(Mon. Dec. 21st)
The last whole day I would spend in Europe for awhile.
The first thing we saw after we left our hostel (and just made it to breakfast in a matter of minutes before they put the food away) was this truck delivering Smithwick's kegs to bars. Dublin loves its beer.
We walked towards Trinity College, cause there was quite a bit to do over that way. This is under some train tracks, and next to them is a brand new building that belongs to the school, had a rec center inside . Looked nice.
We sorta discovered this museum of art, I forget the name, but the building was pretty amazing inside! Irish architects, which surprised me. Almost all white, lots of shapes, especially cubes punched in an out of things. Holes and cuts. That was a walkway overhead.
Shapes. Cuts. Cubes. At the front is the entry way, which is sort of an entrance box plugged into the larger wall.
This was a very abstract wall, with a door in it, a window in the door, and a Tiffany in the window.
And a fantastic little toy thing that makes it fun to donate money. You can dump it from dish to dish yourself until it gets to the bottom. Neato.
Some little stairs coming out of a walkway- you can't see the stairs, but you can tell they're there from the underside. I like that, its a little visual hint. We hurried around this place because we had a lot to do, and it wasn't on the schedule, but it was awesome. So we hadta explore it real quick :)
Okay. This is funny. Now I don't know whether they sell door hardware or whether its a sex shop, but it really could be either, and that's the funny part. You hafta think they knew what they were naming it. That's hilarious.
Trinity College! Score. Looks like a cool place...its older than our entire country... Nice quad in the middle. Not that big of a school, but pretty big, surrounded by a big wall with a few entrances here and there.
Very odd Brutalist Modern concrete building, with curved glass tube windows. Cool, but weird. And certainly out of place on the campus. Its the library.
Down to Grafton St., we found hoards of people. Not surprising, since Christmas was near and all. I saw the most amazing comb over EVER, that was actually a comb forward, all the way from halfway down the back of the guy's head forward to the front of his head (so like one foot long hair) and then it was combed back over itself in the front. Unbelievable. I wish I had been able to get a picture. But how do you do that :)
There were also lots of street performers. This, for example- is a real person. Pretending to be a statue, sitting on a box, with a little case for people to give him money. The dog was real too!!! No just kidding, I don't think so.
Here's a guy who was sculpting a dog out of sand...kind of weird to see a pile of sand in the street, especially in Dublin in December. Pretty cool sculpture though!
South of Grafton was this really big, ornate building with tons of balconies all with hanging flowery things. Looked kinda neato.
Then we headed into St. Stephen's Green, Dublin's biggest and best park. Lots to do and see there. One of those big green splotches on the map that I always wanna go check out :) This guy behind Tiffany was feeding birds and ducks and geese. It was weird. She wanted a picture with him :)
This car is great. I'd never seen anything like it- hadta find out what it was. It was old. And a very nice little shape.
More walking from here to there, with our sights set on St. Patrick's. I liked these little two-story buildings too.
But these one-story ones were the best. Each one had a different colored front door. Awesome. I love color when its used like this...
This used to be a school, it had a little plaque on the front commemorating something about it. It was really old.
I loved the butterfly roofs on these buildings. You don't see that too often- I wonder why they did it like that, functionally, if there's any reason aside from a different aesthetic...
Wait a minute, you say its 7 euro to go in? Are you joking? I got into Notre Dame and St. Peter's for free...what is this?? Yeah, I think we'll pass...
At least we got to see this plaque.
Looks cool on the outside, but on the other hand, doesn't look like it'd be a lot cooler than Notre Dame or St. Peter's...c'mon Dublin. 7 euro is expensive. And Google Images confirms that its not *that* great inside.
Does look impressive though! Massive, too- like sort of pre-Classical, before they really got that figured out (yknow, using less stone and more windows).
We went from there straight to famous church #2 (which I wasn't familiar with, but friendly-looking graphic on the map made it appear to be a must-see) which was only a ten minute or so walk from St. Patrick's- and actually much more accessible, and in a more bustling area closer to the river, than St. Patrick's. On the right is the actual church, the left is...accessory building. There was an exhibition in there on the history of the Vikings. That cost money. Yeah no thanks- our last day in Europe and we're kinda ready to stop spending money.
Here, just outside the church, were the ruins of the original church on the site- Roman-era walls. Wow. They were excavated at some point.
The inside. Kinda weird that its all folding chairs, though they they were nice looking chairs. Christ Church at one time was Catholic I think but has long since been converted to.....whatever Protestant sect. I forget. The floor was SUPER ornate though- awesome.
In the basement they had a cool exhibition- lots of old church relics, and videos about the history and such, and you could see where the original crypt was.
