Howya!
I was shocked to hear English upon my arrival to Dublin. I have become accustomed to foreign languages swirling about me. To be able to speak the country language? What a concept. It is amazing how much easier it is to be confident when you know the customs and how to be polite.
Dublin was wide awake when I bused myself into the city at about 2AM. On my way to a hostel I stopped in a pub, The Stages Head for directions and was awarded with a free of Guinness to welcome me to Dublin. It turned out that The Merry Rovers, a particularly fine band were playing at the pub. Some locals helped me step through a few line dances and taught me the counts necessary for Irish jigs. By dawn I found myself leaning heavily on a table talking to lovely elderly chaps about “the Irish” as a people.
I extracted a few wonderful local secrets: Did you know that the Liffey River which runs down the center of the city is not water, but is actually Guinness? The dark brown water is actually all ale, they push it down the river so that it is naturally well churned. It is this process that gives it the massive head that it has.
Or there are the “Doors of Dublin”- the real reason that all of the doors are painted bright colours is because of the women, tired of their husbands never making it home from the pub at night (because they were too drunk to recognize their own house number) the women began painting the doors; A man can recognize his own bright yellow door on the street even from far away.
Saturday my green wellies and I toured the Jameson factory, Macon’s Church (the oldest Church in Ireland) and all of the Crypts below it. That evening I went to see “Tales of Ballycumer” at the Abby Theater.
It was an amazing show. The script won awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival a few years ago, and it was here by public request. The set was beautiful and simplistic… a slopping stage covered in flowers, with a chimney in the center around which most of the action took place. The play was smoothly executed, and the fact that this troupe of actors (all union) and this whole performance venue was able to funded by the government made the experience that much better. Avante Gaurde theater. It exists for a reason: Theater is singular, it can lead out of the general of the world. We need theater…
Come evening I found myself once again wandering the streets of Dublin. On a street corner near waiting for a bus I met a black-haired, blue eyed man Rorey.After brief conversation he determined it would be best if he showed me the best night sights of the city himself: the Oscar Wilde Memorial, the Temple Bar, the Palace Roof. As we traversed the night around us was lively, every street filled with live music, a mix of traditional Irish jigs, American Classics, and European Techno.
On Sunday morning I hopped a 44 bus out to the Wicklow hills. I passed through the Glencree valley and up into Sally Gap aka the gardens of Ireland where P.S. I love You or Brave Heart these movies were shot .I hopped off the bus at the summit of the hill and spent the afternoon fighting gales of wind as I traversed my way down the mountainside to Glendalough. Here I toured the ruins of a monastic settlement, splashing about in the puddles and marveling at the four rainbows which continuously occurred simultaneously in the sky. Later after grabbing dinner at a nearby pub ( dinner for vegetarians means a huge platter of chips, with my Guinness) I watched the football game with the locals. (I am supporting liverpool, in case anyone wants to know). That evening I stayed in a little hostel just outside of the town, meant for backpackers who are walking across the Irish hills.
Monday I boarded a tour bus with a local I met at the hostel, Terry.( He is an elderly fellow who needed to return to the city for the day.) He accompanied me acting as my personal guide by informing me along the way about all of the historic sights which we were passing including The Vale of Avoca, where Thomas Moore is buried and Vally Kisangel, the driest city in all of Ireland, (meaning there is no pub there).
I made some friends on this journey. But the most important thing is: I found a home. This is the land I want to live in. And I know that I will get back there someday.
intrepid trekking 