when we told him we needed to stop. He was a lovely man, his mum was very sweet, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience of getting to meet him and experience a few hours of him, having him share his memories with us.
We saw different sections of the "Freedom Wall", erected to "protect" the Protestant loyalists from the scourge of the Catholics. One of the memorials we saw was very near the edge of the wall. Stevie showed us that although everyone talks peacefully and like everything is better now, people are still afraid. They build cages around their porches facing the all, so no one gets hurt of killed if someone hefts a bomb over the wall. I CANNOT imagine living like that! I've never been more happy, or felt more ashamed to live in the safety and ease of the US. Stevie says he'd love to see that wall come down, but he doesn't think it will happen during his lifetime. He says as long as people like him, who remember everything that happened and lived through it, are alive, he doesn't think it will happen. I hope that isn't true. One of the final thoughts Stevie left us with was surprising and very thought-provoking...
He shared that the world cried with America after 9-11. Everyone mourned with us and for us, and the horrible loss of life that occurred on that day. We are now very near the 10th Anniversary of what occurred. He said no one would have wished that horrible act or loss of life on anyone, in any country. However, in a strange way, that event occurring helped the people of Northern Ireland. It helped them because it brought a global focus and spotlight onto terrorism, what terrorism is and was, and it began a global lack of tolerance for such things to continue to take place. Things got better for those in Northern Ireland after 9-11. I don't think one could ever put a "positive" spin on that horrible event, but it is good to know that perhaps, elsewhere in the world, the backlash from the event did some positive things.
As we finished up with Stevie, we asked him to take us to a good place for dinner. He dropped us at the Morning Star, where we had an excellent meal and tried to process everything from our tour. This seemed like one of the longest days we spent during the entire trip. I'd say we packed enough into this day that it seemed like at least three days! We walked back to the hotel, saw interesting stuff along the way that was mostly closed by the time we walked back, and it was time to fall exhausted into bed that night!
~Peace
Thursday, June 16, 2011
6-17-11, Dublin, Day three
This was one of the days I was looking most forward to. This was "Guiness Brewery Tour Day". Hoooray!
The day dawned pretty early, and we got to have another awesome breakfast in our awesome hotel. I rather like breakfasts in the UK. There are some variations, but they seem to cater to almost everyone. There's this delicious ham/bacon and I REALLY like...to me it seemed like slices of ham, but everyone there called it bacon, so okay then =) Then, it's mostly standard breakfast fare...fruit, yogurt, toast, cereal, variety of juices, but I am a big fan of staying in hotels that have free breakfast! Yay for free breakfast!
We had to be at the Guiness place at 9, I think, which was cool, if a little early for beer drinking. The tour was very nice, but I am used to winery and small craft brewery tours, where you get to see them in action, actually crafting the beer. This was more like a museum and the actual crafting was a distant look at some copper pots in a far off building on the compound. That said, I am sure you can get the "deluxe" tour for an additional fee...In that case, my tour was just fine =) The building is cool, it has like a central column that goes all the way up like seven or eight floors, and when you get to the top, you get your pint of Guiness and get to see all of Dublin from a bird's eye view. Honestly, the top of this thing sort of reminded me of when they crash through the top of the candy factory in the original "Willie Wonka" movie and are careening around the city...
All of that said, it was cool. We went through a tasting room and I had a smidge of the dark-rich elixir of life. By the time we hoofed it up to the top, though, I was feeling thirsty and a little light-headed so I opted for a soda. I *DID* try the Guiness, just in a sampler glass rather than a full pint at like, 10am =) We got to see the history of Guiness, varying marketing campaigns throughout the ages, they even have a place where you can enter an ancestor's name and find out if they ever worked for Guiness. At the end, in the store, there was shopping that had to be done. I HAD to get my honey something that could ONLY be gotten at this particular production plant in Dublin, and with my goal accomplished, we headed back to the bus...
We drove somewhat thru the city. We passed by Leo Burdocks, which I had thought was a singular restaurant, didn't realize it was a chain. In watching a show with Bobby Flay on Ireland earlier in the year, he said some of the best fish and chips was from Leo Burdock. Sadly, there were so many other places to try, and great things to see, that I never got the chance to try them. AND, the place that had the Guiness ice cream? When I went there, they didn't have any of that flavor, which also made me sad...I did, however, have some soda bread ice cream, which was unusual, but very tasty, and went very well with the Mango I mixed with it.
We were trying to decide what to do with the free afternoon we had, and after talking it over with many of those who were also on the tour, we decided to head for Malahide Castle, which was a short train ride away. This was probably the rainiest day I remember on the whole trip, which seemed to make the entire adventure all the more festive! The train ride was lovely, and when we arrived, we were sure where we were headed, but within a couple of minutes, found the path that led to the castle. What a path it was! Windy, with a tree canopy that went overhead, but still somehow didn't seem to stop the rain from soaking the ground, it was very magickal, like the path to great adventure, a fairy glen, or a haunted castle! I am sure the castle was that!
The castle was unbelievably cool. It has this, like, automatic audio guided tour, which I thought was neat. You can read about it at the link above, but check out my pictures, too. I fell in love with a tree there, that I called "The Druid Tree". It just looked like a venerable old soul, that's seen so very much come and go through out the time it's been where it is! I also saw a bird taking a bath in the puddles in front of the castle, that was also cool. This castle, although obviously maintained for tourist purposes was REAL. It felt old world, medieval, and kinda scary. It was also charming and quaint. It's sad to learn that the last members of the family that owned the castle passed away in 1975, but from the 12th century until the 70's before that, it had been owned by the same family! THAT is impressive!
We had about half an hour before heading back on the train, so some of our group chose to go to the town near the train station from Malahide, but I decided to take the train back. I was tired by this time! I think the path to get to the castle was at least a couple of miles long! By the end of things, we were pretty soggy, too.
Dinner that night was a short walk from the hotel. I remember eating a potato cake, and I think I had stew or some sort of meat pie. It was good. My new love found in Ireland thusfar, drink-wise is Bullmer's cider. Yum! The pear was my favorite, but they also had apple. After the night before, this was an early night, we had to be up early to drive the Belfast the next day!
~Peace
The day dawned pretty early, and we got to have another awesome breakfast in our awesome hotel. I rather like breakfasts in the UK. There are some variations, but they seem to cater to almost everyone. There's this delicious ham/bacon and I REALLY like...to me it seemed like slices of ham, but everyone there called it bacon, so okay then =) Then, it's mostly standard breakfast fare...fruit, yogurt, toast, cereal, variety of juices, but I am a big fan of staying in hotels that have free breakfast! Yay for free breakfast!
We had to be at the Guiness place at 9, I think, which was cool, if a little early for beer drinking. The tour was very nice, but I am used to winery and small craft brewery tours, where you get to see them in action, actually crafting the beer. This was more like a museum and the actual crafting was a distant look at some copper pots in a far off building on the compound. That said, I am sure you can get the "deluxe" tour for an additional fee...In that case, my tour was just fine =) The building is cool, it has like a central column that goes all the way up like seven or eight floors, and when you get to the top, you get your pint of Guiness and get to see all of Dublin from a bird's eye view. Honestly, the top of this thing sort of reminded me of when they crash through the top of the candy factory in the original "Willie Wonka" movie and are careening around the city...
All of that said, it was cool. We went through a tasting room and I had a smidge of the dark-rich elixir of life. By the time we hoofed it up to the top, though, I was feeling thirsty and a little light-headed so I opted for a soda. I *DID* try the Guiness, just in a sampler glass rather than a full pint at like, 10am =) We got to see the history of Guiness, varying marketing campaigns throughout the ages, they even have a place where you can enter an ancestor's name and find out if they ever worked for Guiness. At the end, in the store, there was shopping that had to be done. I HAD to get my honey something that could ONLY be gotten at this particular production plant in Dublin, and with my goal accomplished, we headed back to the bus...
