Dublin, Wicklow and Kilkenny, July '06

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Dublin

Dublin was great. There’s not much that was bad about Dublin, despite the river levels being low, making the Liffey a bit whiffy.

I stayed in the International Youth hostel and given a choice I wouldn’t stay there again. Not because it was unpleasant, it was just a bit of hike into town and the neighbourhood wasn’t overly savoury after dark. Still, it was fine.

The highlights of Dublin were:
*Trinity College and the Book of Kells
*The museums, where I finally saw the real items (in all the other towns and cities it’s usually just replicas that are displayed)
*The Ardagh Chalice and the Tara Brooch
*The bog men
*The Temple Bar and the best vegetarian kebabs of my life!
*The giant bronze bunnies that were all down the middle of O’Connell Street.

Trinity College was gorgeous. The stone was pale grey and the buildings were very ornate. It oozed history, having been a university since the 1500s. I watched a cricket game on the grounds with a French girl called Alexandre and felt very civilized. But the best thing about Trinity College was the Book of Kells. I’ve always really admired Irish illuminated manuscripts but I’d never seen any in the ‘flesh’. The Book of Kells is displayed under a glass case in a darkened room in Trinity College’s library. A new page is turned every day and you can view it along with 19 other people for 6 euros. It was well worth it. It was much smaller than I’d imagined. Smaller than A4. But that just made it so much more intricate. The quality was staggering. Most of the designs had been painted using a single hair. The colours were still vibrant, too, especially the reds. The rest of the library was impressive too, containing over 2 million antique books in ranks upon ranks of bookshelves.

The museums were great too, although the Natural History museum creeped me out. It really showed how bloodthirsty the Victorians were. There was every imaginable animal in there, most of the shot by joyous hunters for their trophy heads. One thing that was well worth immersing myself in all that grim death was the Giant Elk skeletons. These amazing animals became extinct shortly after the last ice age. They are absolutely huge - their antlers can stretch to 3 metres across. I came up to their bellies (or rib cages). The bones were stained almost black because they’d been preserved in the peat bogs. It’s funny how bones don’t make me feel death like stuffed animals. I’ve always liked bones.

I saw the Ardagh Chalice and the Tara Brooch at the Dublin Museum. They were even more beautiful and intricate than I’d thought from seeing them in books. Very beautiful.

The bog men were cool! There was an exhibition on at the Dublin Museum displaying three bodies of Iron Age men that had been recovered from the peat bogs. They were in various stages of repair. Two of them were just heads and torsos but one of them was almost complete. They are so well preserved that they could even analyze what their last meal had been. And they were around 3000 years old. One of them appeared to have been strangled. One of them had a strange hair-do sort of piled up on top of his head. He was estimated to be about 5’2” so they think it was to compensate for his height because it’s not known to have been a popular hair style of the times.

Dublin’s Temple Bar is perhaps it’s best known landmark. It’s a long back street of cobbled stone that is famous for its street performers and restaurant and bar scene. My first night in Dublin I saw some great fire shows and dancing down there. On all the other nights I went down there it seemed to be mostly buskers and Irish music. But it was still fun. I tried all kinds of cider at the Temple Bar; multiple types made of apples, a couple of pear ciders which were very sweet.

But, overall, I think the best part of Dublin, for me, was the mysterious and hilarious collection of giant bronze bunnies running the length of O’Connell St. There were kung-fu bunnies and acrobat bunnies, a thinker bunny and a looney tunes bunny on a giant anvil. They were great and no one I asked knew why they were there. Every day I walked the length of O’Connell street to get to town and every day I admired the bunnies. Well, they were hares, really.


Wicklow Mountains

I’d booked in with Dirty Boots Treks to do two treks while I was in Ireland. One was to Connemara, which was cancelled. The other was a two day hike in the Wicklow Mountains. We were to meet at 9am on Saturday morning for our guide to pick us up. We were an interesting mixed bunch the first day (some were only doing a day trip) from a well-off Canadian couple who were lovely people, to a mad Russian woman travelling alone who didn’t shut up the entire day! She must have been feeling lonely. There, I also met Stacey from Australia.

For the first day’s walk we headed into the mountains of Wicklow. The weather was a little damp and misty but that made the views more surreal. Everything was so green. Our guide, Tim, was amazing. He looked like a mountain man and reminded me a bit of Griff’s dad. And he knew every single plant and flower that we asked him about as well as some we wouldn’t have noticed. He showed us which berries were edible and told us about the history of the region. We walked for about 5 hours and then headed back to the van. Three of us were staying at a bed and breakfast (myself and the Canadian couple) and Stacey was staying in the village pub where we were to have dinner. The Bed and Breakfast was utter luxury. It was beautiful. As it should have been as it is apparently usually 80 euros a night! Matthew McConnaughy stayed there for six weeks while shooting a movie in the area, we were told by the proud owners. The husband was a total creep; he made sexual innuendos to both myself and the Canadian girl (despite her husband being there all the time) but he did show us a local fawn that had made itself friendly with the surrounding farmers, so I forgave him somewhat. Dinner was fun, it was just the four of us and we all got on well.

The next day we were going to Glendalough, considered to be one of the most beautiful valleys in the Wicklow mountains. I won’t argue there, it was pretty special. We were joined by Anuncia from Spain and Alexandre from France. We started at the monastery and wandered through the graveyard where I came across a tombstone that was carved on both sides, one of them upside down. Strange. From there we continued around the lake and began our climb up the side of the valley. We walked up into the surrounding hills where we had some beautiful views. It was quite a haul to the top, up 940 steps. We had lunch at the highest point in our hike in the screaming wind but with gorgeous views down to Glendalough. In the afternoon we made our way back down to the other side of the lake. We saw a big herd of wild red deer and lots of frogs, not to mention Tim’s botanical lessons. It was a gorgeous day and I kept wishing that there were more to come. I might go back one day and walk the Wicklow way which winds through the area over a week.

Powerscourt

One day trip I made from Dublin was to Powerscourt, an estate with the most magnificent gardens. I spent a whole day there, wandering around the grounds. In some ways it was similar to Blarney Castle grounds with its fairy grottos and little mazes, but it was on a much grander scale. The house was beautiful too.

Kilkenny

On my last weekend in Ireland I was originally supposed to go on the Dirty Boots trek to Connemara but since it had been cancelled I had a weekend up my sleeve. This is when I was tempted to give in to the Derry Vortex and return to Derry in the north. Instead I decided to head south to Kilkenny. I’d been told it was a lovely town that was easy for people on public transport because it’s on the main train line from Dublin. There is also a lovely restored castle to visit and some nice river walks. I only spent a day there, I visited the castle and the castle grounds (I really love expansive old gardens) and walked along the river. I also visited the Black Church, which was built in the 5th century, and climbed the lookout tower to view the whole town and the surrounding countryside. It was a beautiful town but I can’t help regretting a little bit that I didn’t go back to Derry that weekend.

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