Ireland ☘️Ep.4: Dublin
Hello fellow travellers.Our Irish adventure is almost complete. This morning we drove from Galway to Dublin and closed the ring. We will spend the next two nights here in the Irish capital.
The day is still young and we will get downtown for a quick tour. Unfortunately we forgot to charge the camcorder battery last night and we have only a pocket camera with a loaded battery. We hesitated to show you just stills for the intro, but the light was good and with a little bit of Ken Burns effect in editing we will make it a little bit more bearable.
I need to give you an explanation for the irritation in my voice in the opening cue. We left Galway on a terrible rain which accompanied us the whole way. And it was only getting worse navigating the convoluted streets of Dublin.
Do you remember the song by U2 called 'Where Streets Have no Name? Well, they don't have numbers either! One 1/3 of Irish premisses have no postal identification. If you are lucky... they have a name...engraved on a really small plate!
For almost an hour we have been driving up-n-down looking for the number 88! Also the locals had the constant phrase you just passed it gal, it is behind you. After a while the rain stopped and driving very slowly with the window rolled down... we made it. A small plate, the size of a paper-sheet was indicating the hotel!
Do you see what I'm talking about?
We are strolling right now through an area of downtown located South of River Liffey called ...Portobello. Very Italian! Everything of interest is located pretty much here in walking distance. I was searching on Wikipedia about something to say regarding this area and ... it was so much ... that I'll leave to you to read about it. It is very interesting and stories are stretching over multiple centuries.
We start the next day with a touch-n-go visit to the Dublin Castle.Used first by the British , it is still a major Irish government complex today.
The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity is the oldest cathedral in Dublin, dating from 1030, founded by King Sitric Silkenbeard. After the Viking period it followed the Norman period. Names like Strongbow and Henry II are linked to the Cathedral's history. During reformation it changed the denomination to Church of Ireland.
Today it is officially the seat of both Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin but in reality the Roman Catholic Archbishop uses the St.Mary near-by as his seat. This is known as the two cathedral issue.
Things to do: visit the tomb of Strongbow, listen to the famous 19 bells ringers at 10:00 Am and 2:30 PM or attend one of organ and girls choir concerts. The master organist is named Tom Little and the Archbishop ... Michael Jackson.
Dublin is a capital with a very distinct personality. Located at the Western edge of Europe, it has Gaelic, Viking and British influences. In the 18th century it reached its peak but it was on a steady decline since because it has no major industry.It has seen waves of turbulent times but all changed around 1997 when Dublin became a Celtic Tiger city. It is a vibrant capital with a bit of charm of a small town.
After six floors of constant sampling, the 1 pint ticket feels like one drink too many. But there is elevator going down, so no worries there.
We came to the Dublin University, not to drink from the fountain of youth but to see the Book of Kells; unfortunately no luck there, the library has closed just minutes before we have arrived.
This is Alberto Pomodoro's famous sculpture Sphere Within Sphere (Sfera con sfera). Another 15 versions can be seen worldwide, from Vatican to Hakone Japan, from Tel Aviv to Tehran and from New York to Washington DC, Columbus Ohio, Berkley California and the list goes on and on.
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But wait... it is not over yet. I have a few more pictures.