I said farewell to my beloved London and boarded the boat
train to join Michael in Ireland. The
train journey took about 4 hours and was very pleasant. I didn’t have anyone sitting next to me,
indeed there were hardly any passengers at all, so I was able to spread out and
make myself comfortable. I arrived at
Holyhead where a short bus ride takes you to the ferry to cross to
Ireland. The ferry, which is called
Ulysses (a name that frequently crops up here), is huge and carries both
passengers and vehicles. The crossing
took approximately 4 hours or so and was very comfortable in fact if you didn’t
look out of the window to see the receding shoreline you would not know that
you were moving. I arrived in Dublin
where another bus took me to the city centre to be reunited with Michael.
We spent the first week staying in an apartment in Temple
Bar. This is a very lively district full
of backpackers from every nation that were there to drink at the many, many
bars. It was a fun place to be as Irish
music could be heard as you walked the cobbled laneways. Unfortunately, Michael and I were about 30
years too old for this scene. Our sons
would have loved it though.
Michael took me for many walks around the city. One of the major attractions is the statue of
Molly Malone or, as the locals call her, the tart with the cart or, my personal
favourite, the trollop with the scallops!
Ah, such a way with words the Irish have. Yes, apparently the lovely ballad that we
have all sung for many years was written about a prostitute. The things you learn. They have names for all
of there statutes that we have seen Thin Lizzy is the ace with the bass, James
Joyce the prick with the stick and Oscar Wilde is the queer with the leer.
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| Oscar Wilde |
Dublin Castle is an interesting place. It is not as grand as many others we have
seen however it does have a charm to it and there is a wonderful painted
ceiling in the hall.
The number one tourist attraction though is the Guinness Storehouse. Naturally Michael was keen to visit so we
spent an afternoon wandering through the brewery with some ex workmates of
Michael’s who happened to be working in Ireland. Not being a beer drinker of any sort, I
didn’t expect to find much of interest however the exhibits were fascinating
and very well displayed. I even sampled
a brew however I am still not a convert.
The tour finished upstairs in a bar, which has the best views over
Dublin.
Something far more appealing to me was our visit to the
Jameson distillery. We had intended to
take a tour of the complex however the queue was so long that we decided to
just pull up a seat at the bar and try the goods instead. We spent a leisurely afternoon sampling some
very fine whiskey indeed and then finished off with a lovely Irish coffee. Michael enjoyed the afternoon even though he
is not generally a whiskey drinker.
We attended two games of Gaelic football, which was fun.
Michael had been given premium tickets to the game so we ventured off to Croke
Park Stadium to spend the afternoon cheering the teams on. The game is similar to Australian football
with the main differences being that it is played with a round ball and there
is no tackling allowed. The funny part
was that at the end of the games the victorious teams’ songs were played. The first was Danny Boy and the second was
Molly Malone however the lyrics remained the same and did not reflect anything
to do with football. Still, it was a fun
afternoon, even if it did make me miss my beloved Hawks.
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| Kilmainham Goal (good tour) |
We are now staying in a nice two-bedroom cottage in the
suburb of St Kevin’s. This is a much
quieter location compared to Temple Bar and much more suited to our
lifestyle. At the end of the street there
is one of the many canals, which wend their way through Dublin. We have adopted the habit of an evening
stroll along the canal bank and it is very relaxing watching the swans and
ducks glide by with the occasional barge.
It took me a little while to warm to Dublin, literally and
figuratively. When I first arrived the
weather was damp and quite cold and the city seemed a little dull when compared
to London. Now that daylight savings has
kicked in, it stays light until 9.00pm and the days are full of sunshine and
the city seems to have been given a new lease of life. There are a number of large parks and
gardens, which are now bursting with colour.
Tulips are everywhere and azaleas are now starting to bloom and the
grass is greener than I have seen anywhere else.
The local cuisine is nice as long as you like potatoes. Every meal comes with potatoes and quite
often, with two styles of potatoes. It
is nothing to be given a roast with both mashed and roast potatoes. The soup of the day is invariably leek and
potato and of course fries and wedges are served everywhere. I think I am starting to look like a potato!
There is also a dish that we have seen advertised which consists of hot chips
served with rice and curry sauce. They
certainly like their carbs here!
The Irish are very proud of their famous authors with James
Joyce being their all-time number one favourite. Michael has ambitiously embarked on the
reading of Ulysses and, as only a Herring male can, has become an expert. The tale is set in Dublin and wherever you go
there are references either to the novel or to James Joyce. It looks as though Joyce drank in every pub
in Dublin, as there seems to be a plaque or notice in the pub windows stating
that either Joyce drank there or one or more of the characters of his book
drank there. There is even a plaque on one of the houses for the birth of the
character Leopold Bloom from Ulysses.
