Filed under: Dublin
I went home for a week. Not too much to report from Minnesota. I worked most of the time. Though I had a couple of fun meals and actually went out one night. While I was gone Patrick’s grandfather (John O’Donnell) received a nice memorial. Patrick’s grandfather died when we was about 40 – so clearly Patrick never met him. He was a policeman and died after saving two women from a capsized boat. Sadly after saving them, he hit his head on a rock and drowned.
Anyways flash forward 60 years and the opening of the memorial garden for members of An Garda Síochána killed in the service. Apparently 82 cops were honored. The Taoiseach was at the service. The girls said the service was very nice and they got to at least see some cousins from their dad’s side of the family. Although apparently they didn’t really talk much. It’s one thing that seems very different here. People don’t talk to their family – especially extended family – nearly as much as back home. In fairness, back home we probably talk to family more than most, but still I think there are fewer or at least looser connections here.
Filed under: Dublin
We are very excited to report that Grandma and Grandpa have come to visit. They spend their first two days in Dun Laoghaire – at the Royal Marine. The good things about the Royal Marine are: the super nice swimming pool that’s free for guests, the lobby and the location. What’s not so great is the power that went out repeatedly one afternoon and the fire alarm “test” at 11:30.
While in Dun Laoghaire we got to take them to some of our favorite places – like the pier and some great restaurants.
Last weekend was Dublin Puppet Weekend. We kind of thought that the kids might be too young for it – but we sort of ran into some of the activities. Aine is the only one who enjoys Punch and Judy type shows. Maybe you have to grow up with Bosco (one of the characters) to like that sort of thing. But we did see a guy who did a very small puppet show. He started with a mermaid. I think I got a video, which I’ll try to add later. His work was really exquisite – almost like a dance. I’ve added a picture of Wanderly’s Wagon for my friend Sheila. It meant nothing to us – but I thought you might like it.
Then we lined up to see the mechanical puppet show. But they only choose 10 people from the crowd to actually go into the show. Lily was the first person selected. She said it was cool. It better have been since we had to wait 20 minutes for her. (Not that we were jealous or anything!)
On Sunday we went to the Dublin Flea Market kind of near St Patrick’s. It’s an area that we don’t’ know well at all. It can be a slightly rougher area – but the market was very cool and we met up with our friend John. So that was fun.
The girls and I spent a marathon day in Howth. Patrick didn’t come because apparently being a full time student relieves you from any family obligations. It was a day of highs and lows – literally.
For folks who don’t know Dublin – Howth is the other side of Dublin Bay from us. So it’s what we look at any time we visit Dun Laoghaire or Bray. The nice thing is that we could take the DART (train there). Unfortunately we have to take a bus to the train but we’re pretty used to that.
The first thing we did when we got there was take a boat to Ireland’s Eye. It’s an island just a short hop away from Howth. I think it took all of 20 minutes to take the bus there. It was fun! We had packed a picnic; so we had our lunch on the Island. NO one lives on the island. It’s very small. We hiked around the part of the island/mountain that looks easiest but turned out to be full of nettles and kind of boggy. So you live and you learn.
After the island we hiked around the coast of Howth. It get super steep so we didn’t go too far. I can only handle taking Aine so far up places like that. Although we saw a kid about four years old who was dangling his feet off the cliff. Even Aine noted that it looked pretty stupid and that his parents were negligent to not have an iron grasp on him. Really I was so Afraid for the kid I could have been sick.
In the way up we saw a place where WB Yeats had lived. That was a thrill. It was a beautiful day so we saw a ton of people too. We ate a Deep, which seems to be a favorite with Lily. The waitress actually remembered us, which is either nice or a very bad sign. After lunch/dinner we went to see Howth Castle. There is a cooking school in it now. We also saw the Rhododendrons, which are mentioned in Ulysses.
After that very full day, we took the train home – got on a bus but had to get off about a mile from our stop because old girl (I won’t use names to protect the innocent) was sick. Actually her timing was good. Any longer on the bus and they would have been handing us a bucket.
So as I said, a day of ups and downs – but overall a great time. Going to Ireland’s Eye was a big highlight.
