Thursday, February 18, 2010

Trip to Dublin!

Let's be honest, nothing exciting happens on a day-to-day basis in London, especially when you have a lot of work to do and thus no excitement or energy can be summoned for going out.

But, Reading Week (or, go out for a bit then come back and cram homework) presents a unique opportunity to, like, go someplace.  And so, off to Dublin!


While I was sort of excited to go, the main thing I was interested in finding is the music they listen to.  While Top 40 generally rules in the US and the UK, Ireland doesn't really take to it.  A lot of it is quasi-"alternative" rock, which I can characterize as quasi-R.E.M.  Sort of like it, with variations here and there...but really, if you want the stuff, just listen to R.E.M.  Seriously.  The most surprising part?  They love their reggae.  First full day, went to a pub that evening.  A band composed of 4 Irishmen and what I think was a Middle Eastern saxophone player were playing reggae!  And it was awesome.  For one reason or another, I got into the groove and went and watched the band (and danced, mind you) for the most part.  I recognized "Pressure Drop," which was pretty much it.  Because the Clash recorded "Pressure Drop" at some point in their careers (shows up on Black Market Clash and its variations).

All the sights and stuff were great.  The highlight was Phoenix Park by far.  For €5 each, bikes were rented and ridden around it.  For the scope of the park, Central Park is four times as small as Phoenix Park, and every park in England combined doesn't even come close.  It was remarkable.  My favorite part was likely the Papal Cross.  While I certainly have my qualms with religion as a social structure and have never been a part of that system, as a mode or method of faith, there are admirable parts.  But the cross itself was awe-inspiring, as I would estimate it being at least 60m tall...I'm not too sure.  Here's the photo of it:


Other crazy things about Phoenix Park consist of the random herd of 500+ deer that live there, unfenced, and the generally ridiculous hills on the outer edges of the park which make for painful uphill biking (but excellent downhill riding).

Then, the next "tourist-y" day was action-packed.  The morning included a trip to Howth Harbor.  It's basically a tiny seaside town, and it's amazingly beautiful.  There's apparently a golf course to stumble upon (if you take the unbeaten path to the castle as we did), but the real draw is the harbor, with the breathtaking view out to sea.  Here's what that looks like:


It looks unreal, like those really cheesy photos that OS developers put in as default backgrounds and such, but that, yes, was definitely the view I got.  I mean, I'm happy with that picture, but it looks almost too good or too unreal.

For those inclined for seals, there were plenty of those, too.  Since Howth is essentially a fishing town, you could have gotten fish and fed them to the seals.  We were all starting to go a bit broke, so that didn't quite work out.  Cash had to be saved for Dublin's finest: the Guinness Storehouse.  If you go to Dublin, you really, really, really, really, really, really, really have to go.  It was awesome.  If you don't like beer, ok, but really, you're in Dublin, so you will like Guinness...at least in Dublin.  It goes over a lot of stuff about beer and Guinness, and they are kind enough to provide you with a free pint at the bar located at the top of the storehouse.  The view is phenomenal.  It's the highest point in Dublin, so you see everything.  I ended up drinking two more pints than the one allotted, as somehow some folks in my travel group didn't like Guinness.  It would have been tragic if I hadn't saved the day.  But here's a good idea of what it was like up there:


The day we left was mostly smaller stuff like visiting the whole lot of cathedrals around there.  Christchurch Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Catherine's Cathedral, and etc.  They are architecture marvels, just stunning.  Other sights included the Dublin Castle (actually rather lame), and Trinity College.

Overall, Dublin was a fantastic place.  I would highly recommend going, but mostly only to visit.  Dublin is a rather small city for being a capital of a country.  My approximation is that someone so inclined could definitely walk across the city of Dublin in about an hour.  I wouldn't expect that getting through the majority of the stuff there would take more than, say, 4 days at the most, as I did.

So yeah, that's most of it.  See all ya'll soon.

-e.

NP: Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

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