We made it to Ireland without much trouble. Ryanair really had me worrying that my bag was over 15 kilos (like I know what a kilo feels like!) If it were over the weight limit, each additional kilo is 20 euros or 20 pounds. I would sincerely hope that nobody is paying in pounds, because 20 pounds is more like 30 euros. Anyhow, flying Ryanair is like flying in Las Vegas. The intercom is always coming on and trying to sell you crap with recordings. Then the flight attendants get on the intercom and confirm what the recording just said. Then they go down each aisle and shove the item in your face and ask you whether you are paying attention or not. And you cant escape! You are 35000 feet in the air! D.B. Cooper must have been flying Ryanair. Among the items they are trying to sell; scratch cards, smokeless cigarettes, microwave pizzas (they will warm them up for you) and other food and snacks, and drinks. I didn’t actually look. I was trying to read F. Scott Fitzgerald, so I was already grumpy.
We were definitely looking forward to Dublin. It treated us well when we were here last, and We feel comfortable here. We checked into Paddy’s Palace Hostel (which offers a free day trip to Glendalough and Kilkenny; more on this later) and found an excellent deal at a grocery store: 16 sausages and 16 burgers for 10 euros. Someone started helping themselves to our food toward the end of our stay, and threatened finger breaking if we caught them.
We really did everything we wanted to do in Dublin the first time we were here, so we mostly walked around aimlessly and talked about the failings (and successes) of our American educations. We needed laundry done, but the hostel didn’t have a laundry room. So we went up to Talbot Street and found a service laundromat run by a nice, plump Russian lady that washed, dried, and folded our clothes for 15 euro. We also found an awesome and cheap bookstore called “Chapters.” I bought 4 books for 10 euros. They are “Two Years Before The Mast” (this book is beautiful; it has the ribbed spine and is a deep crimson color. It even has the bookmark ribbon thing.), Last of the Mohicans, The Odyssey, and The Road by Cormick Mccarthy.
We met a man named Jimmy on the street who was quite drunk and told us all sorts of stories about his life in Chicago. At one point he was poking me with his finger for emphasis. His face was scarred up, and his nose was smashed and broken at some point, and healed flat on one side. He has super bright blue eyes that made his stories believable and serious, even if they were about something absurd. He kept on asking if we were Amish, hah. He gave us his email so that we could give him our numbers for the next time we came to Dublin and stay with him. He wanted us to bring some ‘birds’ and ’swing’ with him too.
On Monday, we took the free trip to Glendalough and Kilkenny. Our driver was an old poem quoting Irishman named P.J. The bus apparently had a engine problem and was burning water fast enough to require P.J. to refill the radiator at every stop. To make matters worse, the hood would get stuck, and he would need a volunteer to pop the latch while he slammed down on it. However, the bus didn’t break down, one of our few good lucks on this trip. Glendalough ruins is a beautiful place. Places like this make one believe in magic. It was an old monastery from the sixth century. The bell tower still stands, along with the walls of the chapel. Gravestones are everywhere, most old but some new, covered in moss and topped with Crosses and Celtic knots in a circle. And it was so green! The sky was cloudy and diffused the light so well on the landscape. Cory and I split up, mostly by accident, and took different paths to the lower and upper lakes above the ruins. I sincerely doubt that I will be in a valley more gorgeous than this one. We hopped back in the bus, but only briefly. There are some ruins at the top of the mountain amongst huge stones strewn about the valleyside. Sheep and grass were everywhere, constantly replenishing each other. On the way to Kilkenny, we stopped at a burial mound in a farm field. It consisted of two stones supporting a 150 ton flat larger stone. The other bus riders found it okay to walk underneath this stone and get pictures of themselves with it, but I found this to be disrespectful. It may be from 3000 BC, but it is still a grave. Although there was a car dealership next to it.
Kilkenny was kind of disappointing. Kilkenny Castle is a tourist trap and We didn’t really find anything interesting in it, outside of its actual historical value. Oliver Cromwell knocked down one of the walls and towers when He took Ireland for the Commonwealth. They never rebuilt them, so the Castle has three sides. We walked around Kilkenny and discussed tourism, and whether we were a different kind of tourist or not, and what made us different than the average tourist. During and after this, we found a grocery that reminded of Walmart and bought some cookies which we ate for lunch. Delicious.
We went looking for the Brazen Head, supposedly the oldest pub in Ireland. On the way there, some locals called us “Saint Patricks” and “Leperchauns.” Most Irish don’t have beards. Another drunken bar wench held out her thick hand and wiggled her fingers and wanted, “to touch those ticklers”. Anyhow, it was just after 1 o clock when we got to the pub. It was quiet and nice on the patio, and we discussed the trip over two pints of Guinness.
There is a large metallic spire on O’Connell Street. It replaced “Nelson’s Column”, a rather disliked statue of Lord Horatio Nelson of Trafalgar fame, destroyed by an IRA bomb in the sixties. The head was recovered though, and now sits in the corner of Gilbert Library’s reading room. We went to check out Nelson’s unfortunate head. Alas, we could not take pictures but the librarians gave us complimentary photographs of it and some additional information! It is too bad nobody knows about this! Thus was our last (and first!) destination in Europe.
