Sunday, May 8, 2024

We got up, had breakfast, and packed up to go to Dublin. We had been planning to take the train to Heuston station and then a cab to our rental but Google told us there was a bus that went right from Bray to the street our rental was on so we took that instead. It was a pretty long bus ride with lots of stops but still probably more efficient. We got to our place, a very nice Victorian townhouse. We chatted with the owner for a while but Charlotte was getting restless as she didn’t want to miss her train to Cork. So we went to have lunch at a nice Italian restaurant close by but after we got seated the waiter was nowhere to be found. Like 20 minutes later not to be found. Despairing of getting food for Charlotte in time, we went instead to a nearby Falafel restaurant for takeaway. Okay, so I suppose technically it was falafel but god it was awful. Anyhow, Charlotte and Genevieve left for the station and Mark and I settled into the very nice place. Charlotte did get to the station in plenty of time and Genevieve switched out her stuff from her apartment to stay with us for the week. I went to the store to get the basics and it was described as “in a bad area” but it absolutely was not just full of young people from other countries. Like many young people from many other countries.

Genevieve arrived back and was very pleased that we’d assigned her the largest room. That night for dinner we went to the Port House tapas bar which was mostly fine except for the paella which was more like undercooked Rice a Roni with peas in it. Ick. We walked around Temple Bar a bit then returned to our very nice rental.

Monday, May 10, 2024

We got up early (for us) to tour the Jeanie Johnston, a replica of a repurposed cargo ship that was used to take people to the Americas (Canada mostly). That was pretty interesting and they chose to rebuild the Jeanie Johnston because the owner was better than most and nobody on his ship ever died during the crossing. After the tour we ditched Mark to go to the National Gallery and have lunch and Genevieve and I headed to St. Stephen’s Green to go on the Tea Bus! We were joined by Genevieve’s boyfriend’s mom Eileen which was very nice. The tea bus had a really nice tea and no, they did not give us a china pot of tea to try to manage on a moving bus. We got very sensible reusable cups with lids and recessed cup holders. It was a nice little tour, the service was great, the tour guide was great and just a very nice activity all the way around. We took the Luas back to the townhouse, hung out for a while, and then went to dinner at Dolally with Genevieve’s roommate Roshni. Genevieve and I had gone there when I moved her in in September. They make a really yummy burrata chaat and of course I love saag paneer so you can’t go wrong. Mark had to be back at the townhome for a call so he’d already left by Uber, and Genevieve and I took the Luas back to our place.

Tuesday, May 11, 2024

Today was our day to (revisit) the Book of Kells and for Mark to get a personalized tour of Trinity. They realized that storing the book collection in the old library wasn’t the best place to keep old books so they’re taking them all out and the library looks sad. To make up for it, they’ve opened up a multimedia event called the Book of Kells experience in a red cube in the middle of campus. One thing you can say about Ireland is they love a good multimedia presentation. This one featured talking statues and flying books. And of course the gift shop. We walked around a bit and then walked with Genevieve to her building and she went off to class. Mark and I had lunch at a salad restaurant and went to a fabric store to get leather repair glue for a thrifted jacket Charlotte had found in Bray, and what should be right there but a liquor store. We went in and Mark got a gift pack of Lamby Island whiskey because they had a cute puffin on the bottle and the glasses. We then headed to the Little Museum. Now Genevieve and I had toured 14 Henrietta Street in September, and while I appreciated the history and seeing the building as it was when it was a tenement, it was also nice seeing a grand townhouse in a more pristine condition. The guide was super funny and informative and Mark lost himself in the U2 room until I dragged him out (his obsession proved fortuitous a few weeks later when he correctly answered the U2 question at trivia!).  We then went to the National History Museum of Archeology so Mark could see the bog bodies and I discovered that the bog clothing I so enjoyed when we visited this museum when the kids were little was not off exhibit, just merely upstairs. So that was nice.

We returned back to our place so Mark could work and Genevieve and I and Roshni could go to the Jamieson Distillery cocktail-making class. As you can imagine, this was a lot of fun! Three cocktails plus a pitcher to finish up the visit. We sat in their bar for maybe an hour talking with the other people from the class, including this one 21-year-old from Newfoundland who was in Dublin for two days because he’s a flight attendant. Crazy, he looked like a kid for sure. We noticed the workers were trying to close up so we wrapped it up and went to meet Mark and Gavin at the Fayouz Restaurant. It was super fun for a drunk me to keep up with two 20-somethings on the mad walk to the restaurant but we all made it. Mark and Gavin were already there and it didn’t look too awkward (this was the first time we met Gavin). It was a good thing that we didn’t want anything to drink because like a proper Middle Eastern restaurant, no alcohol was served. The food was really good, and after dinner we returned to our townhouse by Uber.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Genevieve got up nice and early and went to class. Mark and I went to a nice breakfast at Lovinspoon close to our townhome and then walked around the neighborhood a bit. We found the Garden of Remembrance which was a pretty nice (but not very useful) park. We went to meet Genevieve at Trinity and then she and I went to Dublinia while Mark went to a different museum and then back to the townhome to work. Dublinia is clearly geared towards children but it’s a pretty good museum that shows what Dublin was like in different eras. I always love a good recreation tableau. And of course lots of opportunities for photos, like here, here, here and here. We walked back to our place through Dublin castle, getting a bit lost when we thought we’d have to go through an office building to get out of a square but we eventually made it. We headed out to an early dinner to meet our neighbor, Ethan, who was also in school at Trinity at the Fish Shop, an uber-trendy restaurant that required a reservation weeks in advance. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos, but the food was really good but the restaurant was tiny! We ate at a narrow counter along the side wall. Said goodbye to Ethan and went to the corner where there was a nice beer bar, Fidelity bar. Gavin showed up and I went back to the townhome to get Mark who was now done with work and needed dinner of his own. Nearly got hit by a double-decker bus that took a corner really fast but I lived to tell the tale.  Mark and I then walked to The Church Restaurant which we had seen on Sunday but they wouldn’t let us look inside unless we had a reservation. The building is a 300-year-old restored church, and they had some pretty good food, nice drinks and Irish dancing which was cool. Because I’d already had one dinner I just had potato leek soup which was green (unexpected) but tasted fine. And back to our place…

