Sarah Does Italia: Dublin (Dublino to the Italians)

Sunday morning at the crack of dawn (no time to waste) an old English cab to where we were staying. The tube line was down so we had to resort to a taxi—good thing in London that is just as entertaining! And then we took a train to the airport. This is one of the first things I have learned about traveling. Budget airlines are budget for a reason and in this particular case it is because Ryan Air doesn’t fly into Heathrow (about 15 minutes on the tube to central London) it flew out of Stansted (about an hour train ride from central London). The train ride also cost about 24 pounds round trip—which is about $50 doubling our transportation fare. Our plane was about an hour late but I was perfectly content finishing my London journal entry, reading Eragon, and listening to my ipod. We flew Ryan Air again and accidentally purchased priority boarding tickets so we seated the plane first. I got the aisle in the first row and no one sat in the middle seat next to me! The flight was uneventful and it was remarkably easy getting to the center of Dublin (our cheapest of the trip—six euro one way).

After the bus ride it was a short 15 minute walk to our hostel and David (my portable electronic map) assisted us so we didn’t get lost. We settled into Barnacles right in the heart of Temple Bar, a famous cultural district of Dublin. From as far as I can see, the only reason they called Temple Bar area famous for its culture is because it was filled with traditional Irish pubs. Barnacles is the second hostel I have ever stayed at and the first without a private room. We had a 4-person female dorm with two bunk beds. The hostel was huge—three floors, a big kitchen and dining room, and a living room with non-functioning computers. The hostel was not to capacity but filled with probably 30 young people. Our room was clean with locks for our luggage and clean sheets (oh the simple pleasures of life). The staff was somewhat helpful and there was lots of tourist information in the front room.

We went sightseeing the first day and saw Dublin Castle, Chris Church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Trinity College. However, the highlight of my day was our nighttime festivities (as it should be in Ireland). After seeing a brochure in our hostel, I convinced Sonia to go on the “Literary Pub Crawl”. Finally a combination of being a nerd and yet also a social butterfly. The pub crawl was led by two Dublin actors who performed scenes and passages from the works of Dublin’s best writers including Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, Brendan Behan, William Butler Yeats, and James Joyce (unfortunately no Brom Stoker). We went to pubs and places where the stories were set or just places they were known to frequent. We went to one pub that is a scene in Joyce’s Ulysses and also Trinity College where most of the writers were affiliated. There were about twenty people—I indubitably being the youngest. We went to four pubs and I drank four pints. We befriended a nice couple from Wisconsin who were visiting Ireland on vacation. I mention this because the husband was an Associate Dean at Indiana University of Law…hmm he got to take time off to visit Europe…and he doesn’t even have a daughter studying abroad there. Isn’t that the same title as my mother? Oh yes, yes it is. Okay, that is really not fair I know my mother and father would come and visit me if she could but I can still be bitter about it. Anyway, after that we went to the Temple Bar and it was absolutely crazy and packed with people. Sonia and I met some Irish people and this woman and man who insisted I was Greek. I just gave in. We also saw students from our program in Syracuse University at the bar. There were also students from Syracuse staying at our hostel. I can’t get away from them. Europe is a small place—or maybe Americans just travel to the same places?

Monday came around and we learned it was a bank holiday and also the Dublin Marathon. Consequently, the buses weren’t running and hardly anything was open. I decided to Kilmainham Gaol which is an old prison erected in the 18th century and used until 1924. I am very interested in prisons and frequent tours with the Whitman College Prison Research Group in the Walla Walla area so I thought it would be interesting to see a historical prison. It is probably most famous for being the execution site of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rebellion which vindicated the leaders as martyred patriots and basically turned Irish public sentiment against English Rule. Okay, enough with the history lesson. The tour was fabulous—I would highly recommend it. Our tour guide was fantastic, very informative, but included great personal anecdotes (just like I do when I give tours of Whitman ) about the prisoners and the place. It gave the prison a more human feel so you could actually imagine people staying in these cold, dark, tiny cells. It was also very spooky as the prison is made of grey stone filled with tiny cells with no windows and iron doors with iron bars. It would be a great place for a haunted house! No wonder the prison has been used in several movies including The Boondock Saints, The Italian Job (1969), In the Name of the Father ( 1993), and Michael Collins (1996).

