Dublin
in the Rare Old Times
It is time for another update on our Dublin
life. The weeks pass by rapidly and with
them the seasons. Summer has been and
gone and it was a decent summer by Irish standards. I think we had one 28 degrees day, with the rest
of the days hovering around the low 20’s.
I have taken up swimming, joining Michael for his early morning trek to
the Trinity College pool. I am very slow
but that doesn’t bother me and I can now manage 1 kilometre, 6 days per
week. I didn’t think that I would enjoy
it and even laughed when Michael suggested it, however it has now become part
of my routine and I miss it if for some reason I can’t go.
Michael has managed a few dives over the
summer, seeing lots of seals, lobsters, crabs and even a large octopus. He also dived the wreck of Guide Me II, which
sank in 1918 after a collision with one crewman lost. The dive season is rapidly drawing to a close
now, as the winds are getting stronger and with them the currents. Hopefully he will be able to manage another
couple of dives before season end.
Our visas have been renewed for another
year as Michael’s contract has been extended.
It really is a very simple process to renew them and it is nice to
receive the precious stamp in our passports.
If only changing over Michael’s driver’s licence was as simple. I won’t bore you with the details however it
took a mind boggling 2 appointments, a full medical, and eye test, two letters
from the optometrist and a 10 week wait before the licence finally arrived!
We have had a few more visitors from
Australia and it is always good to catch up on the news from back home. We have worked out the best restaurants and
bars to take our guest and they always seem impressed with how friendly the
Irish people are. We have also found a
number of cafes, which serve the best coffee in Dublin, which is very important
to our visitors, especially if they are from Melbourne.
Michael and I attended a couple of very
good exhibitions in Dublin. The first
was Beyond Caravaggio, and while there were only 4 paintings by Caravaggio
himself on display, it was interesting to see works by other artists who were
influenced by his ideas. The second
exhibition was Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting. There were 10 paintings by Vermeer on
display, including The Astronomer and The Geographer. There were also 60 paintings from around the
world by other artists including Jan Steen, Gerrit Dou and Pieter de Hooch. It was a fabulous selection of artworks and
the audio tour was very interesting in the way that it pointed out different
features in the paintings.
We were lucky enough to be invited to the
wedding of Robert and Meera. Michael
works with Robert and we were able to hitch a ride with Sambit, another of
Michael’s work colleagues (Michael’s driver’s licence hadn’t shown up at this
stage). The wedding was held at Tulfaris
Hotel and Golf Resort in Wicklow. The
hotel is a restored 18th century manor house with picturesque views
over the Blessington Lakes and the Wicklow Mountains. We had a lovely day and the bride, who is of
Indian descent, looked beautiful in her traditional sari before changing into a
lovely wedding dress for the reception. The
bride and groom were actually already married, having undertaken a three-day
ceremony in India and attending a Civil Registration Service in Dublin. This was more of celebration of the
marriage. There were a couple of notable
differences to the Australian weddings we have attended in the past. When we were seated for the reception, the
waiter approached our table to request our “toast drink” orders. Apparently it is the tradition at an Irish
wedding to select a special drink to toast the happy couple, not just the
standard champagne as we do in Australia.
People seemed to mainly order spirits like whiskey or rum. The other strange thing was that our table
took bets as to how long the speeches would take. Each person had to put in a fiver and guess
the length of the speeches, with the winner receiving the money and having to
shout the table a round of drinks. It
certainly livened up the proceedings.
Apparently there is another game that is often played at weddings where
a bowl is continuously passed around the table and every time one of the speech
givers says “thank you”, the person holding the bowl must put a fiver in. This continues until the end of the speeches
and the last person holding the bowl keeps the winnings. I am glad that we didn’t play that game, as I
am sure that we would have ended up broke!
All in all, we had a lovely day.
Michael and I celebrated 5 years since
leaving Australia with a visit to the theatre to see The Addams Family. The musical starred Samantha Womack from
Eastenders as Morticia and Les Dennis from Coronation Street as Uncle Fester. It was a really fun night with lots of
singing and dancing and was very funny in parts. Les Dennis was particularly good and I would
recommend the musical to anyone looking for a fun night out.
Our apartment is five minutes walk from the
River Liffey where the replica of the emigrant ship the Jeanie Johnston is
moored. We have walked past the ship
almost every day since we moved in and thought it was about time that we
actually boarded her to have a look. The
original Jeanie Johnston made her maiden voyage in 1848 from Blennerville to
Quebec and over the next 7 years carried over 2,500 emigrants without a single
loss of life. This was remarkable for
the time as other vessels were referred to as “coffin ships” due to the number
of people that died from either starvation or disease on board. The replica ship has also sailed to Canada
and the US and our expert guide showed us through and told us stories about the
Irish famine. I am glad that we finally
took the time to visit the ship and hear its story.
Every year, Dublin hosts Culture Night,
which is a night when various buildings and exhibitions are open to the public
free of charge. We have taken part in
previous years and have seen some lovely buildings not usually open to the
public. This year we decided to visit
EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum. The
museum is only a 10 minutes walk from our apartment and once again, we have
walked past there on an almost daily basis.
