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 - 45 minutes of walking. Fortress Guinness is the furthest (except for Phoenix Park), but I never went there.
River Liffey runs through the middle of the City, making basic orientation 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 to back away from being hit by a fast moving scooter in the bike lane, 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. I never figured that one out.
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.
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 buildings abandoned long ago, never likely to be renovated or occupied again. They 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 and Ireland as much as we could on foot - came to fruition.
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Back home food note - if I write about food at hotels where I stayed, it is because I was trying to maintain a mostly vegetarian diet while on the trip, and selected hotels based on location + menu.
Many hotels have a Superfood salad w/mixed greens, quinoa, and various vegetables. And soups in Ireland are amazingly good and actually have real vegetables !! The hotel restaurants all 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 having extra mushrooms, beans & cooked tomato. (There are few things in the world better for health & longevity than mushrooms & beans.)
The only exception 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 (4 types) and veggies, and no potato, and was probably the best fish chowder I've ever had.
About Irish (and UK) scones - in 18 days on the road I had 16 superb scones, most with clotted cream or butter and jam, along with a dark roast 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. Not bad after having 16 scones; otherwise I stuck with the rest of my 95% vegetarian diet.
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 6 am, I wanted 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 young woman kitchen helper soon arrived. A woman customer followed and also sat with coffee, awaiting the scone delivery.
Outside it was still dark and no traffic sat all was on the main road in & out of town, just beyond the entrance. I could hear the sound of a river under the ancient stone bridge next door. At one point the two women working in the small kitchen and the customer were quietly singing along with a pop song on the radio. It was a charming small-town scene !
Then the scone man arrived, with a helper, both receiving a hearty welcome and soon enough four (Saturday) day shift workers sat to chat & eat, while the solo woman customer drove away. They immediately reveled in the latest gossip, and it was great to hear the local dialect, and the just-baked berry scone was a treat.
It was still dark when I left. It was also cold & lightly raining. On the short walk back to the Hotel, it was wonderful to see a busy small town like Kenmare, with it's near-constant crush of cars.....completely asleep. (The two main in & out streets are Hwy 72, the Ring of Kerry road and the way to Kilarney.
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