So here’s a little quiz. Where was Handel’s Messiah first played? If you said Dublin, you’re right. If you knew it happened in 1742, you get bonus points. For the anniversary there are activities all around Temple Bar in Dublin. We went to hear music at St Audeon’s, which was kind of fun. I won’t pretend that any of us are classical music buffs – or even classical/traditional Irish music buffs but it was nice. The biggest treat through was going into the St Audeon’s visitor center.
I used to live behind St Audeon’s, which is near Christ Church is a very old part of Dublin, but I had never been in the old or new church. So it was kind of cool.
The other pictures were taken either from a day we spent in Dun Laoghaire or a day in town on Thomas Street (that’s the picture with the modern art heads).
Hello, Our mom is in mn. We have done some things while she was gone. 1) We went to the national leprachaun musem. When you walked in there you went through a tunnell that was like supposed to make you feel like you shrank in to leprachaun size. Then you walked under the giants causeway. Which was cool only a little boring. Then you went to this room with GIANT furniture. It had a giant love seat and giant table and chairs that you could climb on. Then this room with a map of ireland and told like where in ireland faries lived and so on. then you went through the rain room. This room was a little cheap. It was just a room with umbrellas stuck everywhere. then the rainbow. This was a hallway with multi colored strings hanging from the ceiling that you ran through. Then of course the pot of gold at theend. Which was a tiny pot of gold painted rocks. Then an orange room. It was like a celtic tiger room or something. Then a hallway with a story on the wall and trees on the otherside of the wall. Then it ended with a room where they told stories and you could draw pictures. 2) We also went to my dance recital. It was it Johnstown (my school). 3) We have seen LOADS of movies and flown tons of kites.4) Ate at a restaraunt called seapoint which has the best french fries ever!
OK this is a big long rant – but since I had the platform to say how feel about American Airlines I thought I would use it. (Most regular readers can probably skip it – if anyone with a connection to American Airlines happens to see it, you can know that I will happily pay more to avoid your airlines and I’m very sad that I have two more overseas journeys scheduled with you.)
I left Cabinteely at 6 am on Sunday to go home. When I got to the airport I waited in line for 2 hours because the plane had been delayed for 5 hours. It sure seems as if they could have emailed or texted that info out to people. It sounded as if the plane hadn’t left Chicago so they knew it wasn’t going to arrive in time. (We heard multiple excuses for the delay – starting with maintenance, which is something I hate to hear. If there’s a problem with the plane – please use a more trusted plane!)
Because the flight was delayed I missed my connecting flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. They could find me a flight to St Louis – but I had to point out that wasn’t very helpful since I was going to the other Saint city. I did get an 8 euro credit at the restaurant. A breakfast is 9 euros – it’s that kind of attention to detail that really puts American Airlines on the map. Luckily for me I had plenty of euros and dollars – but the plane was 90 percent Americans. I suspect many of them left the last of their euros at the pub the night before! What I didn’t have was an adapter. I had calculated that with 7 hours on my laptop battery that I should be OK to leave the adapter behind for the kids (with my Irish cell phone). So I had a computer for half of the day.
Also American Airlines flies small planes overseas. They are turbulent and no private computers/TVs in the backs of the seats ahead of you. For folks who don’t travel overseas often this may sound petty – but it makes a long journey to try to watch a tiny TV from the window seat 8 rows back.
So you’re probably think getting from Chicago to Minneapolis would be pretty easy. That’s what I figured. What are there – 40 flights a day?! Nope. They could get me nothing. I am still in Chicago. (I left Cabinteely 27 hours ago.) I have a flight at 11 am. That’s 7 hours from now.
But the worst of it is how absolutely rude the American Airlines staff were. The folks in Dublin were just unhelpful and unapologetic. The flight attendants were fine – but I had a little room for them since I assume they were on overtime. (Of course they were being paid to be on the plane while the rest of us paid top dollar for the pleasure – but still I only saw one rude comment from a flight attendant. So that’s not too bad.)