The museum is made up of 20 interactive galleries and tells the story of
Irish emigration around the world from early times to the modern day. It is an extremely well laid-out and
interesting exhibition and we spent a good couple of hours there and still
didn’t see everything. It was a little
sad to see just how many people have left Ireland over the years however it was
uplifting to see the ways in which they influenced the countries that they made
their new life in. There were some
extraordinary tales of some very remarkable people.
Hey,
Paula
Jess’ mum, Paula and her partner, Ron, came
to stay with us. We hadn’t met either of
them before and I was a little worried that things might be awkward between us,
however I needn’t have worried. They
would have to be the friendliest people I have met and we got along like a
house on fire from the word go. Their
arrival pretty much coincided with Michael’s return from work, so we took them
on a scenic walk along the Liffey to have dinner in Temple Bar. We chose Boxty as our restaurant and we had a
lovely meal, all the while chatting and getting to know each other. Michael wanted to impart his new found
whiskey knowledge, so after dinner, we took them to the Vat House for a whiskey
tasting and some Irish music. The craic
was mighty.
The following day I took Paula and Ron for
a walk into the city, showing them some of the sights along the way. We even popped into my butchers to find out
what exactly is in white pudding (pork meat and fat, suet, bread and oatmeal as
well as a secret ingredient that the butcher wouldn’t disclose). I then saw them safely on board the Hop On
Hop Off bus so that they could have a rest from my voice and see a bit more of
the city. Dinner that night was at the
Old Storehouse in Temple Bar. It is a
beautiful, old pub and the meals are always reliably good. We couldn’t possibly take them home without
another whiskey tasting, this time at the Dingle Whiskey Bar. This is one of our favourite bars, the inside
of which is lined with reclaimed whiskey barrel oak wood. When we finally emerged from the bar, we discovered
it was pouring with rain, so it was into a cab for a short ride home where
Michael and Ron continued sampling whiskey until the wee hours.
I joined Paula and Ron the following day
for their next trip on the Hop On Hop Off bus.
Our driver was Kevin and he was a very funny man indeed. He regaled us with jokes, songs and anecdotes
and it was a shame to leave him when we reached our destination – The Guinness
Storehouse. This was my fourth visit to
this brewery but I can honestly say that I always find something new to see and
do. We had a great time looking at all
of the exhibits and Ron even learned how to pour the perfect pint, receiving a
certificate at the end to prove it. We
finished with a drink in the Gravity Bar and I have to say, that I have finally
acquired a taste for the black stuff. I
don’t think that I could manage a full pint however a swift half goes down
nicely. It just goes to show that if you
persevere at something long enough, you will get there in the end!
We climbed aboard the Hop On Hop Off bus
and lo and behold, the driver was Kevin again.
Thereafter followed the funniest afternoon I have had in a long
time. Kevin was an absolute riot and his
stories and songs became a little risqué along the journey. We had intended to alight from the bus at
Phoenix Park however we didn’t want to miss out on what Kevin had to say
next. Both Paula and myself were crying
with laughter, he was that funny!
Paula wanted to try an Irish coffee, so I
took them to a lovely bar called The Church.
The building is exactly as the name implies – an old church. The St Mary’s church was built in 1702 and
was the first galleried church in Dublin.
The Protestant population declined and the church was forced to shut in
1986. The interior has been beautifully
preserved and reopened as a bar and restaurant in 2007. A number of notable people were married in
the church, including Arthur Guinness, the founder of the Guinness
Brewery. There are beautiful baroque
stained glass windows and a fabulous organ, which was used by Handel (he of the
Messiah fame). It really is a most
beautiful place to visit and their Irish coffee was pretty good as well. Michael joined us for a drink before we
caught the tram home for an easy takeaway meal.
Michael had wanted an early night as he had to be up early for work the
following morning, so he and Ron sat down to enjoy one whiskey before bed. Well, one whiskey became two and then three
and they were enjoying themselves so much that once again it was the wee hours
before we got to bed.
We said a temporary goodbye to Paula and
Ron, as they were off to explore some more of Ireland. Paula is of Irish descent and was keen to
explore the areas that her family came from.
They will call back in to stay their final night with us in Dublin.
Paula and Ron returned
from their travels filled with entertaining stories of their adventures. We took a slow walk into the city to have
lunch at Madigan’s, a traditional Irish pub where the waitress was very friendly
and shared with us her stories about her time spent working on a sheep farm in
a remote part of Western Australia. We
heard about her travels and we enjoyed her tales so much that Paula ended up
giving her a little clip on koala.
Michael returned from
work and we headed to The Celt Bar, another traditional Irish pub for a
pre-dinner drink before dining at 101 Talbot, one of our favourite
restaurants. We enjoyed a lovely meal
before heading back home for an early night as we had a very early start the
following morning. It was sad saying
goodbye to Paula and Ron as we had really enjoyed their company. They are keen to return to Ireland as they
felt that there was plenty more to see and do and we hope that they will come
and stay with us again.
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