Ireland '23 - epilogue
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Part one - Dublin is a surprisingly small City, and very walk-able. There's no better way to get oriented to the neighborhoods, and, it only takes a few days. From where I stayed, the main Dublin destinations were within 15 minutes of walking. Fortress Guinness is the furthest (except for Phoenix Park) was about a 45 minute walk, but I never went there.
The Liffey runs through the middle of the City, making walking navigation simple. LUAS trams are a great way to get around, although I only rode it once, between Heuston R.R. Station and Trinity College, on my second morning there.
Walking notes - you'll notice that e-bikes & e-scooters approach quickly, and silently, usually in the dedicated bike lanes next to the sidewalk. Typically the drivers don't wear helmets, are in dark clothing, and have no headlights. None of them are licensed, or certified as safe drivers, yet they have the legal ROW, and you have to watch out for them, and not get hit. I had a close call within the first 10 minutes of walking.
Bikes & e-scooters often run yellow & red pedestrian lights, or yellow & red traffic lights, and pedestrians jay-walk, especially where traffic volume is low. But locals know the streets and the rhythm of the traffic lights, while we visitors really have no clue.....
Visitors tend to stop & wait for the green walking man symbol, while locals on foot or wheels flow around you (like water) and keep going, even when the walking men turn yellow or even red.
Decades ago, the City painted "look left" or "look right" on the ground, at every intersection, no doubt for Americans, and though the letters are fading, I found them helpful.
Side note - asking a Dublin cabbie for their opinion about e-bikes & scooters is a surefire way to strike up an entertaining conversation. On a cab from Heuston Station to Camden Court, the Nigerian driver showed me his continuously operating videocam (very wide-angle) to use as Court evidence, as demanded by the lawyers, because bike/cab collusions are so complicated.
Our cabbie on the way to DUB for flights home, told of seeing 3 or 4 kids on the same scooter going to work in the industrial district, at all hours of the day and night.
Part Two - Cultural notes
Dublin is becoming a multi-ethnic City, and there is a general atmosphere of positivity everywhere you go. When out walking people are polite and locals are unfailingly helpful. The variety of languages you hear just about anywhere is incredible. (I admit I stayed 'on the tourist track' on this trip.)
Part Three - Final walking in Dublin comment - City aesthetics ?
Now that I know Dublin better, I have to admit it can be a visually drab looking place (modern buildings excepted), and green spaces are rare, as are tree-lined streets. On so many downtown streets you see so many buildings abandoned long ago, not likely to be renovated or occupied again. These are sometimes covered with mean graffiti, innovative street art, or City-funded murals, but these only distract from and do not hide an underlying look of decay. I purposely did not take photos of the run-down aspects of Dublin.
In retrospect, I am glad we stayed in the Camden/Harcourt area because we were close to three beautiful parks, and, all of the main Dublin destinations were an easy walk to.
This is a good place to mention that the pre-trip plan that Doris and Mary and I made - to tour Dublin as much as we could on foot - came to fruition.
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Food note - if I write about food at hotels where I stayed, it is because I wanted to maintain a mostly vegetarian diet on this trip, and selected the hotels based on location and menu. It was easy to do so.
Many hotels have a Superfood salad w/mixed greens, quinoa, and various vegetables. Soups in Ireland are amazingly good. All hotel restaurants had side dishes to augment, like say broccolini or mixed vegetables.
I had an egg for breakfast every day but no meat other than that, and I enjoyed mushrooms/beans/cooked tomato.
The only exception as regards meat at lunch or dinner was the amazing fish chowder appetizer at Knights Town, on Valentia Island. I thought it would be overloaded with potato but it was only fish and veggies, perfect.
Scones - in 18 days I had 16 superb scones, most with clotted cream or butter and jam, with coffee. But since I ate healthy otherwise, and, we did a lot of walking, once home I only weighed one pound more then when I left.
Scone story - one week into the trip, I was at a hotel in Kenmare & went to sleep early on Friday, and was awake by 5 am on Saturday. I had some Barry's Tea but at at 6 I wanted some coffee & got online to look for local coffee shops. Most of them didn't open before 9 am.
One small shop, only 2 blocks away, was supposed to open at 7 am but I arrived early & the proprietor said she often opens at 6:30 am and kindly invited me in, saying 'fresh scones would be here in 15 minutes'. I planted myself with a coffee and looked at a local paper. A younger woman helper soon arrived. A woman customer followed and also sat with coffee awaiting the scone delivery.
It was still dark out and there was no traffic on the main road, just outside. I could hear the sound of a river under the ancient bridge, just outside. At one point the two women working in the small kitchen and the customer were all singing along with a pop song on the radio.
It was still dark when the scone man arrived, receiving a hearty welcome and his coffee and some b'fast was ready and three workers sat to chat & eat, and the woman customer drove away. They immediately reveled in the latest gossip about who knows ?
I felt fortunate to be able to enjoy such a simple setting and to just hear some conversations. It was still dark when I left.
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