Ireland

After rendez-vous-ing at the airport, we bused and walked our way to our 200+ accomodating church turned Hostel. Eric and I met Pierre, one of our 9 roommates, a frenchman who was the first of many to exhibit the French pride in their language (a cool thing) and their inabilities in others (a not so good thing. or, an american thing. But with English, other languages are much less necessary. French? eh...non.) He was very nice and played guitar for us. The first three people we met in this hostel were all playing guitars.

After claiming our energies which had flown in a little behind us, we hit up Dublin and found our first little bar to sit in. Then our second (above). Then we went on a musical pub crawl. We were in a group of 25 or so with two leaders, each traditional Irish musicians. They took us to four different bars that were reserved for us, gave us a history of Irish music, and played for us. They encouraged the sharing of musical cultures and asked if anyone wanted to sing at the end. There was a woman who sang rather awkwardly though not poorly, and a quartet of dancers from Florida. I got to sing as well which was good fun.

Eric and Guinness at Musical Pub Crawl Bar no.1.

Carolyne, myself, Eric, and our two Irish musicians. View from our hostel in Dublin.
Morning 1 in Dublin. We headed into town with Manny, a grad student from Freiburg we met in the hostel, currently teaching in London, to take a free walking tour. If you are ever in Dublin, the Free Walking Tour is the best way you can spend 1/4 of your day. Here are some picture tidbits.Architectural chaos/time capsule. The castle on the left (you can see the top of a standing tower in the back left) was built in the 12-13th century and housed the English Royalties until 1922. 5o meters or so to the right (out of picture) there is a massive wall. In the 1800's, the view from this side of the castle looked over a beautiful garden, then quickly to the extreme poverty of the Dublin People. The English administration, in charge of Dublin at the time, decided to build a wall just beyond the garden, so they wouldn't have to look at such distasteful living. This is the most literal action of turning a blind eye I've ever heard.

In the early 1990's, civic administration in Dublin needed to expand and build more office space. They chose the spot just to the left of this picture. During preliminary construction digs, a viking settler village of more than 200 houses was found. People were ecstatic about the discovery, though the civic's department didn't share the enthusiasum. Through great controversy, the department decided to push foward with building plans. They destroyed the entire preservation. There now sits several somewhat tall somewhat skinny cement and glass paneled office buildings. All that is left of the viking village is the photo above. If you look at the cement, you see a 2D stone representation of what a model viking home would look like.

yay.

Potato famine. Ireland's population today is still around 4 million less than it was the year before the famine hit, 1845. Of the 9 million in 1845, 1-1.5 million died and many more fled. The population today is a little less than 5 million. This park is strikingly similar to the Boston Public Gardens.

red men.
A common trash can tag.

Dinner at Ireland's oldest Pub.View from our hostel's front steps.

Beautiful River Liffy through Dublin. bicycle.

A Little countryside. We took a train from Dublin (east coast) to Galway (west coast).

I'm not sure how he felt about this tea at this very moment.

A few pictures from around Galway.Who needs Disneyland characters when there are mimes in the street?

Go Go Guinness.

Go Go morning tea.

On the wall at my hostel. "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go/ I travel for travel's sake/ The great affair is to move" -Robert Louis Stevenson.

Vegetarian/Vegan restaurant in Galway with tasty sheperd's pie.

Organ (and organist) at a modern cathedral to which I took a great liking in Galway.

Possibly our most peacefully content morning was spent at this cafe in the latin quater of Galway. We ordered breakfast specials and tea from this family owned establishment overlooking the water. The best part was the kids table outdoors among the big boys tables. The couple had a 2 year old son who sat outside at his own little table. He even drank from his own mini baby coffee cup filled with coffee foam.

Ireland was grand. Music breathes life into the country. It's everywhere you go; on the street corner and in restaurants and bars. Musicians gather, talk, drink beer, and play acoustic musician that is meant in no way to be a form of entertainment for the others, but only a form of enjoyment and socialization between the musicians. It's just like a family having a conversation at the table across from you, but if you want you are more welcome to pull up a chair and listen in. That's why the music in Ireland is different. It's not backround or foreground entertainment, it's just a part of the daily goings, a part of the culture comparable to sitting down for dinner with friends. It's an active symbol of the culture, of the days transpirings, and of the history.

Galway beats Dublin for a short term visit. International Cities (soon to be expanded upon in segment: Berlin) are tough to get a feel for. It's hard to find the roots, the center, the focal point. Galway is small enough to have it's own identifiable character. Though both cities are undeniable Irish and belong to the same distinct culture, in Galway this culture is less buried under the housing and passing through of dozens of different cultures. The larger the city, the larger the collection of people, the more time you need to get to the foundations, and we didn't have a lot of time. Galway showed me a little more of the Irish feel than Dublin.