OT: Dublin Day 1 - You asked for it! (LONG)
BonnyVox
very little turbulence. We flew Continental and it was quite cozy - they
brought us eyeshades and ear plugs (do I hear Pinball Wizard??) and blankets
and pillows and tried to make us as comfy as one can be in an airplane.
Monday morning, we arrived at Dublin airport on-schedule and were met there by
my Aunt Thomi and Uncle Regan. We hopped in a mini-van taxi and were whisked
toward City Center. Regan asked the driver about a few sights and the driver
explained to us how to find the Floozie in the Jacuzzi (more about her later)
and the Famine Statues. As we drove past a gigantic ball of steel chains with
a burning flame in its center, the driver explained to us that it was the
Amnesty monument.
We arrived at Avalon House hostel at about 9AM to discover our room was not
ready. Then we discovered we were being charged for a no-show the night before
(they rent the weekly rooms on a Sunday-to-Saturday basis). I looked at Leenie
and said, "Well, if the room was ready for us YESTERDAY and we weren't here and
they're charging us for the room not being rented by someone else, doesn't it
stand to reason that the room would be ready now?" She said, "Hey, yeah," and
went back to the desk and got our damn room :o) WOOHOO!!! So we go up to the
room and it is, as Janeanne (sp?) Garafolo said in "Matchmaker", THE SMALLEST
ROOM IN THE WORLD!!! But...we figure...we're only sleeping, bathing and
changing here, so what the hell - it's clean.
We dump our bags and meet Regan & Thomi back in the lobby; first stop - St.
Stephen's Green. The park is lush and lovely and there's a park guard posted
at one of the bridges who'd talk your ear off as soon as look at you (and flirt
mercilessly if you happen to be a lady). There are benches and gazebos and
bridges throughout the park - just a really lovely, peaceful place to be.
Next, we headed to Trinity College to see the Old Library and the Book of
Kells. The Old Library houses all of Dublin's ancient texts and there is a
HUGE visual presentation leading up to the actual Book. There is a thorough
history of the ancient Biblical texts and the creation of the Book of Kells
(for instance, the scribes used an excretion from a pregnant insect for the
yellow ink :oP ). It was pretty interesting, but the thing at Trinity that
REALLY impressed me was the Old Library; shelves and shelves and shelves of
antique books (you could *smell* the old texts when you walked in). The
ceiling is what one might call cathedral height, and the library is really a
room on top of a room. Walking through the center of the library, you can look
up and see the upper ceiling. However, along both walls, there are two levels,
each section divided by another floor with *another* section on top of it.
There are about 20 of these two-story sections on either side of the room, and
about a dozen shelves four feet in length in each one-story section. That's
about 3,840 feet of books!! That's a lotta books!
So then we sort of strolled around without much direction. We crossed over the
O'Connell Street Bridge; the crowd seems like its *migrating* across. Then we
went off to find the Floozie in the Jacuzzi. Basically, it's a
fountain/wishing well; it's a bronze (?) statue of a naked woman reclining in a
waterfall, but it's not blatantly sexual or anything - her long hair pretty
much covers her breasts and her legs are crossed one over the other.
Afterward, we located the Famine statues. Honestly, in my *life* no piece of
sculpture has brought a stillness to my heart. This collection did. The
artist absolutely captured the desparation those people must have felt. One
emaciated man is carrying an unconsious (dead?) boy over his shoulders and the
whole clan of six is being followed by their skin-and-bones, ever-faithful
pooch. The whole scene is disturbing, to say the least (I'm trying not to
choke up now, just thinking about it).
(Relax, we're only up to about 11:30 AM by now - go grab a beer.)
Onward to Dublinia, a basic history lesson on Medieval Dublin done with
manequins and props. The most fascinating thing about this stop is the
*history*. The presentation is so-so, but one does get a really good glimpse of
Dublin from about 1170 (and the time of Strongbow) to about 1538 or so (the
time of Henry VIII). Dublinia connects to Christ Church Cathedral through a
long, dark, cold corridor. The first impression you get when you enter Christ
Church is, "My God, it goes on forever." I imagine it's a trick of the
architecture, but the arches really do seem like they go back about 10 city
blocks. The cathedral is magnificent, all carved wood and very HIGH ceilings.
It's overwhelming really...your breath tends to catch in your chest. The pipe
organ is two stories high and the stained glass windows are splendid. The
parish seating is in stark contrast to all this however, as it's just simple
wooden chairs; no cushions, no carvings, just plain, straight wood.
As you can probably imagine, we were *starving* (not to mention exhausted) at
this point, so we had a long, late lunch (about 2PM-4PM) at Eden in Temple Bar.
It was divine - the first in what was to be a long line of extraordinary
culinary experiences over the next week.
