10 Questions About…

After three solid days of mom-daughter time, Kate took a break Monday morning, which meant I went to Phoenix Park to see the deer. There’s a wild herd of deer that hang out in a very large park. There’s never a guarantee that you’ll see them. It’s a couple miles to the park and you could be walking a couple miles more looking for them. It’s not an outing for everyone. I was just about to give up the search when I saw them. They are wild but tame. So, I was able to get pretty close to them. They have amazing antlers and it’s just such a rare treat to catch them.

Even if I hadn’t seen them, I saw plenty on the way to the park and back. I got pictures of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, the house where I lived one summer behind St Audeon’s, Collins Barracks (sadly the museum was closed but the outside is cool too), the Anna Livia statue (aka Floozy in the Jacuzzi) – please note life imitating art with the man asleep on the bench behind her and finally the Guinness factory. (Smells like the Malt-Meal Cereal factory in Owatonna.)

Then I met Kate for lunch and we went on more adventures. We stopped by the National Museum to see the bog bodies. These are bodies of people who were often brutally killed and then thrown into a bog, where their bodies are weirdly preserved. It was a favorite creepy but cool activity when the girls were young.

Next was a quick stop at the National Library for the WB Yeats exhibit. Always interesting to re-read Yeats and it’s a very cool building. I don’t know that I have been in there since I was a student.

Next was another quick walk through the National  Gallery. When the kids were young, we used to visit often. They have great visitor packets for kids to make the art even more interesting and the girls did a free class or two on various Saturdays, so it’s more nostalgia. Last bit of nostalgia was seeing the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Park.

At night, I met up with my friend Karina. As usual, I forgot to get a picture but it’s always fun to catch up.

The last time Kate and I went to Howth, she was sick and it was bitterly cold. Today was beautiful! The sun shines for us today – as it did for Molly Bloom on 16 years before Bloomsday (June 16, 1904) in Ulysses by James Joyce. In her honor we climbed to Howth Head. Howth is the northern most point of the Dublin Bay; when the girls were little, we lived nearer the southern end of the Dublin Bay. So, Howth always feels like a rare treat. Climbing the hill is steep (by that I mean scary!); we climbed about as far as we thought we could. The journey was made more ominous when we saw a rat tail as big as a pencil until the rubbish bin at the start of the trail. But the views were worth it!

We started the day at the water. The long pier is closed but we walked the short pier. We saw a couple seals. You can long longer feed the seals (as we could when the girls were small) so they aren’t as active but it’s still thrill. And they still have very cute faces with very human expressions.

We came back for the Macnas Halloween parade. Macnas is an amazing theatrical group from Galway. Kate has seen them before and casually knows many of them. They puppetry is breathtaking. The passion in the musicians and dancers was infective. The crowd was huge and I was worried that all I’d be able to see if a sea of camera phones, which happened to some extend but Macnas has found a way to go higher. And it’s a shorter parade that goes farther, which means more people can enjoy it from the front or from the high point nearby. It’s hard not to feel the wonderment of it.

We ended the night at the Vintage Cocktail Club in Templebar. Kate is not a big drinker, but she does like cocktails. I’m mostly a cheap beer gal but I can tell you they make a mean French 75. The bar has a speakeasy feel with 1920s décor and jazz.

Day Two of Dublin was pretty darned good. We had a great walk all around the city center. My pedometer says 11 miles but I am dealing to technology not fully understanding a trip to a new country so who knows but it has to be close.

We did some charity shop shopping. (I got a new-to-me dress.) We saw some art – first at the Project Arts Centre, where we saw Vague Symptoms Clinic, a very modern art exhibit. It included some subtle movement, so I, of course, loved it. Later in the day, we walked by the Hugh Lane gallery. The gallery was closed, and while I love their collection, that was OK because my favorite work is the walking video by Julian Opie. At one point, they had walking videos scattered all of Dublin, now it’s just the one.

We tracked down Bram Stoker’s temporary residence in Dublin. As you can see from the photos, there’s no question which house was his. Last night we could see fireworks in distance. Today we could see the remnants of the fireworks around the Stoker estate in the North East Inner City.

We were walking back to the South Side of the Liffey and about a block away from the Abbey Theatre. We stopped by with the intention of doing research for possible activities throughout the week. Turns out there was a show by one of my favorite Irish playwrights (Marina Carr) with one of my favorite Irish actors, Eileen Walsh on right then and closing today. It was The Boy, a two-part retelling of Oedipus Rex. If we hustled, we would only be a few minutes late for part one. So we did and I was so glad. It was amazing. It was funny, sinister, and macabre in equal parts. Only Irish sensibilities and dry wit could get a laugh from the horrendously violent and evil deeds of a Greek Tragedy. Not that it was a comedy. It was moving and thought-provoking but the humor took the edge off the brutality. Worth giving up a few hours of Irish sunshine for sure!

The we ambled back to our place to gear up an evening festival. We walked up Grafton Street through Stephen’s Green. And I bought some new Doc Martens.

At night we went to the Dublin by Night Festival. They closed off Dame Street on the south side of the Liffey and Capel Street on the North. Huge crowds, lots of music and other performances. It was fun but a reminder of how many people come out for an event like that.

I arrived bright and early (7:15am) from my first direct flight from MSP to Dublin. And super treat, Kate decided to meet me a day earlier than planned. So we spent our Halloween together.

We are staying at a nice AirBNB on Aungier Street, very near Whitefriars Church. We did visit when Kate was little, but we decided to check it out again to see the bone (or at least the box that holds the bones) of St Valentine. It’s very much a working church with folks waiting to give confession and a prayer group in full force. (I tried to catch the ethos in video.)

Then we walked around Templebar, George’s Market and Grafton Street. There was a little drama figuring out if my steps were getting counted, but this morning I clocked in at 12 miles. So, I guess they were. We enjoyed the people and the street art. The juxtaposition of busker and costumes was stellar. (The Halloween ice cream molding – also a rare treat.)

We saw the Oscars that we got to hold 15 years ago, when we went to the IFI to see a series of films, one which was not for kids. We had dinner at Port House, which is a tapas place we always like. I spent the morning in the rain so very much enjoyed the good weather.

We ended the night at Whelan’s, a great pub and venue. We saw, MARUJA, an aggressively awesome Manchester band that sang about late-stage capitalism and the power of community.