September 15, 2012

• Baile Atha Cliath- Dublin, Village crossing the river

  Once again, the wind blows the door of this wonderful little virtual space open…Hi all, I’m home and back from yet another gallivant around the world, this time to Ireland and Scotland with my brother. He recently took the bar exam, and we figured we would celebrate the occasion by going on a brotherly binge to the land of a thousand welcomes, and the home of the highlanders.

  

  So Raise your glass, toast Slainte!, and lets follow the Brothers through a thousand shades of green, beginning with the City of Dublin

  

  We quartered ourselves in this converted wine cellar, Isaacs, now hostel to travelers from such exotic locales as germany, and northern california! A great hostel, cheap for the price, very clean and with a number of activities organized that we never quite found the time to make it too, but well worth your time should you need a place to stay

  

  The first thing we learned? Dublin Has a lot of balls. It’s a recurring theme, though we are not quite sure why

  

  

  

  Our first day was pretty much spent wandering the streets, taking the sites, and acclimating ourselves to a new continent, culture, and time zone. 

  

  Temple Bar, in the the Temple Bar district was constantly packed with tourists, street performers (buskers, in the vernacular), and more bars than you could shake a stick at

  

  

   After walking the streets, we stopped in to visit St Patricks Cathedral

  

  Yes, of THAT guiness family. 

  

  

  

   

   

  

  

  

   

  Exiting the Cathedral, we explored the local park next door

  

  I found a group of people playing capoeira, my former martial art before I got super lazy. Surprised how much I actually remembered

  

  Brian with Molly Malone, the statue referred to as the Tart with the Cart. Miss Malone, a well known fishmongerer of her day, was believed to have supplemented her income with harlotry in the evening. Prostitution and fish-selling apparently have a long and storied history, and the ladies of the night would wear their fishnets from the day over their legs at night to accentuate their wares, emphasizing the catch of the day, as it were.

  

  I cant even begin to tell you how happy this makes me

  

  That happy, I guess

  

  All over Dublin, brightly colored doors like those above are seen jumping out from otherwise plain buildings. We heard many stories as to the reasons for this, and my favorite is as follows: After the death of Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, which put her into such a state of mourning, she ordered all doors in the entire British Empire to be painted black. The Irish, being opposed to caving to such orders, immediately painted their doors as colorfully as was possible at the time. True or not, it’s a fascinating story, and one only too many tour guides and locals were happy to confirm

   

  
  

  Dublin is built straddling the river Liffey, and supposedly hundres of hidden tunnels and catacombs cross underneath its banks as well as the city streets, just waiting to be explored, excavated, and perhaps even liberated of hidden treasure

  

  As A final activity to our first day, Brian and I climbed onto the pictured bus for one of many haunted tours of Dublin. The company responsible for all of them was Hidden Dublin Walks, and puts on an excellent tour. Their guides are knowledgable, clearly enjoy their jobs, and are all super accomodating to requests. On this tour we visited and learned the haunted history of kilmainham gaol, trinity college, the viking church, and had a pint at a local pub, Gravediggers, where the undertakers used to request their guiness by tossing shovelfuls of dirt up against the back wall of the pub
  

  

  Told you the guides were enthusiastic!

  

  We met a couple of Dubliners on the tour, lovely ladies who joined us for a drink at a nearby whisky bar, where we made plans to meet up again later in the week for drinks and Dublins best fried chicken. All in All, the trip was off to a good start

  • 11:36 pm
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