“Top ‘o the morning to ya” Dublin, IRL

I was very curious to see how this train experience would stack up against our excellent rides in India.  While not booked in either a sleeper berth, or first class chair, we were still hopeful for a comfortable time.  The seating was a little ad-hoc, as for the first of our two train rides we were not assigned seats, and had to go looking for any unreserved spots. Our luggage was stacked in a holding area at one end of the car, and our seats were not together, but it was a fine ride otherwise. We had hopped on an earlier train than we had planned on, mostly because we were ready to go, and so was the train. This put us about an hour ahead of schedule. The countryside was exactly what I had hoped for, with scenes of rolling hills and farmland, small charming towns with red-roofed buildings clustered around a small church spire, the beach and sea with its host of wind towers like a high-tech forest.

Christina typed up the previous post, relating her perspective of our time in London, and I spent most of the time looking out the window, and reading. I’d finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne shortly before leaving India, and have been burning through Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls at a scorching pace. That’ll be wrapped up in the next few days and I’ll be on to Shantaram, which Christina is nearly finished, and seems to have very much enjoyed.

We finished the first leg of our ride in Chester, where we waited for just over an hour for our connecting train.  We passed the time at a pub in the station, and enjoyed some snacks on their sunny patio before boarding the second train, which would take us as far as Holyhead and the ferry terminal.

We crossed into Wales almost immediately upon our departure from Chester, and you could tell that it was not England anymore by the welsh signage. We saw the building pictured left at one of the intermediary stations. I have no idea what it’s called, and I’ll give a dollar to anyone who can tell me how to pronounce the word on the top nameplate.

There were a series of queues and a short bus ride involved in getting us from the train to the ferry. None of it was very organized, and those of us (myself included) who were concerned about getting a nice window seat on the ferry might as well have just relaxed, since automobile passengers had been steadily boarding through our whole queuing process and had quietly occupied all the best seats before we even got on board.

While we didn’t get a window seat, we did still get a nice table to ourselves and enjoyed a very comfortable crossing. The ferry was equipped with two bars, a cafe, a shop, and a small “theater” screen, so we had enough distractions to get us through a couple of hours at sea. Christina said it was like a little cruise ship.

Once we docked and retrieved our luggage it was another wait for another bus, which took us from the ferry terminal into town. We weren’t sure where to dismount, so just joined the herd, which landed us at Busáras, from where we walked the two kilometers to Mount Eccles Hostel. We checked in to our suite, and were immediately impressed. It’s the sort of place we would hope to find in Italy or Spain and rent for a month or so.

It is self-contained, with a small kitchen, living room, and bedroom on the lofted second level. Only a short walk to O’Connell Street, Temple Bar, and various other pedestrian mall areas, it’s in a good location for sightseeing, which we took advantage of on our second day. Finishing off the first day, we went for a short walkabout, ending at Murray’s Pub for some Irish food and beer.

After a great sleep we took advantage of the free breakfast included in our room rate, which was filling but not exciting. We spent the day walking all over Dublin. We were initially just looking through Temple Bar, the cafe/pub/artist district, for the Hard Rock Cafe, in order to pick up a shirt from Ireland’s only location for Tito Greg, but were turned away until the afternoon, when the correct size would be arriving.  In the meantime, we kept on walking.

We passed by Dublin Castle, stopping in just for a quick look, and likewise did a quick walk-by of Trinity College. We carried on through “Dublinia”, which sports a number of medieval and viking features, then on to Grafton Street. It was around lunch time, so we saw many people walking through the streets, and all the cafes and restaurants were full. The cheery day was aided by a turn in the weather, which had previously been a bit chilly, when the sun came out and we finally got some blue skies.

At the end of Grafton Street was St Stephen’s Green, the big public park in town, and we took a stroll through the paths of the park, then emerged on the far end and continued on to St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Apparently Irish people are super religious. They have more churches and cathedrals in fewer city blocks than anywhere I’ve seen. Granted, I haven’t seen the rest of Europe yet, but I’ll be surprised to find a higher density that this. I think I counted five huge cathedrals in less than ten blocks.

Once we’d seen St Patricks’s Cathedral we moved on to an entirely different house of worship. The Guinness Storehouse.

We toured around the storehouse, which was mostly a staged presentation and education area with displays that show how the brewing is done.  We had a snack at the cafe, and I got a certification for pouring “the perfect pint”.

Once my pour was mastered, and I’d had a couple of pints, it was time to be getting and collecting our t-shirt. We walked back to Temple Bar, the neighborhood, which was now much livelier than it had been on our in-bound trip, and stopped in to The Temple Bar, an uncreatively named pub, for a bite of dinner.

We headed back home for the evening, and had a quiet time catching up on some laundry and emails.

In the morning we set out for another round of walkabout, intending to stop by the Post Office building, which doesn’t sound very exciting, but we had two reasons. First, to mail some stuff. Yeah. Second, it’s the last of the “great Gregorian building projects” done in the capital, which means that it’s a sight to see for no other reason than it looks good.

After taking care of our postal duties we went to church. Well, to a former church anyway. Billed as “the most beautiful pub in Dublin”, The Church does a pretty good job of living up to both its name and reputation. The organ and stained glass are intact, and allow it to retain a bit of the beauty and solemnity of its heritage, and the huge barbecue on the patio, and classy oval bar inside make it a great venue.

After lunch we headed back to Trinity College for a closer look than we had taken yesterday. We entered the campus and did our own “self-guided” snoop in favor of the 10€ guided tour.

It’s a neat combination of the old-world buildings and the more modern facilities that had us both wondering what courses they offer. After checking things out there we moved on to see the Oscar Wilde statue at Merrion Square Park. I mostly know Oscar Wilde through attributed witty quotes and one-liners that I’ve read in any number of places, and from A Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Importance of Being Earnest. The statue wasn’t really much to see, but the part itself was very nice, and we ended up resting there for a while, Christina writing in postcards, and me snoozing in the sun.

We walked from the park to Grafton Street where we had a very nice coffee/beer/cheesecake break and watched the hordes of people walking by.

We walked back to the north side of the river for a peek at some of the other areas that we had missed on yesterday’s tour, and saw a guy doing sidewalk painting in an cool Art Nouveau style. Back in Temple Bar we set up for dinner at one of the many pubs, then headed back home to get packed up for tomorrow’s train ride to Belfast.

As we prepare to leave I feel like Ireland deserves more thorough treatment, and am a little sad that we’ll not be putting more time into it on this trip. I would very much like to come back and do a small-town tour, maybe by motorcycle. Another one for the “next time” list…