Tales of push button showers, tarts and wheely luggage

“Awww the old country and the songs. The songs....they'll melt your face”- Bernard Black

As my train speeds away from a very rainy Dublin, I send you my newly formed opinions of a city and a country which until four days ago I had never visited. Flying into Ireland presents you with a beautiful vista as you fly low over beaches and countryside to land at Dublin airport- a vista I’m sure is prettier still when the country is green as it supposedly is most of the time and much less white as it is at present. My first experiences of Ireland were a mixture of entertainment at seeing a sign about vacating a seat for less mobile passengers located under a luggage rack and annoyance firstly at my having forgotten exactly where I needed to leave the bus, secondly at the fact that the windows of the bus were coated with ice and thirdly at the fact the bus driver randomly stopped (clearly not at the end of the normal journey for the route) and ordered everyone off. After the confidence I had developed in London about my ability to get around without a map, I was faced with the daunting prospect of having been plonked in a strange city without a map and no idea where I was. Thankfully I quickly spotted a sign for a Youth Hostel and the Dublin Writer’s Museum which I knew was only a few blocks from the hostel at which I was staying, and speedily found my way through the sludge/ice filled streets to my hostel. My sense of direction quickly got better and I was mapless and confident again- I was twice mistaken for a Dubliner- once by an Irish person.

Dublin International Youth Hostel was a bit on the basic side after the “conveniences” of Holland Park. They had free wi-fi (unheard at UK or Australian hostels) but it was painfully slow compared to the pay wi-fi at other hostels. The showers are all push button with a less than 20 seconds time limit so you have to do a crazy dance in order to shower while simultaneously trying to hold the button on the shower in and though the water is set at a reasonable temperature, it starts with a blast of icy water which is just what isn’t called for on a winter morning. You have to clear your own linens on departure, and on occasion the cleaning staff are over-zealous and clear it for you when you have a few days left in the hostel- thankfully the manager retrieved my towel which was stolen in a linen raid.  The breakfast is pretty basic- just toast and cereal- and you have to not just bus your tray but also to clear your cutlery into a pot of water and sort your plates and cups into piles. The heating in the hostel is weird- most of the building (an old convent school and church) is semi heated but you still are wise to wear a jacket inside, whereas the bedrooms are disgusting little saunas (sans the moisture) of death (urg the foul dry heat).  The big plus was that the creepy little basement laundry actually had a working dryer unlike Holland Park’s dead ones. If you want to stay in Dublin for a week for free, you can work as a cleaner at this hostel for 20 hours a work and get free accommodation at the hostel (there seemed to be more staff staying there than non staff).

Surprisingly clean street in the Temple Bar district of Dublin

My first stop on my first afternoon in Dublin, after the hostel, was the Dublin Writer’s Museum, which is a good little museum in a gorgeous old house- for those not in the know, Dublin was birthplace and /or hometown of Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett and George Bernard Shaw (to name some of the well known writers of the town) and is one of only four UNESCO cities of Literature in the world.  The next day I headed further afield only to realise that Dublin on a Sunday morning is a ghost town of closed shops with the occasion tourist being the only sign of life. Many years ago when shops in Australia began to open on Sundays, they were open from 12pm or 1pm until 4pm- this is still the case in Dublin and in fact some shops don’t open until 2pm. This being the case I thought well best go to church. I had to firmly convey to the guy at the door of Christ Church Cathedral that I was there for the service and not just some annoying tourist asking about a tour on a Sunday morning. The Church of Ireland service was much higher church than I’m used to back home but the cathedral is a beautiful church and there is something profound about hearing a choral church service which just isn’t conveyed in a lot of modern church music. At the end of the service, I had to stop myself laughing as I saw that the celebrant (the Dean of the cathedral) was embracing the use of the Kylie mic- just like my minister back home. After church I headed to Dublinia, a museum on Viking and Medieval Dublin- if you listen to one piece of advice from me, let it be this...unless you have children, don’t go to Dublinia (from an adult’s perspective, it is cheesy and not too enlightening. Kids would enjoy it and learn stuff though). After this I wandered the streets soaking up the vibe and found the best tart/cake shop I’ve visited in a long while (if not ever). If you are ever in Dublin, look up Queen of Tarts- awesome food and tea served in china that looks like it was stolen straight from grandma’s china cabinet. I even went back the next day and tried their coffee and found that unlike the swill that passes for coffee everywhere else in Ireland and the UK, they make a decent coffee and don’t ask if you want chocolate on your cappuccino (I’m sorry baristas of the UK and Ireland but chocolate sprinkled on the top is a core component of the cappuccino. STOP asking me about it as if it were optional). Also they have allowed me to develop an addiction to raspberry scones (super tasty, must find a recipe).

Second full day in Dublin and I was madly dashing around.  After Queens of Tarts for coffee, first stop was Trinity College where I found all the tourists in Dublin in line to see the Book of Kells. Definitely worth the visit especially as after you see the Book of Kells, which is spectacular in its own right, you go up upstairs to the Long Room of the old Trinity Library which is just a glorious space. After that to the National Gallery of Ireland which has... free admission! The collection includes a lot of Irish artists whose works I was unfamiliar with and some of which is quite beautiful. It also houses a giant collection of religiously themed Italian Renaissance art. After this bit of culture, I was cheesy tourist site bound...heading to the Guinness Storehouse which is housed in part of the Guinness factory. The cost of admission (11 euros for me as a student (in Europe part time status still nets you a discount as they don’t seem to understand the concept of part time) but I think 15 euros for others) seems a bit of rip as the displays are largely not that informative (I already knew how beer was made, thanks) though the section on Guinness advertising is quite entertaining.  BUT it isn’t that bad, the admission cost includes a pint of Guinness and a taste test of Guinness which is about a quarter of a pint (for adults in any case- there were a large number of kids there which was weird to say the least) and the big plus comes at the top of the Storehouse, which is one of the tallest building in Dublin, where there is bar surrounded on most sides by windows which afford a view of the whole of Dublin.

Tea and spinach, brie & nut tart at Queen of Tarts

After all that I feel I should convey that the euro is confusing! I’m sorry but everything is gold except the one, two and five cent coins and the two euro coin which is edged by silver but still gold in the centre. What were you thinking with that EU?

Also a few final things on Dublin, firstly if you hear the creepy rolling of luggage behind you but your luggage is at hostel/hotel, don’t be shocked. There are people with wheely luggage all over Dublin and so it develops a soundtrack of rolling luggage wheels whereever you are. Secondly, if in Dublin in the winter, don’t wear light coloured pants or shoes. Some streets are cleaned but large sections (even of main streets) are not so the ground is a mixture of dangerously slippery ice and disgustingly dirty sludge (still yet to fall on my butt but my jeans are filthy from the sludge). Thirdly, do some research on the 1916 uprising and Irish Independence before visiting Dublin- they is tonnes of stuff devoted to this and I felt I was missing out what with knowing very little about it. Finally Dublin is clearly a city teetering on the edge of recession. There may not be the Big Issue sellers of the UK or Australia but there are about four times as many beggars (of all ages but many very young or very old) all over town and many a closed and boarded up shop and house in the section my hostel was in. There is a clear need for assistance for the homeless and jobless in Dublin this winter so if you could spare a prayer for them or some money to a charity assisting with the homeless in Dublin this Christmas, you should.

Stone work at Chirst Church Cathedral

I left Dublin in the pouring rain which turned to snow and has now disappeared and the countryside heading south is gradually looking a little greener. Next stop, Cork.