Dublin is a city that doesn’t know it’s a capital city. It is BREATHTAKING. Strolling around the neighborhood waiting for our couchsurfing hosts to get home on the first day, Michelle and I encountered so many smiling, helpful, wonderfully English(ish)-speaking Irish people. It gave us both the warm fuzzies. I love France and all, but the Irish people from whom we asked on the street for directions consistently stopped whatever they were doing to walk us all the way to where we were going, chatting with us the whole way there. It was so comforting. I miss small talk and smiles from strangers.
Everything is so GREEN. I mean everything – the landscape, the décor in the pubs, the Irish “football” (soccer) team gear and the leprechauns. They’re a lot bigger than I always pictured… about the size of Mickey and Minnie at Disneyland, and with a similar job description. Odd. Dublin reminded me a lot of Hong-Kong in that it was so futuristic. Because of the recent explosion of the Irish economy (dubbed the “Celtic Tiger”) over the past 15 years, Dublin has just built and built and built. There are some really old, historic, preserved buildings still with bullet holes in them because they served as strongholds against the British in the wars for independence, and then right next to those, there are beautiful, shiny, modern glass buildings of interesting shapes being reflected into the river that runs through Dublin. At night, the buildings light up in different colors (like in Hong-Kong, not like in Las Vegas… it’s classy and mesmerizing). There is also a gigantic knitting needle with a light on the top called the Spire that cost the government 5 million dollars! It’s pretty. Now the country is bankrupt and construction has stopped on a lot of really cool structures that are just sitting there unfinished, and our hosts were saying that while it’s a cool landmark… maybe that 5 million would have been better saved for other things. But you can’t predict these things. Even still, Ireland has one of the strongest economies in the world today and is, I believe, the most expensive city in Europe right now. Go Ireland!
We were here during the World Cup qualifier between Ireland and Italy. It was CRAZY! We watched it while eating dinner in a pub in Temple Bar, the area with all the pubs. Everyone was wearing green and drinking Guinness (or Guinness with Blackcurrant for the ladies) and each time we scored the crowd was so intense I felt like I was at an Obama rally. We scored twice but each time we scored, Italy scored, so it was tied 2-2. We still qualified, so it’s all good. Yes, “we”. I love Ireland.
Bulmers Pear Cider is delicious. It is served over ice, which shocked our French friends. What an affront to the cider! Yep, I encountered a TON of French people in Dublin. Everywhere Michelle and I went we heard French (and by “heard”, I mean occasionally eavesdropped, and by “eavesdropped” I mean occasionally stalked). We almost missed the plane to Dublin for – count ‘em – 12 different reasons. We listed them on the plane but they’re too numerous to remember. One of the reasons was that we missed the bus transferring us from Paris to the Beauvais airport and had to take the next one, so when we got there, we RAN off the bus and through the airport, along with two others… our new French friends. When we got there and the plane wasn’t even there yet, we all had coffee together and spoke in French. It comes in so handy knowing another language.
Last night I met up with Allie McCann, a friend from home that is basically like a sister to Kylee and me, and her friend Taylor. We went to dinner in Temple Bar and WOW was the crowd different! We went out on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night with our hosts. Friday and Saturday were CRAZY. The pubs were packed with young people from all over the world, people were dancing, singing, doing everything you imagine young people doing in Dublin at night. It was the craziest nightlife I’ve ever seen. Sunday night was a little more mellow and we went to a pub where there were customers playing the guitar and the sax and singing. It was a veritable jam session in the middle of the narrowest pub in Dublin. They were good, too.
Then there was Monday night. Allie, Taylor and I walked into The Stag’s Head, which Lonely Planet called the best pub in Dublin, “and therefore the world”, and it was filled with 50-65 year old men sitting around tables drinking together. What a different world! They didn’t serve food so we left and as we were leaving, a group of said men started talking to us and offered to show us good pub to eat at. We ended up sitting with them and talking for hours about Irish culture and American culture. They said they like meeting Americans because “They’re a good crack.” The word crack is so prevalent here. It means fun/atmosphere/vibe/laugh/anything you want it to mean, I think... (One of the men said he’d asked his friend in Florida how the crack was in Florida and his friend was shocked.) They gave us a huge list of classic films (mostly American) to watch and a book to read and we in turn gave them a list of things to do, like “make guacamole” and “watch The Princess Bride”. One of them is a Battlestar Gallactica fan! I was so stoked! Oh BSG, always bringing people together.
Well it’s time to board my flight back to Bordeaux, so I’ll leave you with that. Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Life is good.
