Sunday 22 July 2007

It's Day 2 in Dublin, Ireland, and so much for the nice weather! What started off as a seemingly partly sunny day quickly evolved into the gray drizzle to which I've grown too accustomed. Again, at least I'm prepared as opposed to the poor Southern folks on our tour who left 100-degree weather back in the States (they obviously aren't TOO torn up about it).

My initial plans to hit Newgrange today were indeed a bust as were the backup plans suggested by my concierge to visit Glendalough, an 800-year old tower in a beautiful valley surrounded by lakes (Glendalough literally means "Valley of the Two Lakes"). I made the most of it, however, and visited Malahide Castle just north of Dublin along with Howth, a coastal beach town. The castle itself was great in that so much history has been well preserved (the dining hall is actually still used today). Howth was also cute; it reminded me a lot of places like Birch Bay, Washington or White Rock, British Columbia: coastal towns with walkways facing the water and makeshift tidepools created from the low tide.

An interesting this to note of Ireland: With its economic success and booming industries, it's now become the most expensive country in the European Union...and it definitely shows. This trip to Dublin is my third, and I've noticed a lot of development both inside and outside of the city--all impressive. Grafton Street, a very popular shopping location, has boomed to include lots of nice stores and a few US chains as well. Our tour guide noted last night that some homes in Dublin city are now as expensive as homes in central London. That puts the starting price at several million Euro. The saddest part for me was wandering around last night for a place to eat and ending up in a condo-fied area just like what's happening in my home neighborhood of Capitol Hill. I'm all for economic progress, but I'll take my 1930's brick apartment anyday.

As nice as Dublin is (and it really is fun, don't get me wrong), I'm excited to get out into the rest of Ireland again. This is my parents' first trip here, and I'm hoping their experience here will be just as memorable as my own first excursion. (Mom has already mentioned to Dad that she wants to cruise to Alaska next year, so obviously the empty-nest travel bug has bitten them.)My dad is craving a pub with real live music, and my sister Bridget and I have already assured him that there will opportunities for this elsewhere besides Dublin (Bridget studied abroad in Galway for about five months back in 2004).

Other random items of note (some excerpted from an email to my friend Molly, currently traveling the European continent):

* There are 44 million sheep in Scotland...and less than 5 million people.
* There are almost as many non-Irish people in Ireland as there are natives.
* I ate haggis. It's like mushy, spicy meatloaf (at least, the one I tried was). It was actually better than the potatoes that came with it.
* I'm going to have a sick collection of travel-size British soaps and shampoos when I get home.
* My sister's 50% worldwide discount to Lush Cosmetics has involuntarily made this trip a sidetour of Lush Cosmetics stores in Great Britain and Ireland.
* The Starbucks stores here...look like the Starbucks stores at home. Big surprise. The sandwiches are a step up, though.
* Traditional tour groups don't really cater to those Americans who want to go out drinking past midnight (unless they can make it on 5 hours of sleep).
* The Irish wit is priceless. :)

The rain isn't really letting up outside, but I'm still off to get my Guinness on. It'll only be once or twice, though. I'm a cider drinker by nature when the Jack Daniels isn't available, and I can't get Bulmer's Cider back in the States. Yummy!

Slainte (cheers),
Tara