Jul. 15th, 2011 | 02:50 pm
I have to say, out of all the cities, Dublin was my least favourite. It has the feel of an older city, but none of the charm of Edinburgh or Glascow. It seemed like a tired place, trying to make it's way back. It was definitely louder than any other destination we had been to (I noticed the older cars/loud traffic/honking) almost instantly. Probably because all of our other locales were so much quieter. As one of my fellow passengers put it, Dublin was "just another city."
That said, I did notice one appealing element right off the bat. There was a gorgeous park filled with trees, walkways, ponds, and a gazebo. And interestingly, the park was situated on the left-hand side of the town centre. Much like we had seen in Edinburgh, so you could see the pattern. "City life blends with Nature." I believe it was St. Stephen's Green.
www.dublintourist.com/details/st_stephen
What a pretty place to have lunch. We saw many women sitting on benches, buggies beside them, having quiet time with their kids. It reminded me of how Mom and I are when we share a picnic. Handing plastic containers/fruit back and forth in practiced rhythm, anticipating each others' likes and dislikes as you peel lids back. "Do you want this?" "I have this..." as the toddler peers into the container probably wondering where the cookie monster put that big, old chocolate chip cookie.
I heard one Mum say "I love you, play well." I just love that phrase. I wonder how many Dubliners remember hearing that phrase as they raced off to play on the monkey bars? It made me wistful for my own playground days. You'll note I spelt "Mum" instead of "Mom." I'm pretty sure that is the norm for most of the area. Jeanette, care to clarify?
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/CindyM99/U
We found the required Starbucks to be able to check of the "Where's Starbuck's?" element of the day, but got the added bonus of finding a "Tim Horton's." Well, sort of. We found a convenience store that had a Timmy's sign out front. When Mom went in, she found a vending machine with a Tim's sign on it. As soon as I heard the words "milk only," I quickly lost interest. Coffee without cream just isn't coffee to me, but I appreciated the Horton's reference for that little taste of home. :-)
As I look at the pics, I have to laugh, ---Mom in front of the flowers: it took me forever to take that picture. She kept talking about a "lever" on the camera, and I had no clue what she was talking about. I kept complaining that the zoom lens was out as far as it would go but she was "far away." So, I was continually frustrated and Mom was pretty much done with my picture taking abilities. Imagine my shock when on the last day of our time onboard, I figured out where the "lever" was, and watched as it quickly moved the subject matter closer as I flicked the the tiny nub to my left. "Opps!" Honestly, I felt really bad about it because how many "shots" do you get of this kind of stuff? Not many, anyway, I may need to edit and try to move stuff in a touch, editing I think I can do, we'll see!
Anyway, we liked the differnt colour doors on the townhouses. It reminded me a bit of New York or Boston with the entrances so close to the sidewalks. Not to be outdone by other cities, Mom and I got lost here as well. What else would you expect? Mom wanted to go down by the water, we hadn't seen it on the shuttle ride in (maybe that should have been our first clue.) Anyway, we kept walking, and walking, and walking before finally giving up, having done a HUGE square and I swear having walked three blocks down, we found the "bad side of town." You could see how rundown things looked, including the people and I swear, we were ten minutes from the bustling town square you see in the pictures. We are so ridiculous. We should have stayed in the park and fed the ducks with the little boy who thought chucking bread at the birds/ducks was the greatest thing ever. LOL
The art display running along Grafton street was cool, vendors waiting patiently to sell everything from oil painting to earrings, it gave the space visual appeal and gave you an instant snapshot of the city's cultural roots.
We found Trinity College, but it wasn't until the end of our time there and now I'm bummed about that, as I read that the original book of Kells is displayed there. I have been looking through the images in that book hunting for a design I want for a ring honouring Buddy and Kasey.
Actually, a french man had led us to it earlier (when we weren't looking for it) He spent twenty minutes walking back with us when we asked where it was and as he proudly waved his hands in front of it (as if to say voila!) Mom and I groaned. We had just come from there and now we were back where we started. We didn't have the heart to tell him that it turned out we DIDN'T want the college, we had been trying to get our bearings and we mistakenly identified the college as another building. All in all, we just ended up confused, so we looked for nice spots and took pictures:-) I guess you can say that was the itinerary for the whole trip. "Hope you find what you want, but NEVER stop taking pictures." So, that's the deal here. Nothing earth shattering, just another day, another adventure, another Starbucks. Does life get better? :-)
Oh, the mall. Yes, we found the mall and more importantly, a nice ring for Cindy. It may not have a Kells book design, but hey,I like it!
