Twisted Kites

I know I should have posted this ages ago… but… there you go. The next two parts I’ll write now and schedule them for other times in the week, get it finished!

Monday
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0930: Needed a lie in this morning. Finding it very difficult to sleep at night, it’s so hot and humid 24 hours a day, even the open window doesn’t help. If I knew the forecast I’d have payed extra and booked a hotel with air conditioning. Went the other way up the coastline today, to Howth (rhymes with ‘both’). Nice hillside fishing village, bustling harbour. Took a walk to the top of the hill, Howth Summit. It didn’t look far but about 4o minutes later I was there. Gorgeous views but a lot of haze again. Returned along the cliff path, a bit longer but nicer than the road. Wanted to take a boat ride out to an island just off the coast, Ireland’s Eye. But where the boat leaves from, there was nothing. Never mind.

1230: Time to move on round the coast to another harbour town. 45 minutes or so on the DART straight into Dun Laoghaire (read: Dun Leary). Most people know this town as where-the-HSS-ferry-goes-from. But there’s more to it. Lots and lots of boats, an old red lightship, very long piers giving nice views out into the bay, ships passing by. Popular with fishermen sitting on the rocks. Quite a surprisingly large shopping area too considering how small the town is. Scampi and chips while sitting in the middle of the harbour watching people learning to sail (must be, a bunch of little yachts going round in circles) was lovely.

1615: Back into Dublin pausing for a break at the hotel, the had a wander round the Docklands which is being heavily regenerated. Walked through to the East bridge then back on the north side of the Liffey, past Trinity College to Pearse station.

2000: Back to the room early tonight as I’m up early tomorrow, nice to just relax for a couple of hours.

Tuesday
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0600: Up early as my mum is coming over for the day, as she’s never been to Ireland before and fancied a day out. She arrived about 0700 so took her for a quick walk around while everywhere was still shut. Then for breakky at my favourite Lemon seeing as I’d miss the hotel’s.

0900: A quick tram ride over to the Guinness Storehouse exhibition. I’ve been there a few years ago so knew what to expect. Still a great place. Worth it for the complimentary pint in the Gravity Bar alone! Spent about 3 hours in there I reckon then straight back into Connolley then onto Sandycove which lies on the southern coast of Dublin Bay. That’s the location of the James Joyce museum, housed in an old circular Martello tower. Only a little place but quite charming.

1530: Returned to central Dublin for lunch, then a couple of pints in Temple Bar. Well as it was my mum’s first time in Ireland I had to show her a traditional Irish pub, with live music. The pubs over here are great, so friendly and interesting with plenty of character and charm. Unlike the majority of English ones which are basically just places which sell booze, seen one seen them all. Then a short time shopping before seeing her off at Busaras at 8pm.

2000: Back to the room as I was kerrrnackered. Put the telly on, lay on bed, started falling asleep. Thought ’sod it’, turn telly off and actually go to sleep. was so tired I didn’t even get chance to offload the days photos from my camera and do the journal entry (I’m writing this bit at 11pm on Wednesday).

Sunday
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0930: No rush to get up as breakfast is served a little later during weekends. Was the usual continental style ‘help yourself’ affair. Anything you may want was on offer; cereals, croissants, toast, fry-up, tea, coffee, orange juice, yogurts. Needless to say I didn’t take advantage, I rarely eat much in the morning. Breakfast is served in the very ornate on-site Italian Restaurant, very pretty with natural stone, polished wood, church style interior dome things with embossed leaves. Almost like being there, especially with this glorious weather!
Yes, bright and hot again so only one thing for it.1030: Yes, to make the most of the weather while it’s here I took the short walk round the corner to the station. I was having a day at the seaside! Jumped on a DART to Bray, a lovely little seaside town. Guess I arrived there around 1115. Nice stroll around the harbour and prom, then a visit to Bray Sea Life Centre. Quite small compared to the English ones, but very good all the same. They even had an octopus in there which I swear came over to the side of it’s tank where I was standing to say hello. Also there were little jellyfish, seahorses, little sharks, tropical fish, anemones, carp, piranhas, you get the idea.
After that it was a little stroll on the beach. Mostly pebbles and shingle but a nice stretch of wet sand is where the tide was. It didn’t feel extremely hot but I could sea a fine but distinct mist forming where water was evaporating from the beach.

