Weird thing about blogging: I'm not sure who, if anyone, is reading what I write. I just click and send the words into cyberspace. But it is such fun to write about all our adventures that I keep doing it. (Ellen, you were right--I dig this blogging thing!)
So this morning I did the tour of Dublin Castle--more on that later. And then I stopped for tea at this little place on Dame St that I've been to a few times already. The coffee is abysmal and the tea is just adequate, but I keep going back because I like to walk through the narrow double doors and into the long, narrow shop--it can't be 10' across in the front, and not much more than 15' in back. I like the place. In fact, I like a lot about Dublin. So while I drank tea, I started my list:
Things I Really Like About Dublin
Narrow double shop doors with brass handles, and not being sure whether to push or pull to get in or out.
Creaky wooden floors everywhere you go.
Pureed vegetable soups served steaming hot with dense, grainy brown bread.
All the bridges across the River Liffey, each with a name and a history.
The inevitable presence of some kind of Viking or Norman foundation beneath or behind so many buildings.
The garlands of lights ending in chandelier-style fixtures across Grafton Street, at twilight.
How excited Dubliners seem to be about Barack Obama.
The cheeky humor (humour) of tour guides.
Seeing the decorated Christmas tree in the window of the apartment opposite the hotel room we're in at the moment; actually, all the signs that December is upon us.
Impossibly skinny-legged boys and girls in tight jeans and big boots, with floppy hair and snug wool coats.
Walking down Dame St past all the people waiting for buses in the evening.
Strongly brewed Beweley's tea with milk. Also, the tiny silver teaspoons that come with the tea.
The way guys catching a smoke in doorways invariably respond to my request for directions with, "Right, love, here's what you want to do..."
Mothers pushing their babies in strollers everywhere, fearlessly, and how the babies seem quite content.
All the languages being spoken, everywhere I go.
The concept of stopping in mid-morning and mid-afternoon for tea and a some wonderful carbohydrate snack.
The cobblestone streets in some districts; all the alleyways and medieval street patterns.
How no matter how gruesome the history being presented at a particular site (church, prison, wherever), there's always a lovely little cafe serving tea and something nice at the end of the tour.
How Dubliners can put you in your place with one wry comment and let you know that they'll not be taking you nor anyone else too seriously.
That's a start...
1 comment:
I'm reading and enjoying, Annie. I really look forward to your and Joanne's latest accounts and am very much appreciating the details of your trip.
Strange thing about blogging -- I never thought anyone was out there either, but I liked it so much I just kept on going. I was never one for journals or diaries (unless I was on a trip) and am still not too self-reflective, but really like making a record of what is happening and recording the details I will likely forget.
I have a number of diaries from women in the 1800's, 1900's etc. from a family we were kind of related to. They recorded little homely things, like the temperature, how many quarts of peaches they put up, what they planted in the extra furrow in the garden, when they butchered the hog. But it's a lovely reminder of their daily lives, the little bits of women's history that don't make the texts but build lives and communities. I believe our blogs are our modern diaries, but we may have to revert to tried and true ways (as in paper, Book of Kells, etc.) to preserve them.
Here's a fun gift idea -- a program called blurb will let you download your blog and turn it into a book, complete with photographs, etc. You have to pay them to print the book but the blurb download is free. http://www.blurb.com/
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