Europe 2016, Part I: Dublin

Current State

I'm writing this post as I travel from Dublin to Galway on an express bus. From the Temple Bar area in Dublin (city centre / downtown), the trip takes about 2.5 hours with no stops. I've taken several buses so far, and this is the only one that hasn't been double-decker. Every time I look out a window, I'm staring into a sea of green that includes every shade imaginable. Sometimes the fields feature sheep and/or cows grazing, with the occasional house. When there are no animals or houses, it's hard to tell whether the land is owned or not. We have also passed one observable town, called Athlone, that still seems pretty small. Update: Arrived in Galway and found my second Airbnb - cute house very close to downtown. Excited to explore this area!

General Observations

• Signs are in Gaelic first, with English translation below and often in smaller letters. But, I have yet to hear anyone actually speaking Gaelic.
• Irish accents have been thicker than I expected, so I have to ask people to repeat themselves fairly often. 
• Dublin seems to be a very international city. I've heard non-Irish accents almost as often as Irish ones, even at pubs and shops. 
• The city is very friendly to pedestrians, bikes, and public transit. The city centre is also fairly compact, everything is less than a 30 minute walk, and most places are even less than that. All the public buses and tour buses are double-decker and most of them are bright yellow. A one-way bus ticket for a short ride is 2 euro. 
• Grocery stores are right in the middle of normal streets with minimal selection. Sort of a cross between a safeway and a convenience store. 
• They have this chip brand called Keough's, which has flavors like "roast beef and Irish stout" and "Shamrock and sour cream." I haven't been brave enough to try them yet, but I'm very intrigued about how they taste. 
• The cars are generally much smaller than ours, though we have many of the same brands. I think the biggest car I've seen is a Jeep. 
• Street signs are very difficult to see here! They are usually on buildings near corners, but sometimes I can't find them at all. It makes it a little difficult to walk around, but everything is so close I can usually find my way.

Getting Here

Ha'Penny walking bridge over the River Liffey

I arrived in Dublin around 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday, June 14th. I was originally supposed to fly from O'Hare to London and transfer to a Dublin-bound flight at Heathrow. Then, I got an automated call on Monday morning from American Airlines telling me that because of a delay in my first flight, I would miss my connection in London. I was automatically re-routed to a set of flights leaving at the same time and connecting in Philadelphia. After I got the call, I tried to check-in for my flight online and was denied. I assumed I had done something wrong when trying to confirm the change and got nervous. When I got to the airport, I tried checking in at a kiosk and got an error message. So, I got in line for a counter with a pit in my stomach. I was sure I had somehow messed up my flight or not gone through some international travel step. After waiting for about 20 minutes, I finally got to a counter and showed the woman the error message from the kiosk. She proceeded to check me in as normal and mentioned nothing about why I got an error. (I asked: Turned out it was just because they had to change my flight.) Phew.

My flights were both fine, though I didn't get much sleep on either. Even though my flight from Philadelphia to Dublin left at 9 pm, we were served dinner (and complimentary wine!) at the beginning so the lights were on for the first 1-2 hours of the flight. Then, they turned them back on for the last hour to serve a light breakfast and prepare for landing. All told, there were only 3-4 hours in the dark, and I never really got comfortable enough to sleep. So, when I finally got to my Airbnb (more on that later), the first thing I had to do was take a three-hour nap. 

Dublin's airport was easy to navigate and one of the emptiest airports I've ever been in (though maybe that was because I was going through the international arrivals section). I did have some trouble withdrawing money from the ATM - somehow my debit card was flagged for strange activity even though I had put in a travel notice. Luckily, AC the Homie was able to come in clutch and fix the problem for me when she got to work. I also had some US cash that I was able to exchange for Euros, which gave me enough to get a bus ticket into the city, coffee, and dinner that night. 

I got off the bus on O'Connell Street, which is a fairly busy street with lots of shops. It's not the nicest area of town, but it didn't feel unsafe. (I felt very safe the whole time I was in Dublin.) I got in about two hours before my check-in time so I wanted to get a coffee and finish my weekly assignment for my online class. I first tried a local shop called Insomnia Cafe that advertised "free power and wifi with every purchase" on its window. This turned out to be a complete lie, so I went to a Starbucks up the street. After getting my coffee, I sat down next to a German woman who I would estimate to be in her late 30s or early 40s. She started a conversation with me and seemed pretty nice, but then she started talking about the 2016 presidential election... I was treated to about 30 minutes of her telling me all her views on Obama, Trump, Clinton, and Sanders. She kept talking about which of them would or would not start a war with Russia, which seemed to be a main part of whether or not she supported them. Apparently Obama would start war with Russia, which was news to me. She also said she liked Trump because he would do what he said he would do (incidentally, this is why I do not like Trump). This was accompanied by some racist insinuations about Islamic terrorism and the recent shooting in Orlando. I kept trying to show I wasn't interested in continuing the conversation by getting out my computer and beginning my work, but she just kept talking... Altogether, very odd. She did eventually get up and wish me a good stay, leaving me to complete my coursework. 

Once I finished my work, I called an Uber using the Starbucks wifi. This did present a problem I hadn't thought of: once I stepped out of the shop, I wouldn't be able to see the car's location on the map. But, I did eventually find my driver and he was much more enjoyable to talk to than the Starbucks woman. He was an older man (maybe 55-60?) and said I was from "Troublesvania" or "Trumpsivania." I couldn't quite tell which he said because his accent was pretty thick, but he was laughing about how bizarre Trump is and how much trouble the US is in. When I told him about the German woman, he laughed and said "you think she would know a little something about fascism." We also talked a little about the Euro Cup because both Ireland and Northern Ireland have teams competing in the first round. He commented that it was a shame the two were separate and said the country needs to be reunited. There's some speculation that if Britain does vote to leave the EU, Northern Ireland would push for independence so it could reunite with the Republic of Ireland. Another funny thing my driver did: When I told him I was going to Scotland, England, and Spain, he replied, "England? Yuck. Why would you go there?"