We drove somewhat thru the city. We passed by Leo Burdocks, which I had thought was a singular restaurant, didn't realize it was a chain. In watching a show with Bobby Flay on Ireland earlier in the year, he said some of the best fish and chips was from Leo Burdock. Sadly, there were so many other places to try, and great things to see, that I never got the chance to try them. AND, the place that had the Guiness ice cream? When I went there, they didn't have any of that flavor, which also made me sad...I did, however, have some soda bread ice cream, which was unusual, but very tasty, and went very well with the Mango I mixed with it.
We were trying to decide what to do with the free afternoon we had, and after talking it over with many of those who were also on the tour, we decided to head for Malahide Castle, which was a short train ride away. This was probably the rainiest day I remember on the whole trip, which seemed to make the entire adventure all the more festive! The train ride was lovely, and when we arrived, we were sure where we were headed, but within a couple of minutes, found the path that led to the castle. What a path it was! Windy, with a tree canopy that went overhead, but still somehow didn't seem to stop the rain from soaking the ground, it was very magickal, like the path to great adventure, a fairy glen, or a haunted castle! I am sure the castle was that!
The castle was unbelievably cool. It has this, like, automatic audio guided tour, which I thought was neat. You can read about it at the link above, but check out my pictures, too. I fell in love with a tree there, that I called "The Druid Tree". It just looked like a venerable old soul, that's seen so very much come and go through out the time it's been where it is! I also saw a bird taking a bath in the puddles in front of the castle, that was also cool. This castle, although obviously maintained for tourist purposes was REAL. It felt old world, medieval, and kinda scary. It was also charming and quaint. It's sad to learn that the last members of the family that owned the castle passed away in 1975, but from the 12th century until the 70's before that, it had been owned by the same family! THAT is impressive!
We had about half an hour before heading back on the train, so some of our group chose to go to the town near the train station from Malahide, but I decided to take the train back. I was tired by this time! I think the path to get to the castle was at least a couple of miles long! By the end of things, we were pretty soggy, too.
Dinner that night was a short walk from the hotel. I remember eating a potato cake, and I think I had stew or some sort of meat pie. It was good. My new love found in Ireland thusfar, drink-wise is Bullmer's cider. Yum! The pear was my favorite, but they also had apple. After the night before, this was an early night, we had to be up early to drive the Belfast the next day!
~Peace
6-16-2011 - Dublin, Day Two
Let me start off by saying, day two was epic. Very, very epic.
We got into the rooms later on day one. I don't honestly remember if I took the pics of my room the morning of day two or later in the day of day one, but I will say that this was my absolute favorite hotel of anywhere I stayed during the trip.
I swear, the Trinity didn't pay me to say any of this, I just really had a lovely time there, and I hope they know it!
Dublin is a party town and they are very, very good at it =) We mostly wandered around the shops and area around the Temple Bar area. As we were coming down the street, a young man was addressing a crowd in a street, he was above on the corner of a building. He said to the crowd "Now, ya all know how ya should be behavin'. So I'm hear to tell ye, if you don't behave like proper adults on this pub crawl, I'm leavin' ya for dead in the gutter!" We passed on that titillating offer to join the pub crawl...heh.
This was a great place to be. A couple of funny things...first, we went to several places where they had live music, but oddly, until the end of the night, we heard NO IRISH MUSIC! It was all American ballads! We were in one pub where I swear my ears were going to start bleeding because the guy played every third song Richard Marx. WTF?!?
When I mentioned later that night that the Irish seemed to have a love affair with American music, the artist we were listening to was covering a Van Morrison tune. He looked at me with a smile and said "You realize Van Morrison is Irish right, lass?" Huh, who knew?
