Twisted Kites

The next part.

Wednesday
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After all the walking I’ve been doing the last few days my calves feel like lead and I have an annoying blister on my foot which has been bugging me the past few days. Today I decided to take it easy…well that was the plan…there aren’t many enjoyable things to do on holiday anywhere which involve sitting down all day.
Got up about 9am after a good nights kip. Been a little bit cooler so it’s easier to sleep but still too warm to use the duvet.

1030: After breakfast I thought I would do the City Tour, which involves plenty of sitting! Shame that this morning it had started raining lightly, which is not ideal on the upper deck of an open top tour bus, but bearable. Obviously the covered front few rows were taken when I joined at stop No.1, and sitting downstairs on a tour is not right. I would have thought that the presence of rain meant the tour would be generally quiet but no, the bus soon filled right up! Bearing in mind the tours are ever 10 minutes (for Dublin Bus’s City Tour alone, there is also a City Sightseeing one which run about every 10 minutes also!) they must have carried millions of passengers today. OK maybe I exaggerated a little, but you get the idea. Needless to say, about two-thirds of the passengers got off at Guinness, and as it was early few got on, so after that was pretty quiet.
The driver does live commentary throughout, which was very interesting and light hearted, and very well done considering he has to fight the Dublin traffic at the same time.

1115: Decided to get off the tour bus at stop No.16 (it’s a hop-on hop-off service), which is for Phoenix Park. I wanted to visit the zoo while i was in Dublin as I love animals. Again, I decided to do the zoo mid-week as sunday would have probably been packed. Probably a mistake; it was full of kids on school trips! Must have been at least half a dozen groups. You can probably picture the scene, each and every viewing area where you can see the animals, kids were there. Kids were running around everywhere in between. If one group moved on, another would move in. They sometime clash - two groups getting in the way together! They are noisy (although seemed pretty much well behaved, you know what kids are like). Shouting ‘wake up hippo’ will NOT actually wake the hippo. I should not hear kids in the birdhouse - from their footsteps in the next room.
Otherwise, it was a nice zoo. Not as big as Twycross (my ‘local’) but with a good variety. There was a free-flight aviary, this would be great with more birds! They will be putting bats in here but they aren’t there yet. If they are, they were hiding. The elephants could only be seen through holes in a fence, as they are working on creating some mega elephant enclosure. There was a ‘city farm’ but most of the animals couldn’t be stroked which was a shame as most were in full size cages (Twycross has pens you can reach into!), apart from one pony. The few others which did have reachable pens, the animals weren’t close enough (can’t blame them for keeping back with all those kids around!). Plus the zoo contains the usual; tigers, lions, penguins, sea-lions, flamingoes, mara, chimps, gorillas, reptiles, zebras, giraffes, meerkats (didn’t see any, must have been hiding) and lots of duckies, etc. But no owls. Twycross has owls…
You can probably guess, the zoo involved plenty of walking! Not just that, but half way round the spitting rain turned into a downpour. All doorways and indoor areas were…yes…full of kids! So whipped out my jumper and hat (still had shorts and sandals on, always optimistic! Well, not always…) and braved it. It wasn’t all that cold so was actually quite nice and refreshing.
Had lunch at the zoo which tasted terrible, so won’t eat there again! Back to the bus stop (not actually a bus stop, but the ‘first lamp post after the roundabout’ the driver informed us as they aren’t allowed to put a sign up in Phoenix Park). A bus came straight away which was nice, although the rain had pretty much stopped by this point. Either way, back on top deck and got a covered seat. The problem wasn’t the rain now, but who’d want to sit on an already wet seat! Most people were on lower deck. Bless. By the time we were back in O’Connell Street top deck was otherwise empty. Of course I stayed on board until it returned to stop No.1 as to complete the full tour. I’d recommend the tour to any visitor.

By now the rain had started heavily again, and it was time to walk round town. My sun hat was soaked through so just chucked it in my bag and managed without. When you’ve been walking in heavy rain so much it’s running down your face it doesn’t seem to make any difference any more! Still, it was a good excuse to hit the shops, as I hadn’t really done any yet. Is it wrong that the first bit of shopping I did in Ireland was from the um most Irish of stores…um…Gap. OK it was a branch within an actual Irish department store (Arnotts) so that makes it OK. But after that I really had no excuse to go to Debenhams did I! Except they might sell umbrellas, and I needed an umbrellas, and they had umbrellas, so again, perfectly acceptable. Then went to Topman…just for a browse really, and there were two top girls on the tills…so again all is good. I did pop into a couple of other British shops but balanced it out by visiting Irish ones too. I even refrained from going to Costa and went to a proper Irish coffee shop. No, not ‘Irish coffee’. I saved the alcohol for Temple Bar a bit afterwards. Temple Bar pubs are better visited in the afternoon, as in the evenings they get totally packed. The whole area does.

I’ll probably do most of my shopping on Friday, or even at the airport on Saturday (after the weight checks!). I also wanted to return to Bray, to finish off my sunbathing. And possibly see if Katie O’Holmes is still around (ok maybe not!). But the forecast is rain for the rest of the week. But as long as I get to the beach somewhere before I go back, even if it’s chucking it down, I’ll be happy. I don’t know what it is but there’s a certain magic of being by the sea.

1930: With plenty of time left, and my foot and legs easing off to make the act of walking less of a chore, I went to Dun Laoghaire for a bit. Public transport in Dublin is great, reliable and frequent, so it’s possible to just go off somewhere without worrying about getting back. But I only stayed in DL for about an hour, as it was now getting nippy, especially that sea breeze, my jumper had been left in the hotel room a couple of hours ago (when it stopped raining and I’d got the brolly). So returned to Dublin, changed into jumper/trousers and went into town for dinner. I’m trying my hardest to leave my coat on it’s hanger for the whole week! I even carried my coat before leaving Birmingham Airport, carried it on the plane and not worn it at all since. I can carry it back then it’ll be good. Yes I am very odd!

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).

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.

Today I needed to pop into Central Six to get a pair of new work shoes, followed by a quick stop at Tesco.

Ended up with a nice pair of shoes, and also some Skechers sandals from Brantano and also a load of clothes and a few other bits from Next, TK Maxx and Sports World.

Decided, why not just make a start on my summer clothing, never know when the sunny weather might sneak up on us.

I also need to get my summer holiday sorted out; I have 9 days off commencing 9th June so need to decide where I am going and get something booked. Thinking of returning to Ireland, so many cheap flights from Birmingham Airport so there’s easy, just need to find a nice place to stay that isn’t too much (as I have to pay extra for being on my own of course, annoying). Possibly somewhere in Dublin as central as I can get, or a little bit outside but on the DART line. Or maybe a hire car, but might not actually need one as transport is quite good there.