The clincher really is that they made me line up *again* to get a standby ticket from Chicago – but they wouldn’t put me on standby. They would only book a ticket for the next day. So I have to line up in Dublin and Chicago for the same thing?! And the guy at the counter could not have been meaner. In fairness, I know I got the meanest guy. One of his coworkers moved the barrier ropes – and he started yelling at those of us in line for doing it! (Whacko!) Then when she admitted to doing it – no apology to us. He started by yelling at me for being in the airport on the wrong day. Remember – I’ve just arrived from Dublin. I pointed out that he was looking at my return info. (No apology.) Then he snaps at me because I have no ticket. The Dublin folks said to get one in Chicago. Finally he realizes that my problem was that the plane was delayed – I have not done anything. But still no apology, and no helpfulness. So then I kind of lost it, which always helps but I hate to fly and now I have to do it all over again in 7 hours.
Do you think American Airlines looks for the mean people or trains them for the wining American Airlines spirit?
Luckily Katie was able to get me and I am staying at her house. So it was a fun bonus to see the Lynchs – but I had 3 meetings scheduled tomorrow morning which I may or may not be able to reschedule. (That’s’ assuming I am able to get to home tomorrow.)
Filed under: Dublin
A new exhibit opens at the Science Gallery this week: Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. There are a couple of aspects of the exhibit. First, two sisters started the project sort of in homage of the coral reef. (Note: on my horrible trip back to Minnesota I met one of the sisters!) They started crocheting replicas. Some are very colorful – like healthy coral reef; some are white representing the coral reef that have bleached because they sense danger. The structures are kind of amazing. Then they invited more people to participate by sending in their crocheted coral reef and they had a big response from all over the world. We saw huge panels created by classrooms in Latvia. We saw luminescent coral reef crocheted by a woman who is in her 80s. We saw delicate doily-like structures and beaded structures.
The most geeky aspect of the exhibit is that crochet has served as a way for mathematicians to model a new type of geometry – hyperbolic geometry. It turns out that the kind of curved nature of coral reef and crochet can represent or demonstration a kind of negative geometry that takes place beyond three-dimensions. I’m going to attach the great TED talk where the curator talks about the math – rather than try my own feeble explanation. (This is the woman I met.)
So anyways, it’s very cool. Patrick and I went on the sneak preview night. Where they were giving out yarn and crochet hooks. I got one for each of the girls and at least two of them seem to have picked up an interest. I was never very good at crocheting, but it’s funny how it comes back to you. Sadly I was totally bust trying to crochet and drink at the preview when trying to balance the glass and crocheting my ball of yarn escaped and fell over a balcony – just missing someone’s head. (Super quick note – after the exhibit we had an amazing meal at Il Primo – put it on your fancy eating list if you’re visiting Dublin!)
Back to the Science Gallery, we enjoyed the exhibit so much we brought the girls back the next day. They loved it too. Trinity Science Students staff the exhibit and a young woman did a great job of explaining hyperbolic geometry to the girls. I know it wouldn’t make a ton of sense to them yet – since none have started geometry – but I figured someday they’d be sitting in a math class and it might come back to them.
Sheesh I nearly forgot to mention that the exhibit included two works by MC Escher. I think that may have been Patrick’s favorite part.
Filed under: Dublin
We went to the big St Patrick’s Day parade – with 600,000 of our closest friends. The parade in Dublin is great – but it’s a huge crowd. We sort of wrestled with trying to keep the girls on our shoulders or at least a head above the rest. Amazingly we did get some good pictures – if we were only as tall as we could reach our view would have been great. It is amazing to see so many people in town.
After the parade we walked about the city a while and ended up with lunch at Bewley’s. Unfortunately poor Kate was not feeling well. In fact on Thursday we ended up bringing her back to the doctor. She got a few minutes on a nebulizer, which I think made her very happy. Then we got her some good medicine and with any luck she’ll be breathing well again soon.
Filed under: Dublin
One day last week Patrick and I walked to the mountains. We’ve been trying to get in at least one good walk in a week. I took one picture. We didn’t necessarily get to the top of the mountain – but we walked for about 90 minutes and got a great view.
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