Southern Hospitality

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This is the first time I've had more than 5 minutes at a time sitting down with an internet connection in about a week and a half. Spent the week in Dublin, and let me just say, that is more than enough time to do everything worth doing in Dublin, and then some. It's excellent as cities go, but it's just that - a city. New York, London, Atlanta, Dublin, they've all got their own tics and fingerprints, but at the end of the day, the atmosphere is the same. Many people in Dublin said it's like its own country, separate from Ireland. I managed to buy a relatively decent guitar there for pretty cheap, which I'll sell back at the end of my trip. Elizabeth Pigg, (a friend from high school for those of you who don't know her) came in on Wednesday the 3rd, having become restless and bored with summer Greensboro life. We saw Trinity College, the Guinness Storehouse, Malahide Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Jamison Distillery, and an EPIC Radiohead concert, all of which was excellent.









Of course, there was plenty of traditional music in town, but I felt that it was very much so geared to tourists. Easily the most "happening" trad. bar was Oliver St. John Gogarty's pub. That place was packed out until 2 AM every night, with traditional music going to the very end. The interesting thing was, the entire place was filled with non-Irish folks. The local crowd apparently went elsewhere, which is a shame, because there were some tremendous players there. It made me anxious to get out of the touristy area and head for a more small-town atmosphere...








...welcome to Wexford. It was about 2 and a half hours by bus through some of the most beautiful mountain/countryside I've ever seen. Ate fish and chips on the bay pier for dinner last night, it was pretty fitting. We made a new friend here at the hostel last night from Switzerland named Anita, and the three of us rented bikes today and rode the 10 km to Curracloe beach, where we spent the day just relaxing. It was a nice change of pace from walking everywhere all day long, instead we had a half hour bike ride and then 4 hours to just hang out. All of it, from the ride through farm country and the infamous rolling hills, to the blue-flag-silent-low-tide-white-sand beach made for something of a scenery overload.







Everyone says the Irish are super friendly, and I've noticed it every day, even in the big city of Dublin. There, people are willing to help if you are willing to ask. In the "deep south" of Ireland here in Wexford, however, people are just waiting to help you out, they love that you are here, they will go out of their way to tell you how to get somewhere, be it a pharmacy, bank, or secret beach off the map that they themselves have suggested to you. People keep telling us all of these great places to go in the county, how to catch the bus there, it's a bit overwhelming. They are so proud of their country, and they want very badly to show it to us.






Going to a seisun this evening (a seisun is a traditional folk jam session that takes place in a pub, or someone's house, or really just anywhere "two or more are gathered"). There are seisuns every night here in Wexford, at various pubs. Tonight is at Sky in the Ground, and Findy, Spooner, and Tommy, our new local friends are meeting us there, where we hope to learn more about their jobs as fishermen, and where I hope to sit in on a tune or two with the regulars. It's a very inviting atmosphere, you just feel instantly welcome. Right now, Elizabeth and Anita are cooking our dinner (pasta) in the hostel kitchen. I'm going to go join them. We're going to Waterford tomorrow, and then the next day Elizabeth leaves and I go.... somewhere..........
Once I figure out where that is, exactly, I'll post again, and I'll try to post more often and shorter now that I have internet again.













I have more art to talk about. Warning: this one is kind of grim. The Temple Bar District in Dublin is the pulse of the nightlife in the city. It's where a good 85% of the bars, pubs, live music, clubs, etc are located in the city, all crammed into about a square half-mile. As a result, it can be very "seedy" at night, but at the same time, you are safe within the seediness, because there's a cop hanging out on every block and everyone in the city is there all night, so there's safety in numbers. Nobody means harm to others down there generally speaking, but that's where our story begins. We passed this walled off hole where a building had once been a few times before I realized it was an art exhibit. Inside, in the holes between the foundations of this ruined building were discarded rubbish that people had thrown in over time-- broken chairs, tarps, tables, scrap wood, old shopping carts, old toys, other artifacts of someone's life. What we learned upon a closer look, however, was that this was the prime spot for heroin junkies in the city to come shoot up, right there in the middle of the busiest area of the Dublin night. This was, mind you, three blocks from my hostel. The artist who had created the exhibit on the site had erected a few basic walls to close the area off, with a door on it for people to get in still, and then pasted rifle targets all over the outside, with newspaper articles and a letter of intent, dubbing the exhibit, "The Shooting Gallery." I got chills when I read that a body had recently been found there, and that people continue to come there nightly to get their fixes. Someone had gotten in the habit of nailing the door shut to discourage further usage, but when I went by it one morning on my way to a cafe, I saw that the nails had been pulled out and the door sat half open. Through the windows of the wall you can see used needles strewn across the ground inside. I thought it was an excellent way to bring attention to a very real issue in Dublin, where there are apparently a great number of users. After seeing it, I thought about the exhibit every time I saw someone looking strung out in the city. Anyway, thought it was a great statement. Sorry to end on such a downer.

Will talk more when I get wherever I'm going next!

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