In Dublin's Fair City

We arrived in Dublin around noon on Tuesday (Aer Lingus jet from London was more comfortable than British Air, by far!).  I faced my first culture shock, the Hertz car a VW Golf with manual transmission, steering wheel on the right, driving on the left.  I know one reason my sister Barbara likes to travel with me is that I drive and she does not.  I thought, after San José, Costa Rica, how could this not be a piece of cake?  Oh, right…roundabouts!

I will spare you the trauma of our drive to the center of Dublin from the airport, the squeezing through narrow lanes and parked cars and, God forgive me, Irish drivers.  I will send a thank you to the lovely Garda (police) near our hotel, seven of whom stopped traffic so I could make a U-turn ("Can I do that?", I asked.  "No worries, we'll help you.")  Anyway, I don't recommend driving and shifting in Ireland, mostly because you don't get to look at the scenery at all, what with the white-knuckled grip on the wheel, the passenger shouting about how close you are to killing her, etc.  Next time we go there I think we will do what the Irish do and take buses and trains which are ubiquitous and cheap!


Dublin (Baile Átha Cliath in Irish) is an ancient city whose Irish name Dubhlinn means "black pool".  The modern city population as about 1,112,000 and it is home to the Irish parliament, Trinity University, two cathedrals and a castle, as well as Phoenix Park the largest city park in Europe.  Originally founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island's principal city following the Norman invasion.  The antiquity of Ireland is mind-boggling and reminders of it's past are everywhere.  There have been people in Ireland since 9,000 B.C., 2,000 years after the last Ice Age there.  Current speculation is that these inhabitants traveled up the west coast from what is now Spain to what is now County Kerry in the south west of Ireland.  More about all this later.

We arrived at our hotel The O'Callaghan Mont Clare by Merrion Park and Trinity College.  Here's Hugh, one of the many friendly faces we met.  Our hotels could not have been more perfect.  They were all quaint, clean, convenient and comfortable.  Barbara made the arrangements through Exploring Vacations  who booked the car and the hotels, gave us travel tips and left us to our own schedule after that.

We set out to walk around the neighborhood.  Let me first say, I think we brought good luck (maybe from an Irish forebear O'Hara from County Cork?) because we had spectacular weather for our whole trip.  Mild and mostly sunny ranging from 45° to 65°, with only two cloudy and minimally rainy days.  Alas, we were the only ones strolling, everyone else was barreling along and we had to take care not to be knocked down. This is a really busy, diverse, upbeat city, very diverse. Every conceivable kind of food, big beautiful parks and squares, old alleys, Georgian architecture.  My son Anthony, an Uilleann bagpipe player (see below) who has made a couple of trips to Ireland, warned us we would not find enough vegetables and to watch out for scurvy.  Well, I think Ireland must have made progress since he was here ad fruits and vegetables were everywhere, including one outdoor cafe where we ordered coffee, tea and sides or sautéed spinach and fried pasta.  How civilized is that?

Well, I think Ireland must have made progress since he was here and fruits and vegetables were everywhere, including one outdoor cafe where we ordered coffee, tea and sides or sautéed spinach and fried pasta.  How civilized is that?

A note about coffee:  Cafe Americano is strong and black, almost esspresso, with creamy froth and delicious!  My sister (the main coffee drinker) was pleasantly surprised at how good the coffee was in general.

We were a bit jet-lagged so after walking, shopping, dodging the rushing crowd of Dubliners-on-a-mission, we decided to head for a pub we passed heading back to our hotel.  This place was fairly typical of the bigger pubs we saw on our trip with a mix of young and old, Irish, Americans, eastern Europeans, college students and professionals.  It was noisy and fun with great service and, like every place we ate over 12 days, nobody was rushing us to leave.  In fact the reverse: we had to ask for the bill every time.

The food was great, again pretty typical of pub food:  Irish stew with lamb and bangers and mash.  I know I should not even be allowed into Ireland as I don't like whiskey or beer, but my sister did the honors with Jameson's and Guinness stout while I had the first of many fine local hard ciders.

We dragged ourselves back to sleep in our cosy room with the window wide open (no bugs that we could discern in Ireland), listening to the busy street sounds.  A perfect first day.

Next up:  Oscar Wilde!  Kilmainham Gaol!