I was so lucky to have only one day of rain while I was in Ireland...even though it was only for a week. I left Venice,Marco Polo airport amidst torrential rain and arrived to a coolish but sunny day in Dublin. I had no problem catching the local bus from the airport to O'Connell Street and found my hostel, and right from the start the friendliness of the Irish people became apparent. Asking for directions was also a lovely chance to listen to the lyrical Irish accent.
I wandered Temple Bar area and had a delicious beef pie cooked in Guiness, along with vegetables in a pub with live Irish music playing in the background. It was sooooooooooo good to be eating meat again!
I visited Trinity college ; Oscar Wilde's birthplace, the house where he grew up and a lovely statue of a drunken looking Oscar in Merrion square ;St Stephen' church ; St Patrick's cathedral where Johnathan Swift ( author of Guillivers Travels) had been the rector; old Jameson ( whiskey) distillery ( where I was awarded a certificate to say I was an official, qualified whiskey taster - after sampling American Jim Beam, Scottish Johnny Walker and of course Irish John Jameson ); and I generally walked until I dropped. Dublin is a very walkable city and relatively easy to find your way around. Molly Malone' s statue is commonly known as The Tart with the Cart ;)
I did a Wild Rover Tour to Northern Ireland for the day to see the fabulous new Titanic Experience in Belfast ( built in 2012 to commemorate the 100 th anniversary of its sinking) and also a trip to the Giant Causeway ( which we didn't actually get to see because of torrential rain and flooding that day). The full day tour cost 65€ and was absolutely worthwhile.
I smiled as we passed roadworks on the way out of Belfast base a sign proclaimed " Alter your speed, not our workers".
Back in Dublin I visited several national museums which were free, interesting and clustered close together. Cousins Anna and Margaret kindly travelled from Listowel to Dublin to spend a few days with me.they are both lovely ladies and it was a pleasure to now touch base with my Irish heritage.
I did a very interesting day tour of the Hill of Tara and Newgrange which was excellent.the hill of Tara is a Celtic ritual site with 360 degree views of the 23 of Ireland's 32 counties. The day was perfect and the view stunning. 5000 year old Newgrange - older than the pyrimads of Egypt! - was amazing. The sophisticated early farmers were also astronomers who built these tombs incorporating a light box and solar calendar into the passage. This was precisely aligned to illuminate the bones of the dead in the inner chamber on the day of the winter solstice. We had a modern day demonstration which clarified the ingenuity of these ancient people. While this day tour was fabulous, I would NOT recommend Mary Gibbons tours. Mary was like a battle axe who treated us paying customers like school children in an intense history lesson. We were to be seen and not heard and many of us found her draconian manner off putting. She did seem to mellow as the day went on though. The cost was 35€ which was good value nonetheless.
The Georgial housing throughout Dublin has particular appeal - the windows are in 3:2:1 proportions up to the top storey and often have brightly coloured doors on each apartment/ house ( apparently so drunk Irishmen could find their own home after a night at the pub!)
On my last night in Dublin, Anna and Margaret invited various nieces and nephews to dinner and to meet this relative from far flung New Zealand. We had a wonderful night. Everyone was so warm and friendly and I went to bed feeling a glow inside that I had meet some of my family in Ireland. I hope at least some of them will come to visit me in New Sealand some time in the future.
So after only a short week in Ireland, I am now heading to Copenhagen,Denmark to visit friends from NZ who are living there for a few years.i
