Twisted Kites

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…!

Spent one of my long-ish breaks at work last week by going into town for some fresh air. I’ll post a few pictures over a few forthcoming entries. For today’s post, a selection of pictures from when I was in St. James’ Park. I took all the pictures in this series of entries with my Nokia N73 phone’s camera, hence why the quality might not be as good as it could.

St. James’ Park is probably one of my favourite places in London. A gorgeous place, nice lake, pretty plants, plenty of wildlife, the Palace at one end and the buildings of Whitehall at the other.

1. A view from the bridge across the lake headed towards Buckingham Palace. I really love the bold colours in this picture, especially as it’s a camera phone picture:

2. And in reverse. Taken from the pathway below the Palace area, looking back towards the bridge on the lake (sorry about the stray sunbeam!):

3. Taken on the ‘north’ side, facing Whitehall, the London Eye overlooks. The ducks are sunbathing. What a life, eh:

4. A thirsty squirrel having a drink from the lake (I wouldn’t fancy drinking it!). I managed to call this squirrel right over to me afterwards, and I was almost able to stroke it’s head but it scuttled away:

5. An inquisitive duck wondering what that strange red thing (the phone) was that was hovering over it’s head:

First time in a while that I was able to spend time away from the coach station. Was also glad that my Oyster card still worked as I hadn’t used it in so long (£1.50 for the tube on Oyster, otherwise £4 in cash!).

Writing this entry shown me what a breeze it is to upload, insert and position images with Wordpress. Lovely stuff.