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Published: July 14th 2008
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Aurther Guinness
His chair and desk :D Back again to London! What a disaster the return trip was! On the way TO Dublin, someone jumped in front of a train, so we had to wait 2 hours or so to leave. On the way back, the train moved onto a no-power line, and we had to sit in the dark for 2 and a half hours! So we missed the tubes since they stop running at midnight or 11 on Sundays I think. But Virgin paid for taxis for us, and we made it in around 3 am London time.
So, after an all too short trip to Ireland, I am back and kicking in London. However, this week I will have a lot more free time, and intend to do some travel around London on my own, catching a few things here and there that I haven’t been able to see yet. Clara still has classes this week, and James as well, so I’ll be alone till they get out around 3:30 for Clara and 5 for James. I also have some fun stuff for Clara and I planned. She wants to see a couple of musicals, so I’m lining those up, and she wants to
go to this fashion/design museum in Victoria, which I am also penciling in. Also, as a treat to myself, I intend to lose myself in the paintings at the National Gallery half the day tomorrow. Botticelli is there, and I cannot wait.
Ireland was very interesting. I cannot say that it was the best part of the trip, but conversely I am in no way morose at our attendance. It was certainly an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. The trip was too short, and maybe that added to my discontent with it. I think, though, that the primary contributory factor is that we chose Dublin as our location to visit the 3 days. In hindsight, I think maybe choosing somewhere more rural, possibly Cork, would have been a better choice. Not to mention then we could have kissed the Blarney stone, and ran into Alana who lives there :D.
Dublin is a very large, very dirty city, one of which a lot of the other European cities seem to resemble. The time we spent in the city, walking around and seeing things was very much the feeling of ‘we could be in any city in Europe
Free Pint and the Gravity Bar
at the 360* gravity bar, on top of the Guinness storehouse and it’d be the same’. They all seem to have the same crowded shops, the same bums on the streets, and the same bad tourist trips. In the future I am going to surround trips around ‘non-tourism’ things. Also, one of the main problems is: a city like Dublin is good for only 2 things after dark; drinking and clubbing. Neither of which Clara, James or myself are that fond of. Such made it harder for us to do much at night, though we did go see Hancock in a strange theater with a cool screen/curtain thing.
Now, don’t take this wrong. I’m quite delighted we went to Dublin, and I’m very happy we saw what we did. After we toured some of the places in the city itself on Friday, I realized I needed to change our plans and get us out of the city for Saturday, instead of staying in and touring more, like was the original plan. We took a tour of the North Country and Malhaim Castle. This was probably the best part of the whole trip - and we returned via the coastline, which was quite beautiful. Check the pictures! Oh, and oddly enough,
Malahaim Castle
No pictures were allowed inside :( I’m allergic to Ireland. Had allergy fits the entire time I was there. Good thing I had benadryl. Now that I’m back in London, my sinuses have cleared and my nose has stopped itching. Funny thing…
Now, however, we have returned, and I’m very much looking forward to this week. Lots of museums and musicals planned. Then, on Friday, we leave for Paris! This, despondently, will also conclude my stay here once we return.
More to come! Cheers and Love…
-Ry
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