Friendly Coleraine

After all that travel, I arrived at my Airbnb location exhausted but excited. The space was an upstairs bedroom in a cute little row house on Coleraine Street, just outside of the city centre. The hosts were a very friendly Brazilian couple named Danny and Felipe. Danny showed me around when I arrived and I met Felipe briefly that night. They have three bedrooms in their home and rent two of them through Airbnb. Danny told me they keep the rooms booked most nights and it seemed to be his primary source of income since he only works part-time. (I think Felipe worked a stable day job, because he was gone during my check-in and check-out.) They call the wifi "Friendly Coleraine," which I thought was fitting given the attitudes of the hosts. The space, location, and price were just perfect. 

How I've Spent My Time

After taking a nap on the first afternoon there, I went out to get dinner. Ireland is known for its pub
food (meats and potatoes, basically) so I looked up some nearby pubs and settled on one called the Black Sheep. It was about a 10 minute walk and it was still extremely light out when I left at 7:30 pm. I hadn't eaten since early that morning and was feeling a little nauseous, so I got the safest option on the menu: the soup of the day, carrot and coriander. It was served with soda bread and a good recommendation from the bartender, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also got a pint of the Full Sail IPA, brewed by the Galway Bay Brewing Co. (not made in Hood River, sadly), which they said was their most popular tap. It was also good, though I didn't finish it (European pints are 20oz instead of 16). The spot was busy but not too crowded, I was very pleased. On my way back, I stopped at a Centra market, which is a common grocery store chain. I bought some fruit and instant oatmeal for breakfast and used the ATM. It was very reasonably priced, though the selection was limited by the size of the store.

Grafton St. - main shopping area of Ireland.
This might actually be a side street, but the
lighting at that time of day made it difficult
to get a good picture of any of the streets.

On Wednesday, the jet lag hit hard even though I went to bed early on Tuesday night. I slept in longer than anticipated, so I didn't do quite as much as I wanted to. In the afternoon, I took the bus to College Green, a corner of Trinity College. I stopped by a tourism office to look at brochures and talk to the staff. I decided to do an evening bus tour focusing on the Easter Rising of 1916. It's the centennial this year, so there were many tributes to the Irish revolution across the city. I then walked up and down Grafton St. and its off-shoots. This is the main shopping district of Dublin and was full of both tourists and locals, judging by the accents. I bought some jewelry from a little stand on the street and had a great conversation with the guy working there - he was around my age and sometime in the past couple of years he took a road trip with some friends from Vancouver, BC to Nevada, so he had been in Oregon! We had a very interesting conversation about the difference between Irish and US policemen. Apparently, the only weapon Irish police carry is a nightstick, no guns, tasers, or even mace. The other highlight of the afternoon was shopping at a store called Pamela Scott, which was having a 70% off sale. It was a boutique-style place and had two floors. The bottom floor was entirely sale merchandise and I bought a very cute rain jacket for 40 euros (original price was 130!). I had intended to go to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, but by the time I was done with my shopping and wandering it was already well past 5 pm and the ticket counter was closed. So, I went and got a meal at a pub and watched some of the Romania vs. Switzerland Euro Cup game (match, as they call them here). 

A column in front of the General Post Office (GPO)
showing small black bullet holes from the British
firing on the rebels who held the building.

The actors of the 1916 tour outside of Dublin Castle,
which was the first building rebels tried to control
during the Easter Rising.

After that, it was time for the 1916 tour. We sat on the top floor of a double-decker bus decorated to look like a rebel hideout and were treated to the story of the Easter Rising through audio recordings of testimonies from people who lived it and two actors playing the roles of Irish Citizens Army members recounting their perspectives. We stopped at Dublin Castle, the General Post Office, and the Richmond Barracks. Dublin Castle and the GPO were both important buildings that the ICA tried to control. After seeing the bullet holes that remain on the GPO, we walked around the streets nearby and were treated to very lively retellings of how the Irish rebels escaped from the burning GPO building and hid in houses nearby as they planned further attacks. Richmond Barracks is where the British soldiers took the Irish rebels after the surrender, two of the original buildings are still standing. The most interesting thing I learned was how important women were to the rebellion. A major component of the independence movement was the idea that all Irish people would be free, not just Irish men (keep in mind that this is right in the midst of the women's suffrage movement). Women created a group called Cumann na mBan (The Irishwomen's Council) in 1914 and joined with the Irish Volunteers. They were critical to the Easter Rising, serving in many different capacities. When the ICA decided to surrender, they sent Elizabeth O'Farrell to deliver the message to the British army and she had to go back and forth to help bring the Rising to a close. Although the Easter Rising didn't lead to a fully Independent Irish Republic, it paved the way for the War of Independence that started in 1919.

Outside a house on Moore Lane held by rebels during the 
Easter rising - Moore St. was a critical site and I think this 
house is where the council eventually decided to surrender.

The insignia is at the top of what was the door to this
house is the general symbol of the Rising. Nor sure if
if was originally part of the house or added later.

Wednesday night, I walked back from the tour instead of taking the bus so that I could see more of the city. In the morning, I took the bus to the Temple Bar area and explored there before catching the coach bus to Galway. Now that I have arrived at my Galway Airbnb, I'm going to head downtown to get dinner and watch the Euros! More soon. 

Love,

Colleen