Dublin 23 May 2015

Public transport - I'm loving it! There are trains into Dublin but at 3 times the price of the bus. The Dublin Coach - 24 hours a day, and in Kildare, on the hour every hour - 5 Euros to Dublin and 10 to the Airport. Wifi, pretty much on time and not too uncomfortable. It's about an hour to Dublin and a further half hour to the airport.

It was the day of the Referendum and it was the only topic of conversation. Everybody I spoke to was really happy that it was a Yes result. They did seem to think that they were the first country in the world that had legalised gay marriage - well, maybe they were in the northern hemisphere. Just a heads up people, same sex marriage has been legal in South Africa since the Civil Union Act was enacted on 30 November 2006. There may be all sorts of drama in SA - Eskom, Nkandla, Danny Jordaan - but there are things we can be justifiably proud of.

The bus drops you off on the outskirts of Dublin at Red Cow (love the names) and then you get the tram into town. First time in a city is always a bit of a learning curve. I wanted to get an overview of the city before deciding on where to spend time. I got off at the Museum but I should have got further into the city centre, so it was quite a long walk. It was a grey day but pleasant walking weather. I orientated myself by the river Liffey with the beautiful bridges.

Lots of interesting wall art ..

 Some very interesting shop windows ..

And shops ..

Dublin castle - too long to wait for the tour, so just an outside view ..

Some ancient wall art at the castle ..

On to Trinity College. I took a tour. Our tour guide was a Trinity graduate called David with a macabre sense of humour. He knew where all the bodies were buried, including the monks underneath the biggest Maple trees I've ever seen - which is one of the reasons they are so big, along with the underground river.

In one of the courtyards is a brass sphere. We had seen a bigger version of this artwork in the gardens of the Vatican city last year. The artist is Arnaldo Pomodoro. The outer sphere moves around the inner sphere - I really like this piece of art.

Part of the tour was entrance to the Book of Kells and to the Library, but no photographs allowed inside - I snuck one in. In fact, the Irish Museum attendants are as unpleasant as the attendants in Italy - must require a particular type of person. To cut them a bit of slack, dealing with thousands of boorish tourists everyday must be quite trying but would a smile occasionally hurt? That was pretty much the only unpleasantness I came across from anyone in Ireland, except for the occasional bus driver, who wasn't Irish. For the most part everyone I met was friendly and up for a chat.

Forging on  - Ann had given me a list of things to do and next on the list was St Stephens Green. 

Last stop of the day - Oscar Wilde's House. 

It was closed. I really would like to have gone inside but actually I was pretty relieved. It had been a long day, I'd walked and walked and I was coming down with a bug so I just headed towards the tram station and the bus home. 

Only to find that there had been an accident on the freeway and we sat in a traffic jam for 3 hours! Never so glad as to meet Belinda at Cunningham's in Kildare and have a pint.

I'd love to come back to Dublin - there is so much that I didn't see. Sometime soon ...