Dublin
Now this is an interesting and pretty city!
Belfast had nothing going for it. Unfortunate that the ferry and road entrances to the city were through commercial areas so it looked messy and most unattractive. There were a few things of interest about, but i didn\’t see any of them.
Dublin – well feels exciting. Just like Sydney in that it is filled with other nationalities – went into Burger King and serving was Eva, Fei and Liang. The centre of the city where the bus comes in and then walking along to the hostel was westie looking, and remarkably few heavier people. But lots of different languages and people. One street paper seller advised me to keep a hand on my bag. I attach the camera and my purse to and inside my shoulder bag.
The streets are wide, there are trams, double decker buses which is the UK and old UK style, and even though the rain / mist is falling, I enjoy the place. Was a bit put out by the hostel\’s directions and thought maybe I booked the wrong place, but inside it is very clean, ordered and organised – a surprise. Right near a pub though and from what I hear Fri and Sat nights are noisy. Well just about anywhere in the UK, no wonder they are like what they are around Sydney. A lot of the hostels I looked at were already unavailable and I had decided to always have at least the first night\’s accom booked which makes it so much easier hitting a new town. But I spend a lot of time checking out banks, inet cafes, and reading on what to do while there. So am thinking I may pay for a 3 hour bus tour of surrounding areas for a change. Usually just do the walking thang, or public transport thang, which i can still do here with special passes.
The people are friendly, most helpful, in most cases altho there is a system in a lot of cities, European or other, where at these transport terminals to access the wcs one has to go down stairs and pay to enter through a turnstile. Incredibly inconvenient. Before i continue with this story let me tell you about the currency over here.
England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland use the british pound, republic the euro. Some of the southern parts of England will not accept the scottish currency, and neither will Northern Ireland eg the scottish £1 note (which i was told is pretty rare but I was actually given a note the other day but had to exchange for the £ coin instead). Then when one crosses the border (the garda hopped on the bus and checked all passports) south they do not accept any british currency at all. Thank goodness someone mentioned it. Also to withdraw out an ATM in Nthn Ireland, will give the british pound on Irish Bank notes so one takes that to the post office in Nthn Ireland to change to euros and they exchange it for no commission . However come into Dublin and one will be charged commission to exchange as the post offices here do not exchange. Complicated eh? So i have euros and british currency only in scottish notes for my return.
The other thing the Republic measures in metric! Northern Ireland in old measure of pounds, miles.
So we arrive off a 3-hour bus from Belfast and head to the wcs which only accept 20c€ so up the stairs again with all luggage to a ticket office to get some currency changed and return via the same procedure. All in all took us about 20 minutes and a lot of lugging. We = another woman and I on the same bus, she from Glasgow. This same system applied in Bucharest, Glasgow, Edinburgh and some Austrian places. \’Welcome to Our City Friends\’.
There looks to be a lot of interesting statues and buildings here, there\’s also a good tourist map with lots of detail so will set off on the morrow to learn some history. Will get back to you then.
SATURDAY – 19 January
So tomorrow is today. Quite spontaneously I decided to take a 9am bus tour out and around Dublin. Had gone to bed about 8.15p and slept until 7am. Brek here provided between 8-10am. So grabbed my bag, scarf, beanie and big jacket and camera of course, and away I went. Very fortunately the tour guide was exceptionally good, the tour limit was 14 people, think there was 15, small bus, and Paul was a storyteller. He is Irish from Dublin and gave tons of history, stories of battles (yet again), all about St Patrick and more. It eventually rained but I have got used to that now and getting a little wet on the trousers, shoes, head etc is part of the deal. People on the bus were from Hungary, USA, Finland, Australia (2), Spain and Belfast. One of the yanks was an airline pilot with US Airlines out of Philadelphia. What did I learn? St Patrick is not a canonised saint by the pope, he was not even roman catholic. He lived with his family in the UK on the coast and his family and home was raided by pirates who collared young men, took them to Ireland as slaves. He was enslaved for 7 years until he had worked out just how to get out, learned their history, their religion, their language. And so, won\’t write the story, he got free. etc. He was instrumental in bringing catholicism to Ireland. Good story there. Halloween is not an american thing but straight out of Ireland. Ireland was a country of about 200 clans/families and warring and conquering their quest – it ensured they became the boss of all the clans/families then. O\’Neills became so big and strong they actually were classed as a dynasty, followed by the O\’Connors who were only a clan. There could only be one boss. We were taken to a 5000 year old tomb at FourKnocks; a celtic cross from 900AD, and Hill of Slane, built to memory of St Patrick. Lots of stories.
SUNDAY – 20 January
Off to Cork by bus for maybe a couple of nights, then to Galway which I believe is worth every minute of a stay, then Belfast. Will get back to you soon as I find a computer.