1230: Time to move on. I fancied doing a walk which I read about before I left home. It’s from Bray to Greystones, the next town down. The path goes around Bray Head, raising high and following the jagged coastline beyond, curving above the railway line, past rocks and ruined stone buildings, through leafy tracks, past fields, stunning views all the way and finally lowering into Greystones towards the harbour. Got to Greystones about 1430 or thereabouts. First job there was to get a train ticket back to Dublin and see how long I had there, being a Sunday service. So opted for 2 hours, ample time.

Greystones is smaller than Bray, more like a village, but a very popular place. It’s easy to see why, with long beaches and coastal rocks (hence the town’s name, from the big grey stones), small harbour, grassy cliff tops, handful of shops and stunning views. After a stroll round, had a wander on the beach but the ‘dry’ sand was actually too hot to walk on for more than a few minutes, and the paved areas weren’t much better! I’ve experienced this in the Med, but never in this corner of Europe or Britain. Needed to find a place for lunch, came across a funky little place called Nosh & Coffee, or something like that. Very modern little place, leather sofas and young staff. Very strange though when you see a Chinese looking member of staff with a strong Irish accent. They did a beautiful tomato and mozzarella panini with pesto and fair trade cappuccino and not ridiculously priced. Yum! Again, just like being in the Med!

1515: Spent the last hour or so sunbathing, found a nice grassy spot above the rocks that was fit for the job looking out to sea so I could watch the speedboats, a man showing off in his jet-ski, people on an inflatable banana and various yachts (near and distant). Also think there was a large ferry coming in to Dublin in the distance but it was very hazy and hard to tell. It was hazy when I left Birmingham yesterday and it’s still the same. Not too great when it comes to the views but nothing can be done about it!

1645: Time to get the train home. Wow, there was a stunning girl at Greystones station standing nearby on platform 1, who ate a banana and had water in a big blue bottle in a ‘Tesco Ireland’ non-disposable bag (yeah, she ain’t gonna be reading this…!). Looked quite like Katie Holmes (that alone is good enough) but with that nice Irish touch, you know, extra freckles and those deep sexy Irish eyes! I don’t know what it is, but there’s something special about Irish girls eyes that I can’t explain. Deep, piercing and sultry. I see it often round here. Has the effect of mascara and eye shadow without the need for them to even wear any, they draw you in. Sort of like Kirsten Dunst’s. Sort of. Anyway we all had to change to platform 2 and she was there again, standing close…(on purpose? Yeah right who am I kidding…) hair tied up and back, dark sunglasses, mildly tanned, simple summer wear, light blue flip flops… very cute!
The ‘Commuter’ train was packed when it arrived so it was a case of all squeeze into the doorway. She was in the same doorway, but after 10 minutes, she departed at Bray. Never mind, it’d never have worked anyway! A long distance relationship is one thing but international would be pushing it. Of course, more people got on so I was left squashed against the opposite door all the way to Dublin. Not a great thing when I’ve been walking for hours. The train had emptied by half by Tara Street but decided there was no point finding a seat for the last couple of minutes over the Liffey and round the back of my hotel into Connolley. I love long interesting walks but I don’t do it often enough, something I should start working on when I return.

I must just mention that the train ride between Connolley and Greystones is one of the nicest there is. It crosses the Liffey and passes through south-east Dublin, Grand Canal Docks and underneath part of Lansdowne Road Stadium (which I noticed is being gutted, are they knocking it down), then along the Dublin Bay coastline through places like Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire (major ferry port), Sandycove, Dalkey (where Bono has a house) and Bray, past wide beaches, beautiful buildings, tunnels and cuttings, lots of nature, harbours and old monuments. A must if you’re ever in the area. Especially on a sunny day like today.

1730: By the time the train got in I was desperate to sit down! So desperate in fact that I even took a LUAS tram to get me around the corner by one stop to the hotel. Only it’s typical that the tram was almost full so I found a strange perch-type seat, better than nothing. I was so so glad just to get into the hotel room and be able to collapse onto the bed! Went into the bathroom to freshen up, looked in the mirror…oh…is my face really that red?!! One word of advice, never judge the rate of sunburn by what’s showing on your arms! Although they have now come up rosy. I should have taken a mirror! The redness shouldn’t last too long.