What's a mall without a hat shop?
That said, I did notice one appealing element right off the bat. There was a gorgeous park filled with trees, walkways, ponds, and a gazebo. And interestingly, the park was situated on the left-hand side of the town centre. Much like we had seen in Edinburgh, so you could see the pattern. "City life blends with Nature." I believe it was St. Stephen's Green.
www.dublintourist.com/details/st_stephen
What a pretty place to have lunch. We saw many women sitting on benches, buggies beside them, having quiet time with their kids. It reminded me of how Mom and I are when we share a picnic. Handing plastic containers/fruit back and forth in practiced rhythm, anticipating each others' likes and dislikes as you peel lids back. "Do you want this?" "I have this..." as the toddler peers into the container probably wondering where the cookie monster put that big, old chocolate chip cookie.
I heard one Mum say "I love you, play well." I just love that phrase. I wonder how many Dubliners remember hearing that phrase as they raced off to play on the monkey bars? It made me wistful for my own playground days. You'll note I spelt "Mum" instead of "Mom." I'm pretty sure that is the norm for most of the area. Jeanette, care to clarify?
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v624/CindyM99/U
We found the required Starbucks to be able to check of the "Where's Starbuck's?" element of the day, but got the added bonus of finding a "Tim Horton's." Well, sort of. We found a convenience store that had a Timmy's sign out front. When Mom went in, she found a vending machine with a Tim's sign on it. As soon as I heard the words "milk only," I quickly lost interest. Coffee without cream just isn't coffee to me, but I appreciated the Horton's reference for that little taste of home. :-)
As I look at the pics, I have to laugh, ---Mom in front of the flowers: it took me forever to take that picture. She kept talking about a "lever" on the camera, and I had no clue what she was talking about. I kept complaining that the zoom lens was out as far as it would go but she was "far away." So, I was continually frustrated and Mom was pretty much done with my picture taking abilities. Imagine my shock when on the last day of our time onboard, I figured out where the "lever" was, and watched as it quickly moved the subject matter closer as I flicked the the tiny nub to my left. "Opps!" Honestly, I felt really bad about it because how many "shots" do you get of this kind of stuff? Not many, anyway, I may need to edit and try to move stuff in a touch, editing I think I can do, we'll see!
Anyway, we liked the differnt colour doors on the townhouses. It reminded me a bit of New York or Boston with the entrances so close to the sidewalks. Not to be outdone by other cities, Mom and I got lost here as well. What else would you expect? Mom wanted to go down by the water, we hadn't seen it on the shuttle ride in (maybe that should have been our first clue.) Anyway, we kept walking, and walking, and walking before finally giving up, having done a HUGE square and I swear having walked three blocks down, we found the "bad side of town." You could see how rundown things looked, including the people and I swear, we were ten minutes from the bustling town square you see in the pictures. We are so ridiculous. We should have stayed in the park and fed the ducks with the little boy who thought chucking bread at the birds/ducks was the greatest thing ever. LOL
The art display running along Grafton street was cool, vendors waiting patiently to sell everything from oil painting to earrings, it gave the space visual appeal and gave you an instant snapshot of the city's cultural roots.
We found Trinity College, but it wasn't until the end of our time there and now I'm bummed about that, as I read that the original book of Kells is displayed there. I have been looking through the images in that book hunting for a design I want for a ring honouring Buddy and Kasey.
Actually, a french man had led us to it earlier (when we weren't looking for it) He spent twenty minutes walking back with us when we asked where it was and as he proudly waved his hands in front of it (as if to say voila!) Mom and I groaned. We had just come from there and now we were back where we started. We didn't have the heart to tell him that it turned out we DIDN'T want the college, we had been trying to get our bearings and we mistakenly identified the college as another building. All in all, we just ended up confused, so we looked for nice spots and took pictures:-) I guess you can say that was the itinerary for the whole trip. "Hope you find what you want, but NEVER stop taking pictures." So, that's the deal here. Nothing earth shattering, just another day, another adventure, another Starbucks. Does life get better? :-)
Oh, the mall. Yes, we found the mall and more importantly, a nice ring for Cindy. It may not have a Kells book design, but hey,I like it!
What's a mall without a hat shop?
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