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| Cheers! |
This October, I had a very special visitor. Scott came to visit and the whole time he was here, I couldn't believe he was here. Once he got off the plane and I finished poking him to make sure he was real, we crammed a lot of touristy things in that I wouldn't have done otherwise, and I got a little piece of home to hang out with across the pond. I would say I feel bad he travelled all that way, but he had a row of three seats all to himself and made a bed, so I don't feel that bad.
The first week we spent walking around Edinburgh, getting used to the time difference, and getting over a little stomach trouble. That first weekend, we travelled to Dublin. Dublin is an interesting city. Love the accents, though. The city is a mixture of old, beautiful, historic buildings and modern, heinous ones that replaced the old ones before they were protected. There's a block in the center of Dublin that used to hold the largest number of Georgian style houses. Fifteen were knocked down around the 1960s to build an office building that is now for sale. The city is filled with historic and remarkable buildings, but they are cluttered among architecture from the 60s.
We took a "Viking" tour with a vibrant Irish guide. We hopped in one of the cars, which eventually turned into a boat, threw on a couple of ponchos and viking helmets, and we were off. The tour guide frequently plagued the pedestrians of Dublin with "ARGGG"s and encouraged us to join along. I pitied those that jumped out of their boots at the sound, and admired those who yelled back, even louder. The tour guide talked about Bono ("What's the difference between Bono and God? God doesn't think he's Bono!") and Vikings, of course. Apparently they built over a lot of Viking grave sites, as well as knocking down historic architecture. I would not want those ghosts haunting my office building.
We were able to visit one of my friends from my Ultimate Frisbee team back home, Tori, who is studying at Trinity for the semester. It was so good to see a friendly face and commiserate about home (and Kenyon)-sickness. We walked around the park that I believe the Guinness family donated to Dublin. Once Scott and I parted ways with Tori, we stumbled across a man feeding blades of grass to swans. After observing for a few moments, we decided to try for ourselves. They're greedy little bastards! You don't even need to get near them, they'll paddle right on over as soon as you extend your hand. One nipped me a little and it was very shocking. I'm not sure I'll recover. It's beak was smooth but very hard and could definitely do some damage, if given the chance.
Later on, we visited the Jameson Whiskey distillery, which is a rather small operations since they moved their main operation to another city in Ireland. The Dublin location was purely a tourist attraction. They started off by showing us maybe the worst film I've ever seen in my life. The accents, the "special effects", and the acting all seemed like a joke. But they were serious. They really thought we would be impressed. This depressed me for the rest of the tour. Luckily, I'd already had a tour of a functioning distillery in the Highlands so I knew the stuff. I felt bad that Scott didn't get a real tour, though.
That evening, we went to a dinner that is one of my favorite memories from Dublin. It was a storytelling dinner. We sat down at a table of strangers that were mainly American and mainly embarrassing. One woman stole another's chicken because she didn't want the dressing. Chaos. Scott and I split a Guinness because we weren't sure if we would like it. Between the courses, the man who designed the event would get up and I would sprain my neck trying to turn around to look at him. He told us about the history of Ireland, the potato, and mostly, about storytelling. He explained that their villages were all people had, and they yearned to imagine what more there could be, as well as explain the unexplainable facts of life; why some people got rich and some got poor or why some babies died and others lived. There are fairy hills and fairy trees all over Ireland that roads have been built around to prevent upsetting the fairies. The dinner was held in the oldest pub in Ireland, which was an added bonus!
Another one of our dinners was in a beautiful restaurant on the main street of Dublin. We took a taxi to get there, and our driver might have been my favorite person we met in Dublin. I think he was a little hard of hearing, but that didn't stop him from telling us all about how he was in a clan. They reenact battles using real weapons. He didn't hesitate to tell us that he was in Braveheart (which was filmed in Ireland. The one thing I thought I knew about Scotland, a lie!). He yelled to us in the backseat all about how he spoke Gaelic. Whenever I would respond he seemed to hear me just fine, but when Scott chimed in, he suddenly couldn't hear a thing. Maybe it's more of a selective kind of hearing...
Our next and last day, Scott and I visited the Guinness Storehouse. We weren't sure what to expect, neither of us being terribly fond of Guinness, but were pleasantly surprised. It was five times the size of the Jameson Whiskey Experience. It was actually the size of a small compound. We wound our way through the five or six stories, learning about everything from where they source their water, to how they make the barrels that store and transport the beer (my favorite part). Equipped with the knowledge to start our own brewery, we ascended to the top floor to collect our pints that our admission tickets awarded us. Lo and behold, we liked them! When we got back to Edinburgh, Scott ordered a pint from the first bar we went to. The views were unbelievable. And so were the pictures on the wall of the Queen pouring herself a dram.
We had to hurry after that to make our flight, but it was a great way to end the trip. I didn't love Dublin, but I'm glad I went and learned a little about it. I'm sure there were parts I didn't see, and history I didn't hear, that I would love. If I ever go to Ireland again, it would be to explore the rural areas, which I imagine are a bit like the Highlands. It was wonderful to have Scott to travel with, though, after doing it for so long on my own. Just to have him around felt surreal.
The next post will be about our adventures in Scotland and England!
Now for pictures! (I forgot my camera so these are from my phone)