1915: Back into town, now the sun is dying down (although it’s daylight until about 2230 here, and at the time of writing it’s 2308 and still a bit of light left in the sky!). Besides I had a tram ticket to make use out of and I needed food. Still nice and warm out, as it was last night (t-shirt at midnight!). Wandered nowhere in particular to find somewhere to eat, stumbled across a Persian restaurant on the edge of Temple Bar so decided that would do. Had a chicken kebab, done properly - prepared open, fresh and generous, puts chippy’s ones to shame. The place began with a Z but can’t remember what it was. Then stopped at the shop for a Club Orange (think orange Tango, but made in Ireland with 10 times more flavour and deliciousness), and finally the Haagen Dazs shop for what should have been a 3 scoop tub but the feller pretty much had it overflowing, good work on his part, so my snack-like dessert was like another full course. After that hearty kebab I was struggling…but I won. Two scoops of mango & passion fruit (the tub was almost overflowing by this point) with a scoop lemon sorbet on top. One happy customer = one returning customer!!

So strolled the Liffey while forcing that down then called it a day, back to the room about 2130. After all that walking I deserved an relaxing evening. Sh…ugar this entry is possibly longer than yesterday’s…!

Sorry it’s late…! Posting my journal from my holiday bit by bit.

Saturday
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Nice flight across, Aer Lingus are very good. Sat right at the back of the plane, by the window, accompanied by Nerina Pallot (playing on my iPod). Leather seats too! And the coffee on board was a fair price. Friendly staff, Irish of course. Captain was really good, had a relaxing Irish accent, much nicer to listen to than the English ones. Plus a near perfect landing it seemed. It was quite nice sitting at the very back row, some strange motions obviously and also interesting watching the flaps and actually seeing how they affect the ‘crafts movement.
Some nice views over Staffordshire, looking over at Runcorn, Liverpool then the Isle of Man on the right (I couldn’t what was on the left although obviously it was Cheshire and North Wales, plus some stunning views over Ireland as we approached, I need to find out where it was. Came into the far end of Dublin Airport so there was lots of fun heavy banking as it curved round. Must be something to do with wind direction and all that stuff.
Landed about 1530, my bag was on the carousel fairly quickly (every time I’m at that carousel I always think “will it arrive?!” Does everyone think that?). Quickly out of the airport, via the loo, and at the bus stop by 1600.

1615: Local bus from airport to Busaras was very quick, it only makes two stops in town so no messing about. Even better, where the bus stopped at the bus station, my hotel was almost immediately over the road! And I have a tram stop round the corner. The railway bridge runs behind, and Connolley station is a few minutes away. Nice!
Hotel Isaacs is very nice, room on 2nd floor with no view apart from a little courtyard thing and the backs of other building but that doesn’t bother me. I’m only a few minutes away from the Liffey. Checked in about 1630 I think, not too sure as I wasn’t paying that much attention. Staff seem friendly. Room has a keycard which is great. I much prefer the card locks as that fits nicely into my wallet. No physical keys that have to be lugged around or given to the desk each time, with the fear of losing it.

1700: It is hot and sunny in Dublin today. So after checking out the room, it was a quick change into t-shirt, shorts and sandals. If it’s nice weather I’m making the most! So off out again. First stop (after the information office, for some…umm…information) was a delicious crepe from Lemon, I love that little place. Then it was time for a nice stroll round the city, and the taking of some photos. Nice to see quite a few other people taking photos too, I don’t mean touristy shots but people making the most of the beauty with proper cameras.
Especially in St. Stephen’s Green, that is a lovely little park. A fraction of the size but probably more charming than the likes of London’s Royal parks. I wandered round there, went back into town, checked out the street acts around Grafton Street, of which there were plenty.
1830: Picked up a bag of chips from Dublin’s ‘oldest chipper’, which incidentally has been visited by tens of famous people, including U2 (guess they’ve been everywhere here!), Peter Andre, George Michael’s Band (I guess Georgie isn’t a chip fan) and many other names which I can’t remember, A list and Z list, mostly Irish. No doubt I’ll pop in again sometime, I’ll grab another look at the big board of fame on the wall inside. So I took my chips and went back to St. Stephen’s Green and lazed on the grass in the evening sunshine with loads of other people equally lazy (7pm, still lovely out!) munching and reading up on things to do. Beautiful.