Next, a little less gloomy we went to the Guinness Storehouse. Now I am not a big fan of Guinness (or beer in general), but I’m in Dublin! The Guinness Storehouse is massive! 7 stories! It is similar museum but also had the vibe of a cult devoted to the Guinness. The museum included the history of Mr. Guinness himself, the ingredients and process of beer making, as well as the following advertising. My favorite section was the advertising which includes the origins of Tookie the Toucan, vintage advertisements, large graphics and prints, and screens showing old and contemporary television commercials. Why are beer advertisements always so good? The product really sells itself. With your ticket to the storehouse comes a free print of Guinness (hooray) you can either learn how to pour the “perfect pint” or get a drink at the sky bar on the 7th floor. I of course chose how to learn how to pour the perfect pint! I love the interactive stuff. So in case you are wondering here are the directions to pour a perfect Guinness pint (and if they don’t do this the next time you order a Guinness you can yell at them and tell them their ruining it and ask for another one):

1) Angle the glass at a 45 degree angel and tilt the tap forward and fill the glass up ¾ of the way.
2) Sit the glass down and let it settle for two minutes
3) Hold the glass vertically and pull the tap away from you and fill it it up far enough so the foam goes over the top.
Volia! Perfect Guinness Beer!

We stayed there for lunch and I had the tradition Irish beef stew—it was delicious and reminded me of beef stew in my childhood before I became a vegetarian. I also managed to finish a quarter of my Guinness over lunch! Good job me!

On the way back to the hostel, I decided to check my e-mail as I am completely addicted to the Internet and the Internet café RIGHT next to our hostel was just too tempting. I checked my e-mail and found something unusual (well other than the fact that my mom FINALLY emailed me back), I had two e-mails from my uncle Peter (to be exact…my dad’s youngest sister Jane’s husband). I read the first one and learned that my cousin was studying abroad in London and that they were visiting her in London at the same time I was there! I googled their hotel and found it was only a short one kilometer away! I called the hotel from a pay phone (my cell phone decided not to work in Ireland) and said I would meet them there in an hour. My family was staying at the fabulous Shelbourne hotel—where JFK and Grace Kelly stayed when they visited Ireland. It was absolutely beautiful and a stark contrast from the hostel I was staying at. We stayed at the hotel because all the local places were either closed or the ones that were open were packed and I was perfectly fine staying at the elegant hotel (the doormen wore top hats). It was so nice to see my family again and so unexpected! My uncle and aunt has just flown in from London from Connecticut that morning so were expectantly a little jet lagged but that did not stop the flow of conversation. It was nice talking to my cousin too because I haven’t seen her in I don’t even know how long. We compared our experiences and I was glad I decided to come to Italy. My aunt was as charming as ever and my travel partner absolutely adored her. They filled me in on the wedding of my cousin Anna which was the Saturday before and showed me pictures of my family including my Dad and Andrew who represented the Seattle clan at the wedding. They had wonderful things to say about my elder brother Andrew and it was nice to hear them talk about him because I felt like I was with him again! We talked, ate, and drank for a while but called it a night around ten.

Tuesday was our last day in Ireland but we weren’t leaving until the evening. Sonia and I both really wanted to see the countryside so we signed up for a bus tour of the Southern Coast and the Powerscourt Gardens. We rode a double decker bus for 90 minutes down the coast of Ireland then had a two hour stop at the beautiful powerscourt gardens then returned via a different route that took about an hour. The ride was great our tour guide was very pleasant—he was informative, funny, and sang a lot. I met some people from Connecticut on the bus (one was even from West Hartford and went to the same high school as my dad). The gardens were absolutely beautiful and I took about 150 pictures to prove it. It was nice to relax and enjoy nature. It had been a long time since I had seen green.

Dublin was great. I didn’t like it as much as London but I enjoyed it. There were absolutely no street signs anywhere which made it frustrating to get around but at least the streets were straight. I was also surprised about the strange language barrier that occurred in Dublin, particularly in Dublin bars. Seriously, I could not understand the majority of Dubliners I talked too especially when they had been drinking and their accents were just exaggerated. Also, I never knew this but the “Irish” language is trying to be preserved in Dublin and all the signs are in English as well as Irish. What I mean by the Irish language is what I think we would call Gaelic. The tour guide on our bus tour said it was in order to preserve their culture—which starts with the language which about 25% of Irish Citizens claim to speak.

Actors from the Literary Pub Crawl