The Emerald Isle...

Dublin 7/28/07

When they talk about the gae Irish, they aren't kidding. I have never seen so many smiling happy people in my life....well except for in Australia. The Aussies and the Irish are in a league of their own as far as being friendly, kind, and full of fun.

Our first night in Dublin we checked into your youth hostel room and headed out for our Saturday night on the town. We'd heard all about the Irish propensity to party hard and we wanted to see them in action. We headed to the Temple Bar area of Dublin, which is the hip part of town, and grabbed a window seat at a little restaurant. We each ordered appetizers and a big drink and then relaxed to watch the crowds go by. Saturday nights are Stag and Hen nights in many parts of the world, and Dublin is no exception. The Irish stags and hens were some of the most entertaining we'd seen....but Dave wants to write about that, so I will defer to him. Let me just say that at one point a group of about twenty 22 year old "bunnies" were walking towards a group of very drunk tourists wearing tall satin green leprecon hats. And out of the blue 2 of the bunnies hopped right into the arms of two of the extremely appreciative tourists :) They all tottered about the street for a bit while onlookers clapped and cheered. And then, straightened up in a very civilized way, and went on their merry ways. When Dave and I were talking about hen and stag nights Dave asked, why are they called that? Stags and hens aren't even the same species? AH HAA! I exclaimed. That explains why men and women have so much trouble getting along!!! We aren't even the same species!!!
I had never been in a town so lively on a Saturday night. In most cities there are different areas to hang out, but in Dublin Temple Bar is it, and there are no cars allowed, so everyone who is anyone comes to that area. So the pubs were hopping, the restaurants were packed, and the streets were full of people stolling by. It was so much fun. There was so much happiness everywhere, you couldn't help but get caught up in it all.

The next day Dave and I were so jet-lagged that we slept in until about 4!!!! Oops! So we hurried out to get some "lunch." We had some fabulous fish and chips and then went to an adorable little place called the "Queen of Tarts." After being in Amsterdam so recently, you can only imagine where our minds went immediately when we saw that name :) But the place had a reputation for fabulous tarts, so we stepped inside. The atmosphere was so cozy and inviting Dave and I huddled in a corner, ordered some coffee and some chocolate bread pudding, and again watched the crowds go by. This time a show of "Annie" was just getting out at the local theater so we saw lots of kids dancing about the sidewalks singing happy Annie songs. What a delightful way to spend an afternoon.

At about 7:30pm we joined our literature pub crawl at Duke's Pub on Duke street. Literature Pub Crawl...Only in Dublin!! The tour leaders were a couple of local actors who were full of stories and facts and kept us laughing for the 3 hours we were with them. The male actor had an absolutely gorgeous accent and kept me completely mezmerized. He also reminded me a ton of our friend Denis! He had the exact same mannerizms and style as Denis does. Denis we missed you!!

They told us all about many of the famous Irish authors including James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett. They told us at lenght about Oscar Wilde's admiration of the American silverminers' gorgeous muscular bodies on his tour in America. And his disgust with all of his fellow students at Trinity College, Dublin's only University. At great length he described his peers as "simply aweful." We also heard about Samuel Beckett's drinking problems and heard about his tour of the United States. He screwed up so many of his interviews in the US that he finally decided to stop drinking, which he was doing fairly well at actually. Then he got a series of interviews in Canada, and never showed up for any of them. When an interviewer finally found him at a pub, astonished he asked Samuel why he had started drinking again. In a drunken flourish Samuel said that it all started because he saw a sign that said "Drink Canada Dry."


When Samuel was asked what the difference was between poetry and prose, he gave an example.
There once was a feller from Rollocks
Employed by a man called Pollocks
He stood in a stream
And dreamt of Irene
And the water came up to his knees.
This is prose. But if the tide had been in, that would have been f**kin' poetry!


The tour was probably one of the most informative tours culturally I have ever been on, but the best part of the tour was the pub stops. Boy oh Boy are those Irish beers yummy!!!! In the United States if I am forced to drink Irish beer, I will always choose a Murphy's over a Guiness, but I don't really like either one. But in Ireland, OMG, both are soooooo good. We couldn't stop drinking them. The Irish Guiness is so smooth it just slips into you, and Murphy's is so creamy you don't want to stop drinking. No wonder the Irish love to drink! In one of the pubs our leaders told us to check out a little room called the snug. The snug only holds about 6-8 people and is where the women were forced to go when they wanted to drink in public. They were forced to seperate themselves from the men because the religious leaders of the country were afraid that drunk men seeing women amongst them would be tempted to diverge from catholic morality. But according to our speakers, an Irishman is the only man in the world who will crawl over 20 naked women to get to a pint of beer!

We went to the Temple Bar area again for dinner that night and ate at a place called Gallegher's Boxty House. We'd heard that food in Ireland was terrible, so we hadn't expected much, but so far we had really enjoyed our meals. This meal however, was amazing. Boxties are like Irish crepes and the the way they were prepared at Gallegers they were amazing!!! Mine was filled with honey marinated pork and just melted in my mouth! I of course coupled it with a Guiness and by the time I was done I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. And no, I wasn't drunk :)

Oh yes, there was one other thing about Dublin. The weather was GORGEOUS!!! We couldn't believe how beautiful it was. The sun was shining and it was a perfect level of warm. What was this that everyone was telling us about it raining in Ireland all the time? We barely saw a little drizzle. So, by the end of our weekend in Dublin we were in love. The food, the people, the beer, even the weather. Oh my, what a way to start a vacation! I can't wait to see all the other parts of Ireland!


Kilkenny 7/31/07

Today we started our day in Dublin. We decided that we wanted to buy a book that was set in Ireland so we could read it together on this trip. We used to do that every time we were taking a trip. We'd buy a book set in the location we were visiting and then read it together. But we hadn't done that in a while and thought it might be fun to do in Ireland since we are going to be here for 9 days. We went to a huge bookstore and started to sift through our many choices. As we were searching the song "Eternal Flame" came on and I automatically, without realizing it, started to sing. An Irish guy next to me spontaneously started to sing also. We looked at each other, grinned broadly, and both broke into song together. And everyone around us grinned!!! OMG!! That would never happen in the US, or in France, or in any other place I've ever visited. It was so much fun. As I was singing I thought of the many times I've been with my sister Neela or my friend Paul, and we've broken into song in a public place. Usually people roll their eyes or politely try to pretend that they don't hear anything. It's so embarrassing! But I missed you two that morning. What fun it would have been to sing outloud in a bookstore and have everyone around us either singing with us or grinning at us. Wish you two had been there!

After lunch we picked up our car and headed onto a country road towards Kilkenny. Dave really is my hero. He just hopped into our rental car and headed out onto the road, driving on the wrong side of the road as if it were nothing. How does he do that?! He can make himself comfortable in any situation!!! He's so amazing! Anyways, we decided to go to Kilkenny because it is supposed to be one of the most nicely preserved traditional little Irish towns. All lighted signs are banned there so all signs are made with carved wood and paint. The building are all beautifully painted and there are pots of flower everywhere....on windows, hanging from the light posts, and all over the sidewalks. On one end of the town is and old Irish restored stone castle with huge green lawns heading out from the courtyard. On the other side of town is an old stone church with a bell tower so high it looked like a smokestack. We were struck by the old stonework of these two buildings. They were done using a grey stone that we have never seen anywhere else. It gives the buildings a very somber old-world look. I've seen so many other castles in other countries, but they usually use some sort of colored stone. These stones were so starkly grey, you just couldn't seem escape the fact that they were from a completely different time. They didn't go at all with any of the "newer" buildings, which were themselves very old and historical.

Although this little town was very cute, I have to say that the very best part of the day was the drive through the Irish countryside. Ireland is known as the emerald isle, and it's no wonder why. It was absolutely magnificently green. Just the emerald green rolling hills spotted with cows, sheep, horses, and farmhouses, took our breath away, and I didn't want the driving to stop. so, we decided to hit the road again the very next day instead of staying another day in Kilkenny.