October 27-28, 2005

The Emerald Isle

Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 11:29:20 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: The Emerald Isle... mostly.

Dia duit,

(That's hello in Gaelic, and pronounced "dee-a-gwit" -- sounds funny!)

I flew to Ireland last night -- my 27th trip across the Atlantic (so far). The
flight was from San Francisco to Boston and Boston to Shannon. I fell asleep
for most of the first flight and was awake for most of the second flight. Not
something I had wanted to do, because now I've been awake for the last 17 hours
and need to stay awake for another 3-4 hours to catch up to Europe time.

The plane landed at Shannon this morning at 7:25, and I was on the road (Ford
Escort) by 8:15. By now, I'm used to driving on the left side of the road --
proud to say that I did not make a single driving mistake today!! First town on
the drive was Limerick, just half hour from Shannon Airport -- reached there in
the middle of the morning commute, and took me about 45 minutes to cross the
town. Then it was straight across the small country to Dublin, which is where I
am now.

I do not have a good driving map of Dublin, and that helped me reach my motel
without getting lost anywhere. The road signs here are probably the best in all
of Europe! I relied completely on those, and in some cases even my instincts
("yeah I think this might be the right way"), and hardly ever looked at my
maps. I reached the motel in the center of the city without any problems! I'll
credit that to past experience -- don't think I could have done that if this
was my first trip in Europe.

I never wanted to spend much time sightseeing in Dublin. As far as I'm
concerned, there's a lot more to Ireland than Dublin... I had my "top 10" book
on Dublin. That lists some of the best attractions as the Trinity College,
couple of art galleries, Dublin Castle, and Guiness Brewery tour (with a free
pint at the end).

I was tired by the time I checked in. Not really in the mood for any
sightseeing, the first thing I did was go to a store to buy a ham and cheese
sandwich, 2 fantas, 2 sprites, 2 bottles of water, and 1 toothpaste (forgot
mine at home). The store cashier asked me if I wanted a paper bag to carry all
that, and when I said yes, he added another 15 cents to the total. "Oh yeah,
I'm in Europe now!"

Well, after getting ready I set out on foot to roam around the city. It has
been drizzling off and on throughout the day, and when I left the motel, the
rain had stopped temporarily. Walked along the river Liffey for a while, then
walked by Trinity College and decided to go in. Roamed around the campus, came
back out. It *IS* a beautiful campus, with a lot of old buildings. Then headed
over to Grafton Street, which is a pedestrian road with shops and cafes. Let me
rephrase that -- cafes and shops. I didn't really have any objective for this
day -- I was just roaming, and this Grafton Street turned out to be the best
place seen today. Of course I indulged in "the usual stuff" at a few cafes, did
some people-watching, and listened to all the folks playing music over there.
All-in-all, a good place to spend a few hours, provided it doesn't rain.

The clouds were rolling in, and I decided to head over to the other such place
in Dublin -- Temple Bar. No, not a real bar, just another set of streets
similar to Grafton Street. Or so the tourbook said. This place was mostly dead,
so I didn't hang around long. Besides, it was starting to drizzle again, and I
was about 2-3 miles away from my motel by now, so I started walking back along
the river..

Made it back here in full-fledged "rain", and now I'm pretty much waiting for
bedtime. Will probably have dinner at the motel. Tomorrow, it's off to the
Waterford Crystal factory (maybe), Blarney Castle near Cork (maybe), and some
scenic ocean roads in the south (probably).

I did not drink a Guiness today.

Slan leat,
-me.
(P.S. as for the subject line, its close to the end of fall here. Some trees
are orange or red. But the rest is ALL green!)

Ireland: