Mysteries of Dublin City

In Dublin's Fair City
Where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheel'd her wheel barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive, alive o!

Monday morning broke bright and much too early for our jet-lagged bodies. We were scheduled for a free morning before joining our tour group in the afternoon for a bus tour of Dublin, so we decided to do some more exploring on our own.

After a 'brilliant' Irish Breakfast, we again hopped the Green Hop-on, Hop-off bus and headed down to City Center for a couple of hours of meandering through streets bright and fair.

We exited our open-air bus on Suffolk Street and made our way over to the Statue of Molly Malone... the girl famous for selling "cockles and muscles, alive, alive-o!" by day... other things by night... I eagerly posed for a picture, but fought the urge to sample the wares so many others obviously had...

From there we ambled down Grafton Street to the entrance of Trinity College Dublin, one of the oldest universities in Europe. Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth, its graduates include Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker (Dracula), Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, and Edmund Burke. The University library houses the famed Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels in Latin created by Celtic Monks around 800 A.D. and widely considered Ireland's finest national treasure. We toyed with the idea of going in to see the Book, but it was something like 20 E to get in, so we passed and just walked aournd the campus proper for a few minutes admiring the cobbled walks and classic architecture.

From the College we made our way down Kildare Street, and then via Molesworth and Dukes Streets back over to Grafton and the heart of a shopping district where the streets were jammed with lunchtime crowds enjoying a rain-free morning.

From Grafton, we cut through St. Stephen's Green, a formerly private park now open to the public, enjoying the walk along the lake, with it's various birds and statues. including 'The Fates,' a gift from the German people to the Irish for their help rebuilding after World War II. Then it was down Leesone Street, and across the remnants of Dublin's Grand canal to the hotel and a quick refresh before picking up the Tour at 1 pm.

Our group met in the lobby promptly at 1. We couldn't tell if any of the people were really part of our group until we walked up and introduced ourselves to the tour guide whom we had happened across earlier in the day. As soon as we moved forward, the ice was apparently broken and all of these people suddenly walked up behind us and signed in. Pretty funny. Our group was 23 strong... All Brits, Aussies, Kiwis and Americans. The best part of it was... we had a big tour bus all to ourselves!

The afternoon's agenda called for a bus tour of Dublin, much like we'd been doing on our own for the past day and a half, only this time with a proper guide, which filled in much of the gaps in our tour-bus knowledge. One stop was in an area of town with a large sample of Georgian doors, left over from the gentry influx of the late 1800's. The guide said the doors were painted different colors (reds, blacks, blues, whites, etc.) because all the house fronts were exactly the same and the only way drunken men could find their way home after a night of socializing in the pubs was if the doors were different colors (I suppose an upset wife could really cause some mischief with a quick brush and can of paint...). Another stop was the statue of Oscar Wilde... a favorite native son of Dublin. I'm not really up on his works, but apparently he was the Dean Martin/Will Rogers of his day, and with a very open and uninhibited lifestyle, quite the social rebel.

One of the 'new' areas of town the bus took us to was down by the waterfront which includes the new financial district. Apparently Ireland experienced a huge economic boom in the 90s and early 2000's... with multinational financial organizations setting up shop in Dublin. Lots of neat new architecture mingled with the working river and port areas, making it a very eclectic area to tour. We stopped at the Famine memorial and had a nice discussion of the events and how it effected life in 19th Century Ireland, including the mass exodus of it's residents. The memorial was quite simple and very moving, and definitely one of my favorite experiences so far.

The last event of the bus ride was a tour of Dublin Castle, the location of all 'official' government events. It was rebuilt in the 19th Century after a fire, and reminds me a lot of the French palace at Versailles, which apparently was a huge influence in Georgian England and it's territories. Huge rooms, tall ceilings, and lots of flags and statues. No one lives there anymore, but anytime there's a visiting head of state, that is the place they hold the dinners and reception.

At six, we met down in the lobby of the hotel once again, and boarded our bus for a short drive up into the Hills to the west of Dublin for an Irish dinner and folk music experience at a place called the Merry Poughman. Dinner was lamb or chicken and came with a pint of your choice. Having sampled the Guinness already, I went for Smithwicks, which immediately became my new favorite. As dinner was finishing up, the three owners of the bar came out, and taking up instruments, treated us to a couple sets of Irish folk music. There was plenty of clapping and rousing choruses from an appreciative and well-lubricated audience! To top the evening off, we were treated to Irish step dancing by three girls and a guy, all decked out in costume and tap shoes. They put on quite a show and concluded to a standing ovation by the entire house.

The trip back to our hotel was dark (not many street lights along the winding, hilly roads) and quiet. For many of us, it had been a long day, including trips from half-way around the world. Laura and I probably had the easiest time of it, having arrived a day early, but jet-lag knows no boundaries, so we found our bed with much gratitude and anticipation: tomorrow we head cross-country to Blarney Castle and Kilarney.