Travel break: Part II

Well time has sort of gotten away from me, but I'm going to try to catch up on entries before I leave for Munich and Berlin on Thursday. I took two day trips this weekend--one to Amsterdam and one to and around The Hague--but was at the castle Thursday and Sunday. But first things first...

Wednesday, 20/2

Today we got up, ate our substandard and free hostel breakfast (consisting of toast, jam and bad tea) and were off on the town. Dublin! Yes! This was my favorite city so far. My memory is pretty hazy and at this point I have to work hard to remember exactly what happened. But don't jump to any conclusions. The haze isn't from drinking too much!

We went to the James Joyce Museum, which, along with walking around Dublin, makes me really want to read James Joyce. I think that's probably the idea. I'm not going to take on Ulysses, though. Holy God. Maybe Dubliners or something else that won't take 20 years to read. Afterwards, we stopped for a little bit at the National Gallery of Ireland to enjoy some art and continue being cultured. We stopped in at both of these places pretty much by accident--we were out walking around Dublin and ran into them.

We didn't take any means of transportation in Dublin except on our way in and out of town. We didn't need to! It was a great walking city, and it reminded us of Boston a lot.

It was simply becoming too wholesome of a day, what with the literature and the fine art, so I hit up the McDonalds Euro Menu for lunch to balance things out. Oh, yah. The Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery was next. I haven't had enough whiskey to discern between good and bad varieties, but I'm pretty sure this stuff was really good. We got a complementary drink at the end of the tour, and I chose the Jameson with ginger ale and lime. It was very, very good. I ordered it in Cork a few nights hence.

Following Jameson, we wandered to the Viking district, which can only be described as old as hell. We walked around the outside of Dublin Castle (we were too late for the final tour of the day), which is much more impressive than the castle from which I currently write. But they couldn't decide on one architectural style: it was a hodgepodge of Gothic and Classical influences. I guess continuity wasn't a big concern.

We got some pasta and cooked it back at the hostel's open kitchen, and then went out to a comedy show. I had never seen live stand-up before, and I don't know if I'll ever see anything as hilarious as we did! As Americans, we got picked on (they asked everyone from where they hailed), but that made it all the more fun! I haven't laughed that much in a long time.

Afterwards, we went to The Temple Bar in Temple Bar, where I paid 3 Euro (about $4.50) for a Diet Coke with nothing in it. What're you gonna do? It was a really atmospheric place, though, and we ended up running into some fellow Emersonians! It was a very good day.

Thursday, 21/2

Our third and final day in Dublin! We were sad we had to be leaving so soon--we could've used another day or so. We went to the Guinness Brewery, which seems to have been heavily influenced by Epcot. What a circus that place is! Guinness tastes like beer, so for all the praise it gets, I still don't like it. The tallest building in Dublin is 13 stories high, and from the top of the Guinness Brewery (9 stories), we had a wonderfully unobstructed view of the city!

After that, Ben got guitar strings, we got paninis, checked out of our hostel and headed for the train station. Getting there took forever. The Dublin tram system is probably the slowest means of public transport I have ever suffered through (including the Green Line). The stupid thing had to yield to cars and any pedestrian who was quick enough to cross in front of it, which was basically everyone but the elderly, the handicapped and the drunk. Terrible.

We got into Limerick pretty late, and then took a bus to Newcastle-West, where we stayed at the quaintest, cutest B&B in the world (proprietor--Eileen)! We had a little trouble finding the place, given that we had no phone to use when we got off the bus. No matter, though. We had a restorative evening, enjoying homemade cake and watching Anchorman (on Irish television, no less) before going to bed early.

Friday, 22/2

We got up and had a big breakfast courtesy Eileen (we all agreed we hadn't eaten so well since we'd been abroad) and hi-tailed it onto another bus and train, this time bound for Cork. Before we boarded the train, though, we had a little time to walk around Limerick, the hometown of novelist Frank McCourt, who wrote Angela's Ashes. It was cool to be there after reading the book. And we got to play on a playground in a park! The pictures are great.

Cork is the most Irish place we went to, we think. When we got there, we went to a huge market, which is what Quincy Market/Faneuil hall would look like with actual fresh food vendors instead of Pizzeria Regina's and stuff. We got some salad stuff, some pasta stuff and some really nasty cheese. We didn't know it at the time, but that stuff was really nasty. It smelled like sadness.

We went out to a couple of pubs that night, the first of which was very subdued and grey-haired and the second of which was really freaking loud and young. Sleep felt good.

Saturday, 23/2

The last full day of the travel break! We got up and I had goat cheese, fruit and a grain roll from the market for breakfast. Everything was so cheap there! It was great. We walked around Cork after that, just checking out shops and observing things. Ben and I spent a lot of time in a couple of bookstores there. We didn't buy anything, though. We knew we couldn't, given the exchange rate and all.

That evening was a wonderful finale to the travel break, and the most organic cultural experience of the trip. We went to a pub to watch a Scotland-Ireland rugby match. It was part of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament, which was held in Dublin. We got right in the middle of all the fans and all the cheering. It was great to be in that atmosphere. It felt like a Red Sox-Yankees game or something! We had a good, cheap meal during the match and went back to the hostel to relax.

Sunday, 24/2

We woke up at 5 today to take the bus to the airport. I had a Cadbury egg and a red delicious apple for breakfast. Very weird. Absolutely. But I would do it again. We flew from Cork to London Stansted to Weeze (just across the border from the castle in Germany). We passed through four countries--Ireland, England, Germany and the Netherlands--in about five hours. We got back to the castle around two or so. It was good to be back.


So that's my travel break. Our second travel break is three weeks from this Friday. We'll be going to Croatia and then Barcelona! Yesterday, I took care of stuff for Paris (Easter weekend) and Rome and Florence (my last trip in April). This Thursday, as I said, I'm going to Munich and Berlin for the weekend. Next weekend, I'm going to Luxembourg and Belgium. I'll write about this past weekend's adventures before I leave Thursday!