Thursday, March 14, 2024

This morning was our 1915 walking tour, while Genevieve had class. We arrived at the designated bar and met up with our group and we could tell right away when our tour guide brought out his guitar that it wasn’t going to go well. He was very full of dates and names of people but told the events out of order and also lacked context. And he sang one more time on the tour too. Just very boring and if the group had been any bigger we would have just slipped out but it was small so we couldn’t. Genevieve wanted to meet me to go shopping so Mark went back to the townhouse to work and I walked around the Temple Bar area for a while before I headed to Trinity. I met Genevieve in her classroom building and then we walked to the coffee shop for a light lunch and then around to various stores where we got her a really cute suit and dress from & Other Stories, as well as a zip-up sweater (I got one of those too) from Mark’s and Spencer. We took a bus to Lottie’s where we met up with Mark and had a really nice dinner in a different area of town. Mark took an Uber back to the Airbnb for a work meeting and thankfully took the shopping bags back with him so we could go on to the comedy club In Stitches unencumbered. Genevieve was a bit nervous because there were only 20 chairs set out which is a really small crowd, but it was fine. Two out of the three comedians were really funny so that was good. My phone rang during the event! I didn’t even think to silence it because who would call me but a spam call got through and it took me so long to turn it off that I thought for sure I’d get roasted but they spared me.

Friday, March 15, 2024

We all woke up in a timely fashion and Genevieve and Mark went by Uber to her apartment to drop off the luggage while I stayed back to finish cleaning up the AirBnB. They returned for me (and to return the missing key that Genevieve swore she didn’t have but actually did) and we walked to where we were meeting the Delicious Dublin Food Tour. We got there early so I got to go to Carrolls, the tourist shop, for the THIRD time because I had bought a Guinness t-shirt that turned out to be too small, so I returned it for a larger size, which was still too small, so I gave up and got some sheep slippers instead. Carrolls is a good place to go to get souvenirs as they have a good selection at reasonable prices. And their women’s t-shirts are blessedly free of glitter. For some reason, the attractions like Guinness think if something is for a woman it must have sequins…

Anyhow, the food tour was really good. The guide was nice and personable and she definitely knew her stuff. For example, when we went into Murphy’s for some ice cream she instantly recognized Sean Murphy sitting in the back trying to get some work done. So instead of getting any work done, he got to give us a presentation on the founding and philosophy of Murphy’s ice cream. He is actually from New York and started the ice cream shop because he saw an opportunity with the surplus high-quality dairy that Ireland produces. So he had to learn how to make ice cream and everything from scratch. The ice cream is quite tasty with unusual flavors all created naturally, like green tea flavor and brown bread. All of the stops on the tour were great, from scones to a pint and some Irish stew (they provided us vegetarian food which was pretty good) to the ice cream to Irish coffee… Highly recommend this tour. We returned to Genevieve’s apartment to grab our luggage and head out to the train station which is a 15-minute walk downhill from her place. Genevieve had to stay back because she was going to be unable to cut her class that afternoon. Mark and I boarded the train no problem, got our luggage stashed no problem, and settled in for the 2.5-hour train to Cork. Once we got to Cork, we decided to take a taxi to Cobh because we were lazy and we’d also missed the connecting train due to our train being delayed and we didn’t want to wait. Our taxi driver was nice and chatty and told us a lot about how Cobh used to be super sleepy and in the financial crisis of 2008 they put a lot of people up in the houses there which was kind of a bummer because at that time there was no grocery store or anything. But now there is so it’s a much easier place to be. Charlotte and her friends Oscar and Kaitlyn met us at our Airbnb, an entire four-story house with six bedrooms that used to be an actual B&B called Ardeen. At the time I booked it, I thought maybe Charlotte could rustle us up an entire posse of college kids to fill the house but alas that was not to be. Charlotte did have dinner waiting for us so that was nice and we went to a pub on the corner after dinner, which was interesting because it was basically deserted and went silent when we walked in but we stayed anyway and everyone loosened up. This is where I discovered Beamish, which I kind of like more than Guinness.

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