Still Dublin

Flower Market-Grafton St.

St. Stephen's Park

August 25, 2007-Hoofing It

Our one-year old granddaughter is lucky. Her name is Rylee. The traditional Irish spelling is Raghallaigh.

Dublinia was an exhibit of the Viking and Medieval history of Dublin using models of how people lived back then. It gave a good overview of what and who were where and when that was. They mentioned another reason why Vikings struck out and invaded new lands. Only the eldest sons inherited. It was the old rule of primogeniture. The landless younger brothers ventured forth to seek their fortunes abroad.

Karen and Ron rode the “hop on” to the Dublin Writer’s Museum. We walked. It was a lot longer than we thought but we got to walk through the neighborhood of sex paraphernalia shops. At the museum an actor performed segments from different Irish authors slipping into character for each. The best quote was Churchill who said, “ If we solve the Irish problem they will find a new one.”

The Ciminis went back to the hotel and we hoofed it to St. Stephen’s Green, a Victorian gem in the city center. It had an idyllic pond where ducks swam blithely along watching the hoards of local teens doing their mating rituals on the grass. The evangelists were out in force trying to sell Jesus. Flower vendors were also abundant. A man was standing alone holding a sign that said “Jesus.” David asked if he’d lost him. The man replied that he hadn’t. David said that if he had lost Jesus he could show him how to find him. Another proselytizer said he had him in his heart. A passerby said that he might find him if he took the sign to the airport.

We went to the hotel desk in search of advice regarding an Indian restaurant. The clerk’s name was Ewelina. Where was she when we were trying to name sheep? Anyway, Ewelina was very competent and Karen wondered why only the Eastern European male help was rude and lazy. Our cab arrived and the driver thought he knew a better restaurant than the one we knew of. He called his office to inquire but had a bad signal on his phone. He asked them to text him the name and number of the restaurant. All this was while he was driving. He accomplished what he set out to do and delivered us at Tulsi’s. It was delicious but the cab ride was three quarters of the cost of our meal. Our ride home was $3 less. Maybe we were taken for a ride. I know the taxi driver didn’t get a kick-back because the manager asked who it was and we didn’t have a name to give him.

Tomorrow we leave Dublin for Castledermot in the county of Kildare. It’s another castle stay. We were warned there would be a huge crowd coming to Dublin for a major Irish football game. It’s like rugby with a round ball. If we figure out which side of the river we need to be on to get to the highway we should be able to get out of here.

Toby