This past June I traveled to Northern Ireland (UK) as part of a graduate certificate program capstone class in conflict transformation. My wife went with me my first week to visit Dublin, NI and London.
Here are the fragments.
In December, I started scouring for a good deal. After about 3-4 weeks, I found a "deal", one that I couldn't pass up. As you might imagine, the "deal" was better on paper than in the good ol' real lived-in world So it was SAT to Ft. Lauderdale (3 hour flight, 5 hour layover), to Stockholm (9 hour flight, 5.5 hour layover) and finally to Dublin (2ish hour flight). This meant it was over 24 hours of traveling. I mean, it was still "worth it" but it was still tough.
Oh yeah, the Stockholm airport bathroom was BOSS.
We arrived around 8:30 PM in Dublin tired but excited. We had an Airbnb lined up and our host had given us directions on a bus-line, but finding the right bus was a bit of an adventure. We were to pick up the key at a bar named "The Red Parrot". It felt a little like a spy movie, so that was a little fun.
After we got the key, my phone was dying (that meant our map was dying) and the flat was harder to find than you might think. It was getting dark and a few sprinkles fell on us. While not quite panicking, I wasn't having fun anymore. I should point out addresses in Ireland and generally in the UK as well can be very difficult to find. I could bore you with the insane details but here's a photo of me putting my key into the wrong flat....
Thankfully, I think the no one was home or they were asleep. After 35 minutes of traveling in circles, in courtyards and streets with almost exactly the same name, we unpacked and felt good.
The only restaurant still open in the area was a Middle Eastern place called Pasha (which was great, because one of our favorite places back home is called Pasha as well). We were hungry and we devoured our plates.
I had previously made tentative plans for us to hike south of Dublin (Wicklow area) but for a variety of reasons, at the last mintue we decided to stick to Dublin. I felt fancy free as we had no real plans other than to walk downtown and just see where our feet would take us. And boy did we walk on this first day. We walked everywhere and my-way-too-young-to-be-arthritic knee was acting up by the end of the day! I have no idea how much we walked but Google estimated I walked 55 miles in June (which after I looked into it, is still too low).
We stopped at a small coffee shop for scones and coffee at the Roasted Bean Coffee Company (right across from the Connolly Train Station). Although there were a few "average" cups along our travels, the coffee in Ireland and the UK were far and away much better than in the coffee in the US.
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| Dublin Street Art near Connolly Station |
We eventually found ourselves outside Trinity College and went in for the tour. I had read that the Book of Kells was overrated so I wasn't thrilled with going but the college tour was great and the admission to the library and Book of Kells was included, so why not?
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| My favorite detail about the tour was about this library. Apparently this insane librarians organized the collection by SIZE. Yeah, not by topic, or alphabetical, the SIZE of the book. Was the purpose to make the library so un-usable to students that it would remain quiet and free of students? If so, librarians 1, students 0. Good game, chaps. Also, the smell of this place was old book smell heaven. Ahh...the smell of rotting books. |
From Trinity we went on to St. Patrick's hoping to hear a rehearsal of a choir but the choir never showed up. Then we went on the Chester Beatty Library. I have to say, if you love history and old stuff, then the Chester Beatty Library MUST be checked out. So awesome. Chester Beatty collected tons of books but not just any books, the oldest and most important books, scrolls and book fragments he could get his hands on. Amazing stuff. The earliest collection of the four gospels together resides here. But my favorite part of the collection was an ancient copy of a Qur'an, (I forgot how many centuries old it was) with an inscription from his wife that said (I am paraphrasing here)..."Happy Anniversary, honey! I knew you would love this!" So funny.
I cannot recommend this place enough if you give a fig about history and/or religion. We grabbed a late lunch at the cafe as well and it was very good (again, it was Indian food).
Then it was on the a few more churches that day, I mean it was a hell of a day for churches. As the day wore on, we started to realize how tired we were. That said, we weren't gonna back down. On our way to another Dublin Christ Church Cathedral, we ran into a a choir from Arizona that was going to perform at 5:30 or 6:00 PM. So, we decided to stick around for that. We stopped at Leo Burdock's for some fried fish that was right across the way from the church. It was okay, but nothing to go crazy about.
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| This guy (much larger than the seagulls here in South Texas) waited so long for single chip, but maybe it was something in his eyes, but I denied him. I was like, "Naw, man, naw". Also, can we take a second to talk about ketchup in the UK? Terrible, horrible, gross. It's sickly sweet and actually made me forgo even eating it and yet, I would forget and start using it again. Also, the "chips" in Ireland were utterly forgettable. Almost every single time, they were limp and disappointing. Give me some crunch and some good ol' American ketchup. Also, say no to the "Brown Sauce" - never even figured out what that crap was. |
The concert was pretty okay, K really enjoyed it more than me and really that was the whole point. The setting was beautiful, what more could you ask for. At Christ Church Cathedral, you can go to the catacombs and that was the highlight for me personally as it was cleared out at this time in the early evening.
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| This was a mummified cat and rat that had been found stuck in the organ years ago. It was too cool not take a photo. |
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| This was the burial of a knight named Strong Bow (the child or smaller body was not marked). I thought the name was something out of She-ra, so for the rest of the day I would say "Strong Bow, look out" or "Sir Strong Bow, how mighty you are!". Turns out he was pretty important. |
After the concert we walked the 100 million miles back to our Airbnb, stopping at a pub on the way home for some drinks and music (pretty good). When we got back it was well after 10:00 and we had been walking around Dublin for 13 hours straight, with a few breaks sitting in old churches.
It was an amazing day, one that I won't forget!
Day 2-4 coming up next.....