They also had something they found in the walls at some point... Tiffany thought it looked delicious. Apparently a cat and a rodent of some sort both got stuck and mummified. Awesome. My uncle Tony found a similar looking cat in his barn years ago... The interesting thing is, there's a plaque under it that says that this cat-mouse combo was referenced in a poem...I think Oscar Wilde, but I forget. So they'd been on display for awhile. I saw where Oscar Wilde was buried, in Rome of all places...
The bathrooms in the basement. Tiniest bathroom ever. Yet it still had two faucets, because they came direct from the hot and cold water lines, below the sink, heated by that little tank. Odd.
This was the walkway connecting the church to the...everything else. These types of things always look so cool, like they'd be fun to build and use, they remind me of tree forts or something.
From Christ Church it was another short-ish walk to the next graphic on the map (and we were making quick business of seeing everything we needed to). We arrived at Dublin Castle, or at least the courtyard and elaborate entrance to it, with a lot of other buildings, and gated old arched entryways that used to be entrances to the castle wall.
The courtyard had the Christmas tree in it, as well as all these giant angels, that were part of some fundraiser thing just like the earths/cows/whatever else animal statues different US cities have painted and put all over the city. Usually different companies or people pay for the object and the opportunity to paint it, and then they all give them back to the city.
These three were placeholders, the real ones waiting to arrive- painted by Uma Thurman, The Edge (U2's guitarist, don't be daft) and some other guy who I Googled and apparently was famous in Ireland...don't remember if he was an actor or a politician or what.
We never got out there, but here's the central gardens surrounded by Dublin castle, as we were getting a tour.
The weird thing is, though it was a castle, it didn't look like it on the inside. Its where a lot of the government is, including (or especially) the Prime Minister. So it looks very traditional and ornamental inside, but not old- just fancy governmental. Look at the carpet.
This is the room in which the prime minister is inaugurated, among other things. High ceiling, paintings, flags, lots of blue- great cove lighting.
From the castle it was time to do something I was very excited about- walking down the river and seeing some of the bridges. Every street, more or less, that came up to the river had a bridge taking it across. The river wasn't very wide, so the bridges could be modest, but also were very different one to the next. It was also a lot colder by the river- windy there.
Here was the first bridge, like a butterfly (or a Calatrava bridge). Had a separate part on the side for pedestrians, which was nice.
We'd see more bridges later, don't worry. But this tall building, west by the train station, called my name- I saw it from the Guinness bar too. Looked like it needed to be seen.
And also from Guinness I noticed this scale-version-of-the-Burj-al-Arab lookin building. The Burj al Arab is the sail looking building on the water in Dubai, the world's only 7-star hotel, that has an outdoor tennis court many stories up in the air sticking out into nothing.
Back to bridges. Here was a nice traditional looking one. The water wasn't very far down, either, which made me wonder if Dublin flooded a lot...
Here was a small plaza/ice rink lined with these things that were lights/decorations, I guess. I liked the bright colors.
We made a short detour at another graphic-on-the-map, Jameson Scotch Whiskey brewery. Didn't have time (or money, or caring) for a tour, but we walked in and checked out the gift shop and entryway. Much different than Guinness :) Quite a bit smaller and less touristy. Most of their gifts were like wine goblets and golf shirts...and bottles of scotch.
This was an old whiskey cask turned into a bench. Behind it is a giant copper still, which used to be used to make whiskey.
Then we moved on. To O'Connell Street, via Mary Street (wow, I just remembered that out of nowhere) which was a smaller-scale but still very busy pedestrian shopping street. And there was a posh-looking restaurant that had this weird spiral staircase outside, with I think an elevator shaft in the middle. And red lights at the top. I don't really get it. Cool looking though.
On O'Connell Street, which was huge with a couple lanes of traffic each way, we saw this restaurant/bar, that was apparently the official meeting place of the U2 Fan Club or some such thing.
I don't remember where we finally stopped for food, but we were tired and hungry and chilly and thirsty, so it was time for dinner. Which incidentally, was an Irish breakfast for Tiffany. First she got an Irish coffee...
Her giant Irish breakfast (not really THAT delicious, but good, and a lot of food) and my fish and chips. Which were great.
Odd thing is that a few days later, I'd be having fish and chips again...in South Bend at Fiddler's Hearth. Which was weird because the experience was obviously quite a bit different and yet somewhat the same...and lent itself to thinking that I had just been sitting in a Dublin pub days before.
After dinner, which was SPENSIVE!, it was time to finish our evening and power through. We had bridges to see and U2 to stalk.
Bridge 1. Cool.
The "Wall of Fame" which was basically vinyl banners covering windows of an old empty building, across the street from our hostel. It included U2 and Sinead O'Connor. And Van Morrison.
Here's some good U2 stalking. They own this hotel. I'd been wanting to go for years. Why? Cause they owned it. That's it. I knew it was unassuming and gave no indication that they owned it, but that's fine, cause I knew.
Inside, it had a little sign saying no photographs. So obviously SOME people came trolling around here hoping to catch a glimpse of the boys from Dublin... And there was a guy at the door, asking if he could help us. So they were careful, clearly. I said we were going to the bar, of course.
