day 2

this morning we went to the national gallery of art, which was really cool. i kind of want to go back tomorrow, but there's a bunch of other stuff (i.e., irish writer's museum, james joyce museum, gallery of modern art) that takes precedence. there were basically a lot of old (pre-19th century) paintings and one or two sculptures. very few irish artists were represented, sadly. mostly i think they tried to portray each major movement in european art and kind of neglected any celtic or modern irish art, which i really would have probably learned more from. but art museums in general are euphoria-inducing, and this was no exception.

after this we attempted to find the irish music hall of fame. after about an hour of looking we were told by a man working at the address listed in the travel brochure that the place had become "something else," the nature of which he neglected to disclose. all i could see was that it had very darkly tinted windows.

we got on a bus which made a loop around the city with running commentary on historical places and interesting sights. it was informative but we were surprised to discover that we'd already been to many of the places, probably because i got us lost looking for the music hall of fame. we got off at the guinness brewery (i don't really know why, but my dad wanted to see it), where more than 40 million pints of guinness malt are shipped daily around the world to be consumed by gloomy bargoers. the tour was kind of boring and predictable, but afterwards we got to go to a room at the top of the building where there was an awesome view of dublin and the surrounding foothills (i don't think they quite qualify as mountains, even by southeastern american standards).

then we walked home. i think we'll each do different things tomorrow. my dad wants to go to a park in northwest dublin and i think my granddad probably wants to do some shopping. i'd like to visit those writer's museums and probably that modern art gallery too. i was kind of hoping to hear some good irish music here and there seems to be a pretty active music scene, especially at the clubs, but i'm not sure whether my dad will be up to accompanying me and i don't think i could get in alone (or that i would want to really). we're going to just miss a concert by ani difranco and van morrison's on tour but we won't be in any of the right places at the right times.

day 3

today we split up; my dad went way southeast to this place almost on the coast, i kind of forgot what he did, my granddad walked around for awhile north of the liffey (btw - dublin is divided by the river liffey, or the liffey river if you're american), and i visited the irish writer's museum, the gallery of modern art, and the james joyce centre.

all of these were kind of close together, north of the liffey about four blocks in a place called parnell square which is also the location of a neat theatre, the gate theatre. the writer's museum basically just had each major irish writer in order and a history of his or her life. it was pretty neat; irish writers include jonathan swift (gulliver's travels), oscar wilde (a modest proposal, the importance of being earnest), samuel beckett (waiting for godot), james joyce (ulysses), william butler yeats (the wild swans at coole), and george bernard shaw (pygmalion).

the modern art gallery was probably the coolest thing i've done so far; there was a manet that i really liked and some other great stuff but especially awesome was an exhibit on a modern irish artist, francis bacon. he had some really cool stuff there and the museum had been given his entire studio intact after his death in 1992 or so, which was neat because you could see the stuff he was working on when he died. the floor was covered in random newspaper clippings and all kinds of records, magazines, art supplies, etc.; it reminded me a lot of chris' room, actually.

the james joyce centre was cool as well. by this time i guess i was a little tired, but the tour still had a strong impression on me. i hadn't realized exactly how intricate and awesome ulysses is. for anyone else as ignorant as i had been, it's written in 18 segments, each of which is in a different style, focusing on a different character in the odyssey, set in a different region of dublin, at a different time of day, with a different mood, emphasizing a different color or body part or aspect of nature. all the characters in ulysses were actual people in dublin at the time given pseudonyms by joyce. the entire book is set on the day he left dublin for the last time, june 14 (i think), 1904. there's no definitive edition because joyce died before he got to fix all the typographical errors. he had really bad eyesight and the book was like 1000+ pgs.

tomorrow ireland plays japan in soccer, and everyone's outside rioting and honking horns and driving cars with irish flags painted on them. there is nothing in america, short of terrorist attacks, that brings the general populace together like this. everyone here is excited about the game. the fun thing to do seems to be to amass a large group of 20 year old guys in the street and block traffic, having a shouting party until the police come or everyone's hoarse.

