Dublin!

First a quick hello/goodbye to Bristol... where I stayed 1 night on the 11th... Really it was just enough time for a quick bite and a bit of a walk around the harbor... Seeing more of the south side this time around! But it was a lovely evening and morning!

Next stop (this time via a very smooth and convenient... if still decidedly budget... Ryanair flight) to Dublin. I am only here for 2 full days and 3 nights. Not sure that was my smartest idea... but it is what it is! A quick visit is better than no visit... and it feels a lot like the trip to Amsterdam a few weeks ago. (How is that already/only a few weeks ago?!) Edinburgh, btw, was better planned... There it will be more like 3 nights and 4 days... C:

So Dublin: I had 3 nights and 3 projects... listen to old fashioned straight out of a chick flick novel Irish music at a local pub, possibly see a play at the National Theatre that Yeats built, and do some kind of literary themed pub crawl. And I did those things! The play on at the Abbey was Hedda Gabler, which was fun. And the pub crawl was one of my fave things in this whirlwind visit! And I actually dipped into a pub for music (at the touristy Temple Bar admittedly, but then I'm a tourist) a 2nd time this last evening...

Then I had to manage to do stuff in those 2 days... ;-)

Day 1- yeaterday- was the best. It was quite flowing and casual and packed and fun! Today it rained... and I had to still fit in whatever I could that was left over from yesterday.

So yesterday I wandered about downtown, then took a walking tour focusing on the history of Dublin in the late morning... a 3 hour tour!! ;-) Then I was *ravenous* for lunch and tried out this really awesome veggie restaurant. I actually liked them so much I returned for lunch again today... C: Then I visited a place mentioned during the tour... the national (?) library... not the one at Trinity... that was having an exhibition of Yeats' work. That was awesome!! His copy of Walden, his Nobel medal, lots of manuscript pages... including of 2nd Coming!! After that, it was near or after 5 pm and things were closing. There *was* however still the Irish Whiskey Museum open. The morning's tour guide had actually suggested it as the best alcohol themed tour/venue in town... beating Jamison and Guinness traps... And of course I'm researching whiskey now for that chapter... And it was a fun tour... much I already knew (remember I really am researching this...it's not some kind of code) but a lot of new stuff too. And I did taste... and *cough*... I'm still a wine girl I think!! Something to think about: the first time I went wine tasting outside Santa Barbara, at Bridlewood for those of you keeping track, I liked the wine. I didn't really have to acquire a taste... This whiskey is harming my throat and chest!! I don't get it yet. BUT Twain's favorite drink wasn't whiskey straight. It was a cocktail... (and it was with Scotch...) And I've tried one of those drinks... something called an Old Faithful or something (NOT that) with sugar and lemon. It's a perfectly pleasant drink. And Twain *literally* swore by it as a nightly tonic. Also, Irish whiskey is the best for Irish coffee... that's another potential in for me... ;-) After the tasting I went over to pick up a ticket for the play... grabbed a quick and somewhat mediocre bite at another veggie restaurant... and watched the show. Which was good/fine... but not London theatre. Apparently I am now a snob!!!

Day 2 was almost busier...b/c there was just so much still to do! Trinity and Book of Kells was first. Well, 1st was really my slog through the rain to get to Trinity. My feet and the rest of me were early soaked and stayed that way pretty much for the remainder of the day. I was pretty much a drenched cat in terms of mood, as well. Ooh and I forgot... before 1st I stopped at one of the main independent/used book stores in town and allowed myself to buy 1 book! A Terry Pratchett that I hope I don't already have... I'm so annoyed with plane weight restrictions for luggage! Ok back to Kells... and all the crowds... and me being wicked cranky! My consolation was that I don't think there is ever a good time to go to see one of Ireland's biggest tourist destinations. So I suffered in more or less silence... And the Long room or whatever that's called is really and truly amazing and worth all the waiting. It's a bibliophile's dream room. Better than anything of Belle's... I could live in that room! After lunch I decided to keep on the indoor tourism track on a rainy day. So I did the History/Archaeology museum. The big winners from that museum were the bog mummies (ok... I swear on one that still had a lot of skin and stuff, you could see the mummified penis. Just the skin really at this point... Now that's beyond even the Egyptians!) and all the gold and jewelry. It was so very shiny and pretty. I think I need a gigantic gold necklace made of a big sheet of gold. I don't care where you stand on the silver/gold debate, that would look good on anyone! That was a cool/interesting museum and I'd recommend it! The Dublin National Gallery, tho, my next stop after a quick detour to pay homage to Oscar wild, I would not... Dublin and Ireland in general are known for *many* things, but not their paintings. So I saw a couple of lesser Picasso/Monet/Goya paintings... Meh! By then I was getting peckish again...and needing coffee...so I stopped at the place named KC... and had a fine but not shattering latte. Actually, the best coffee I had in Dublin was at the lunch place. That place just *rocked*! Then, weirdly enough, I had an odd gap in my day's schedule. It was 5 pm and all the museums and indoor places I'd want to possibly visit were closed. But the literary pub crawl didn't start till 7:30... Tricky! I decided... it had finally stopped raining... to wander up to the famine memorial and famine ship. Things I could photograph even after they'd closed. So I wandered up the vaguely grungy Liffey... and not having my London ecstacy as I would have walking along the Thames... and then when I got up to the memorial I knew I would NOT photograph it. Statues representing people... and a dog!... starving to death!! Shudder!! It's really the Irish version of the Holocaust... the potato famine... and it's just too tragic for a selfie or something! So I turned around and wandered back. I decided just to head to the pub where the tour started and grab an early pint and a light dinner. And then the pub crawl started...and I didn't drink a drop the whole time! How is this possible?! But it was fun. It was led by performers, and they acted out bits from Waiting for Godot, for example, and other Irish literary works. Lots of Bloom references. And I was one of a very few people to have actually read Ulysses! Then it wasn't dark yet or too late feeling, do I wandered back to the touristy part of town and dipped into a pub and listened to some more jam sessions. It was a lovely way to end the day. The tour and the live music made me not be a wet cranky cat anymore! C:

And it just occurred to me that I don't think I wrote about Glastonbury or the Lost Garden Of Heligan... from the Cornwall trip. But now I'm tired... So just know that I went and they were fun!

And next stop: Edinburgh!