The Octagon Bar. I knew about this too, even used it as a user name back in the day for something.
And it was as advertised. Octagonal. And small! I took this quick photo on our way OUT, so they wouldn't know (as MUCH) that we were stalker tourists when we walked in.
We looked at the menu, sat there for a sec, grabbed some coasters, told em we might be back later, and headed out :) A good shot across the bridge, down O'Connell Street- you can barely see the bright light at the top of the photo- that was top of some metal spire that was tall and pointy, a monument to something, pretty large and round at the bottom, shiny. Like a huge flagpole.
This bridge is inspired by the Guinness Harp, which is also the symbol of Dublin. If there ever was a Calatrava-looking bridge, this is it.
THIS was great. An old operable bridge- it had these giant rockers that would roll down as the main part of the bridge lifted up. Pretty cool contraption, with some huge gears.
That lightpost in the foreground is vertical- its the building that is leaning. I don't remember what this was, but that glass space was a big atrium. This was on the north side of the river, east towards the sea- more new architecture that direction, towards the O2 theater.
I thought this was funny because Tim Horton, as far as I know, is only in Canada (which would make sense, given the French on it) and we saw tons of them when my family went to Toronto years ago- like as many as you see McDonalds (or Subway, or Starbucks) these days. This was just a coffee cup on the sidewalk. Hmmm, Google tells me that the SPAR (grocery stores) have Tim Horton coffee/donuts kiosks. Weird.
Another awesome bridge, though this was actually across a little north branch of the river- just saw this bridge when we were walking around that glassy building. Hadta cross the bridge and check it out.
This was a glass box built basically on the sidewalk, next to the river- I think it was like a tiny danceclub/bar thing...couldn't tell, but it had a door...very mysterious.
The O2 Theater.
The O2 theater is one of the main places to play bigger shows in Dublin (unless you're U2, then you play at Croke Park, the big Dublin stadium where I think they play rugby and soccer, where ND will play Navy in 2012. I wanted to go see it later, but it was a hike south down a branch of the river, and it seemed like a dark quiet area, and it was getting cold and late at that point, and I didn't wanna get mugged either. That was after we finished all our other stuff and were ready to go back to the hostel anyway. You can see the old original building in front and on the sides, and then up top and in the back is the big glassy blue new building. Sweet.
We happened to walk by a bus station where all the double-decker buses were parked. We shoulda ridden one. Oh well.
We were still making our way east, checking out destination points, with the goal of getting to U2's recording studios, which I knew were relatively unassuming. On our approach we found this whole artsy area of theaters and stuff which looked pretty cool and quite interestingly lit.
I don't even KNOW what this was, but it looked like someone's house- but it was like on a float in the river (the south branch, I guess called the Grand Canal, going towards Croke Park) and it was just sorta docked...confused. But if its a house, its awesome. It looked awesome.
And finally- walking down some tiny quiet dark sketchy street, we got to the low shanty buildings that were the studio (apparently). Lots of graffiti from fans on the building and the buildings across the street and the fences, and the street itself even :)
The cool thing recently is that I saw "It Might Get Loud" a documentary about The Edge, Jack White (of The White Stripes) and Jimmy Page (of LED ZEPPELIN) and there was a shot of Edge playing his guitar messing with pedals, and you could see out the window the canal behind him, where we were standing taking pictures.
Here's that glassy building again from across the river. After standing by the studio for long enough wondering how I could possibly get inside or the band would suddenly come out, we decided to be on our way.
Apparently this whole little area was up and coming. New condo buildings going up too. Loved these triangle balconies supported by the column.
And like I said, when it was late enough and we were cold and all that business, it was time to go back to the hostel and get some sleep. We hadta get up at like 5 when it was still dark and dead in Dublin and catch the bus shuttle to the airport to head back to domestic soil. Which was a weird thing to think about doing.
But the weirdest thing was after getting back to New York and then I think flying to Atlanta, we got on our final flight back to Chicago, and ran into friends, who were sitting in our same row even! Kristi lived in Tiffany's old apartment before Tiffany did but Tiffany's roommates were still friends with her, so we had gotten to know her too, she was on her way back from...somewhere, with her boyfriend. It was pretty random!
The funny thing is that our adventures and plans didn't end with getting back to the US- thankfully. Or I would have gone through withdrawal. We were headed downtown, immediately with our bags, to meet up with my friend and old roommate Matt and his Japanese girlfriend Shuko, who were in Chicago for only one more day before traveling elsewhere- her first time to the US, and obviously our first time to meet her. They got engaged not too long thereafter and then married because it was much easier for her to get her VISA, and they're having the US and Japan ceremonies this fall! Crazy.
That concludes my 4 months in Europe. I'm a little sad to be done writing about it and re-looking at the pictures...
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