Just that short spell a-wandering round Dublin is enough to remind me why I love the place. The people, the buzz, the colours and the charm. AKA ‘the craic’ so I believe. Hmm in that sentence TextEdit think that ‘colours’ is spelt wrong. Twice now. Anyway, where was I…

2030: Came back to my room for half hour or so for a rest, checked out the wireless networks and my room can get the hotel’s network. Well, just, signal is very low as I’m high up, but the provider’s welcome page works perfectly well so the rest of the net should be fine. Might treat myself to a voucher in the week, we’ll see. Then I started typing this ‘journal’ thing which I’ll probably post to my blog at the end. Yes I guess it will be long, so I’ll probably highlight words and phrases to break the monotony. Just to note, all times I’ve written here are approximate! There is more to life that looking at my watch in Ireland.
As for my room at Hotel Isaacs, it’s pretty nice. The view I’ve mentioned. I have two beds (shame there’s nobody to use the other one!), a TV with a nice selection of channels on some shelves, dressing table, bedside tables, stool, a couple of lamps, drawers, kettle and the usual tea making bits, iron and ironing board, a wooden thing with straps across it (no idea!), hairdryer, my own in-room safe, phone, obligatory bible (if I believed in all that) and a clothes rail.
Plus an en-suite of course, with the usual sink/shower/loo and a bath. A bath!! En-siute has a nice stone-tiled floor.
The hotel is different too, an open staircase and a lift goes up the the rooms, on my floor my room is around a few corners and up a little flight of stairs then past a mixture of normal/glass brick/open stone walls. Very unusual. There is also a cafe, a bar and a full on Italian restaurant on site.

2100: Off out again to catch the Saturday evening buzz. Got some nice pictures as it got dark. Including a drunken Irish bloke who really wanted to be in shot at the bottom of O’Connell Street. Had a nice stroll east towards the docks, about half a dozen French military boats moored up (not full frigate size ones). Returned via the Grand Canal Docks and Pearse Street back into the main area. Temple Bar was heaving. Well it is Saturday night, and full of Brits most likely.
Dublin really comes alive at night. Shops and bars open, thousands of other people all out enjoying it, lots of funky lighting, traffic traffic traffic! yes, whatever you may have heard about Dublin traffic it’s all true. About 2330 and it’s still queueing. OK not rush hour queues but, still.

2330: Back in now, call it a day. I must have walked miles today, I can sure feel it! Not a complaint, I enjoy walking. probably the best way to spend the first evening. Relaxing with a bit of Regina Spektor and a Guinness. Well I have to have Guinness on the first night in Dublin. Think I’ll ’sign out’ for today. Just realised how long these notes are…I don’t think I’ll post it to my blog in one chunk! Today’s will probably be the longest bit, seeing as its the first day. Sorry, I keep extending it…!

Just over a week before I go away. Looking forward to it
Picked up an up-to-date small guide book (as my other one hasn’t even got the Spire in it), always useful to carry around even though I’ve been a couple of times before. My flight is early afternoon on saturday, probably the best time as I can get a lie in, not rush, jump on a train and mooch over to BHX, have a shop and a drink before take-off, arrive a couple of hours after check in-time (isn’t it annoying when some places don’t have you accommodation ready in time?!) and have the evening to stroll along the Liffey and relax.

It’s almost too perfect, but the hotel seems to be right opposite the central bus station and tram stop, and a tram ride or short walk to the main railway station. Last time I stayed it was a ‘healthy stroll’ to my digs. Doubt there’ll be much of a view, but I’m only there to sleep. If I want a view I’ll go outside
Hope to get some nice photos whilst I’m over there, although I have no confidence in having good weather! But, that said, wouldn’t you rather have crappy weather in Dublin than crappy weather stuck at home? Hope it doesn’t spoil the view from the plane, I like to look down on the world! Very pretty. Although if there is no view, at least it’ll be guaranteed to be gloriously sunny above the clouds.

Will try to visit the city, coast and hills if possible, plus have at least one day ‘away’ to one of the other main cities in Ireland, not sure which yet though.

My mum said she wants to visit Dublin sometime. So I told her to come over for a day trip. So she will, has booked a trip on Eurolines (out overnight, 12 hours there, return next night, quite ideal) as she could do with a day out, she’s not been too well lately so it’ll do her good (she’s been diagnosed with a muscle problem that’s uncurable so has to take steroids for a couple of years at least). She’s never been to Ireland so it’s somewhere new for her.

Return on the following saturday, midday flight again so will make sure I can have time to spend my last Euros in the airport shops. Last time I went I got there a bit early and spent ages wandering ‘The Street‘. Not a bad thing though, I’m always one to arrive preferably early than on-time.