Leenie and I strolled lazily back to our hostel, and Regan and Thomi to their
hotel. We settled in, unpacked what we could, told each other how utterly
exhausted we were and then collapsed onto our beds for a nice long nap. We
came to an hour or so before supper time, so we refreshed and prepared for
dinner. We walked to a little Fish & Chipper by Christ Church I'd read about
in one of those guides. We got a little turned-around along the way and asked
some locals where the heck we were in relation to Leo Burdock's. They directed
us exactly how to get there and informed us we'd probably be best off if we
split an order. We thought they meant 2 orders between the four of us. Tcha!!
They meant ONE order for the four of us!! Anyway, we received our fishes &
chipses in the traditional style - wrapped in newspaper for take-away (no
benches, no stools, no counter to eat at) and walked around till we found a
good place to sit (on the steps of some office building, as it were) and
enjoyed our bounty.
After dinner, it was a taxi ride to the Brazen Head pub, the oldest in Dublin.
The place looks old inside, but it's clean, and they have GREAT trad there.
The musicians sat in a little corner booth in the pub. If memory serves, there
were five musicians; three men with guitars, one man with a tin whistle and a
woman with a bodhran (sp?). They pretty much took turns singing, and the
woman's voice was angelic. She sang at one point with a patron I would assume
to be a friend. They sang acapella, and as there are no mics in the place, the
barkeep simply shushed the patrons; yes, I said SHUSHED. He let out a
"shhhhhhhhhh," and a hush fell over the room. I guess everyone but us already
knew what a treat we were in for. They sang beautifully, a song about a lost
love and searching the world for him *sigh* 'Twas lovely. We were treated
later on to one of the guitarists' acapella rendition of Springhill Mining
Disaster. Again - lovely. After the musicians called it a night, three YOUNG
men from Belfast got to chatting with us and Leenie & I observed another Irish
tradition - seeing who could hold out the longest, the patrons or the pleading
bartenders.
We walked/cabbed back to the room and fell quickly and solidly to sleep.
Ok, you guys want more, or are y'all bored already?? Am I too long-winded???
Tell me honestly!!!
Cheers!
BonnyVox
Looky, I'm Official!: Assistant Manager of the U2 Bootleg Webring
Shameless Plug Alert: http://members.aol.com/younglust1/mystuff.html
PleaseeU2
>
>Tell me honestly!!!
>
More more more I like it:))
"Honey, we're home!"
"Now, don't go biting my ear off now"
BONO->July 1, 97 Foxboro Stadium
http://home.switchboard.com/U2
BonnyVox
Damn...you read that *so* musch faster than I typed LOL
Ok, more tomorrow. It's 1 AM here right now!! :o)
Trabbie
>Ok, you guys want more, or are y'all bored already?? Am I too long-winded???
>
>Tell me honestly!!!
>
Absolutely please go on !!!!
WOW!!!!
This is the best thing I read in a while
thanks
Bonny
To a place where the wind calls your name
under the trees the river laughing at you and me
U2SAT36
http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/trabbie
c}:c
greybird
KEEP GOING!!!!
You tell wonderful stories.
mars tokyo
we're waaaaaaaaittting!!
:-)
mars
--
the visual explorations of a U2 fan
U•2•D•E•V•O•T•I•O•N•S at the Mars Tokyo Visual Diary
http://www.geocities.com/marstokyo/u2devote.html
sun dog
envious I am of your trip!
Please write more -I can pretend I'm there!
Thanks
sundog
BonnyVox
Y'all make me feel so loved :o)
OK, day 2 is ready and waiting!!
Lynne
young...@aol.comspamenot (BonnyVox) wrote:
>
> Ok, you guys want more, or are y'all bored already?? Am I too long-winded???
> Tell me honestly!!!
>
> Cheers!
> BonnyVox
>
> Looky, I'm Official!: Assistant Manager of the U2 Bootleg Webring
> Shameless Plug Alert: http://members.aol.com/younglust1/mystuff.html
Bonnie, I really enjoyed that. Thanks!
Lynne - off to read day two : )
Lynne Sands
LSan...@yahoo.com
U2 2000
Annie, Steve et al. The U2 scene is quite serene...the calm b4 the
storm!:) About this time next year we will be regaling one another on
the U2 tour, etc, and the phenomenon that was U2 World Tour 2000, bank
on it!:) See y'all later!;)
U2 ZooMag
long-winded???
Tell me honestly!!! >>
Keep it coming, Bonnie! :) woohoo!
mars tokyo
post---where the hell you been?? Are you playing Santa's helper again
this year??
mars
U2 2000 wrote:
--
U2 2000
more stuff people buy the busier I am and this year is the Granddaddy of
them all! What an economy!!:) All you stockholders are gonna be happy
this quarter!:) Highly irrelavent to U2:(
Steve
U2 ZooMag
this quarter!:) Highly irrelavent to U2:( >>
I already am!!!!!! :D
chuck :)