The other memorable quote of the night came when we were asked to leave the pub. I was anxious to go and kept pulling Rachel because I didn't want to get in trouble. One of the guys we were hanging with came and put his arm around me and said "Ahhh, Lass, have ye learned nothin' since ye've been in Ireland? When they go to close the pub, it's reeaaaally more of a process. Ye move to the next landing and keep drinkin' until they get serious about ye leaving there, but ye have at least half an hour to finish your drink." Classic.
~Peace
We got into the rooms later on day one. I don't honestly remember if I took the pics of my room the morning of day two or later in the day of day one, but I will say that this was my absolute favorite hotel of anywhere I stayed during the trip.
I swear, the Trinity didn't pay me to say any of this, I just really had a lovely time there, and I hope they know it!
Dublin is a party town and they are very, very good at it =) We mostly wandered around the shops and area around the Temple Bar area. As we were coming down the street, a young man was addressing a crowd in a street, he was above on the corner of a building. He said to the crowd "Now, ya all know how ya should be behavin'. So I'm hear to tell ye, if you don't behave like proper adults on this pub crawl, I'm leavin' ya for dead in the gutter!" We passed on that titillating offer to join the pub crawl...heh.
This was a great place to be. A couple of funny things...first, we went to several places where they had live music, but oddly, until the end of the night, we heard NO IRISH MUSIC! It was all American ballads! We were in one pub where I swear my ears were going to start bleeding because the guy played every third song Richard Marx. WTF?!?
When I mentioned later that night that the Irish seemed to have a love affair with American music, the artist we were listening to was covering a Van Morrison tune. He looked at me with a smile and said "You realize Van Morrison is Irish right, lass?" Huh, who knew?
The other memorable quote of the night came when we were asked to leave the pub. I was anxious to go and kept pulling Rachel because I didn't want to get in trouble. One of the guys we were hanging with came and put his arm around me and said "Ahhh, Lass, have ye learned nothin' since ye've been in Ireland? When they go to close the pub, it's reeaaaally more of a process. Ye move to the next landing and keep drinkin' until they get serious about ye leaving there, but ye have at least half an hour to finish your drink." Classic.
~Peace
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
6-15-11 Dublin, Day one, part deux
Okay, so, I figured a few things out:
Jet lag sucks. Adjusting time zones is interesting =)
I think I am in love with this hotel. Funky, eclectic, oh man. I like it a lot.
Beer is good =)
And a few important technology notes.....figured out how to charge everything, which was a huge relief!
The people in Ireland are A-MAZING....got asked three or four times yesterday if I needed help, knew where I was going, etc. I am not sure whether or not to feel warm and fuzzy or offended that I obviously look very clueless walking around Dublin clutching my free tourist map =)
Irish pub goers and others REALLY like American classic rock! And seriously?!? Richard Marx? wow!
Who knew the currency of choice in Dublin would be the Euro?
Tis a new day....and new adventures!
Peace!
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| Dinner crew, night one =) |
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| Salmon, VERY delicious! |
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| Bailey's cheese cake. Need I say more?! Food Porn! |
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| LOVED this area! Temple bar district and street |
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| The Temple Bar |
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| Street signs in Dublin, my first taste of Gaelic! |
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| Dude played like FOUR Richard Marx songs...and CCR, and Hotel California, surreal! |
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| mmmm......Bulmer's....my new favorite |
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| Crew at the pub the first night. |
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| Cool metal sculpture found encountered on the walk back to the hotel. |
And a few important technology notes.....figured out how to charge everything, which was a huge relief!
The people in Ireland are A-MAZING....got asked three or four times yesterday if I needed help, knew where I was going, etc. I am not sure whether or not to feel warm and fuzzy or offended that I obviously look very clueless walking around Dublin clutching my free tourist map =)
Irish pub goers and others REALLY like American classic rock! And seriously?!? Richard Marx? wow!
Who knew the currency of choice in Dublin would be the Euro?
Tis a new day....and new adventures!
Peace!
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