Dublin

A beautiful city.  Reminded me a bit of San Francisco with it’s hip Temple Bar area, huge St. Stephen’s Green park, famous Trinity College and posh bars and restaurants.  While the weather was a bit gloomy at times, the people were friendly and showed us a good time.  Nothing major happened so I will supply you with a picture montage of the city to enjoy!

Radiohead!  Look at the ominous clouds above! Yes, it did rain on us, but only for a bit.

Malahide Castle was the venue for this show…Unfortunately, the castle was completely blocked off from everyone so we couldn’t get much closer than this.

The Millennium Spire.  Erected in 2005.

Everywhere I go a city is split by a river.  In Dublin it is the River Liffey.

Buskers were abound in the shopping district on Grafton Street.

The oldest college in Ireland.  Trinity College.  This is the inside courtyard.

Saint Patrick’s Church

Christ Church

Anna and Jen at the Jame’s Gate Brewery where the lovely Guinness is brewed.

Dublin has castles too- right in the heart of the city. They aren’t quite as cool as Prague’s.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm in these posts, Dublin was a great place to be.  That is however, one of the last places I have officially planned on my trips here in Europe.  I hope next to venture north to the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.  I know.  It all sounds terribly exciting.

 

Do you speak Irish?

For the first time in 10 months, I was in an English speaking country…and it was very amusing.

Perhaps I took for granted everyday the ability to read signs, understand radio announcers, watch any television channel, and to eavesdrop while walking down the street. Living in a non-English speaking country has definitely affected my senses in that I am not bombarded by advertisements or hagglers the same why I would be back home.

But, to be in Ireland and be able to understand and communicate with everyone…it actually made me giddy. It gets tiring to have to over enunciate and speak slowly everywhere you go here. Or to speak what little Czech I know with exaggerated hand gestures and pray that my message is understood. So, it was nice to be somewhere where I could easily strike up a normal conversation without having to think much about using simple, short words.

While Gaelic is apparently still an important component of the Irish language, in fact it is the national language, street signs are usually in English and in Irish. However, 99.9% of everyone I talked to spoke only in a heavily Irish accented English.

And, as I was initially concerned that the Irish accent would be difficult even for me to understand, I think the months of working with Czechs learning English and speaking with their own accent made it easier for me to adapt to the Irish accent.

So, I chatted everyone up. The receptionist at our hostel. The servers at restaurants. The tables sitting next to us. Groups at the concert. The bus driver. The security guards. The homeless on the streets.

It was certainly fun.

 

Oi!

I was told that ‘Oi’ is not an Irish term, nonetheless I like it!

So, Dublin was amazing. The Radiohead concert was pretty sweet. The grass was green. The Guinness was flowing. The Irish spoke English.

Once again, not enough time to fully appreciate the place, culture or people, but it was enough to get a inkling of what the Irish are like. And, I think they are pretty OK.

Unfortunately, I am still without a computer. My motherboard is broken which basically means my Mac is dead. Apparently, my camera isn’t compatible with my roomies’ computers so it has been difficult to upload any pics. I am still working on it though so I will hopefully have some up here soon.

SOOOOOOON!

Under rainbows at Radiohead’s In Rainbows concert.  Dublin, Ireland.

Oh, and shortly after…we went looking for the infamous pot of gold.  No luck however.

 

Addicted to traveling

I recently started reading some books by Paulo Coelho and came across this passage in The Pilgrimage that perfectly sums up why I have taken every opportunity to travel as much as I can while living in Prague.

In case it wasn’t obvious, that is.

I am off to Dublin to experience a bit of the Irish life. How weird it will be to be in an English speaking country…

:::

“When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don’t even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in difficult situations. And you accept any small favor from the gods with great delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life.

At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them, and you feel happy to be alive.”

 

Look what I got in the mail today