03 june

yesterday and today we've been traveling in our tour bus. we cut a swath across the country from dublin on the southeast coast to sligo in the northwest. yesterday was spent getting here (sligo), and today we traveled to derry (londonderry) and back. derry is in northern ireland, and therefore part of great britain. really our trip there didn't seem to be very useful, as we spent about six hours in transit and only about forty-five minutes walking around with this cool chinese-irish tour guide, roland. he quelled the fears of those in our group who shared the media's opinion that all of northern ireland is a hotbed for terrorist activity. funny, after being reassured and returned to our hotel in sligo, i heard on the radio a report that yesterday in derry, a northern irish city, three men had been shot and killed. but, as roland pointed out, in any other city the news of a murder wouldn't have been as hyped. he was of the mind that english journalists contort each bombing to make it seem the rule rather than the exception. we heard some good stories about reporters who would pay locals to incite violence while being filmed.

really the high point of these two days, besides my phone conversation with sarah yesterday, has been the walk i've just had. sligo is on a river (the name of which i have regrettably misremembered) and therfore an ideal site for nature trails. the city has capitalized on this and made a small park alongside the river. the footpath is pretty well-kept and there are lots of side trails. i saw at least five swans on my walk along with several ducks. this is the county where william butler yeats grew up and to which he devoted much of his literature, particularly (and i may have the title wrong) "the lake isle of innisfree." i've been glad to see things as yeats must have walking alongside rivers like this one. my trail also took me to a field of sheep and cattle grazing. these called to mind my experiences in new zealand.

06 june

let's see...

ok, yesterday we went to the cliffs of moher. i found these to be the most awe-inspiring natural figures of my experience. the catharsis induced by their image far exceeded the feelings invoked in me by the grand canyon or pike's peak. grass grows all the way up to the edge of the cliff, where a sheer drop ends a thousand feet below in crashing waves and intricate cave systems. the mind really doesn't grasp the hugeness of the rock face until a scale is given: seagulls swarming about a third of the way up the cliff are tiny specks until you look through a telescopic camera lens, when they're slightly-less-tiny specks. anyway, it was really windy and clear (we were lucky in this; it's rained nearly nonstop) and the whole milieu was fantastic. i really wanted to go rapelling or hanggliding but either would probably have proved fatal, as the winds were really strong and blowing towards the face.

parenthetically, there's a lot of boring stuff i'm not mentioning, mostly shopping in "quaint" towns for overpriced souvenirs to send home. so if it seems that we only do one thing (or less) per day, it really just means we only do one (or less) interesting thing per day.

so today the interesting thing was a drive through this mountain-studded area that had some good views of sheep on hills and islands in bays and rocky mountaintops. after that we were dropped off by our coach (this was optional) near a mansion by a lake. the grounds had an abundance of flora of all types, similar to a garden we'd visited on our trip to new zealand. today was the first day it hasn't rained; there wasn't a cloud in the sky. one could really tell the locals appreciated their sparse moments of sunny weather. families galore were out sunning. people strolled, picnicked, and played football (soccer) on the vast lawns. it was really picturesque, as my dad realized; he attempted to capture on film several great shots of flowers until one of our traveling partners, benny, showed him that his film wasn't advancing and fixed his camera.

ireland tied with germany in a spectacular game yesterday that we all watched and applauded. nobody thought it possible. since then nearly every pub we've visited has been full of rowdy patriots celebrating the tie. ireland might go to the final rounds now; we'll have to see. in other surprising world cup news, the u.s. beat portugal, an excellent team, 3-2. it seems king john of portugal had interests at hand besides mercantilism when he refused columbus funding in 1484.

08 june

huzzah, 2 more days and change

yesterday we went to the waterford crystal factory and took a tour. last night was the cool part of the day, when we went to a pub and heard this guy sing and play guitar. it was all groovy happenin' irish music and the guy was pretty good. he played some van morrison (brown eyed girl) and lots of folky stuff -- molly malone, etc.

today, we arrived back in dublin after stopping at a church in glendalough. there was a graveyard where a patrick, hannah, jack, and john roches all were buried (d. 1910? ... tough to read). these were the first roches we'd seen buried (we've been in 3 or 4 graveyards) and my dad was pretty happy but his camera is still ailing. too bad. there was also a nice nature hike there that we appreciated.

in dublin we've found very little to do, having spent 3 days here already, so we bought a phone card and found an internet cafe. tonight we're going to the gate theatre to see a play (i've forgotten the name but it's the debut performance so it's modern, as well as local i think). this will probably be my last journal entry. it's been a great trip but i can't wait to get home.