Our insanely optimistic plan for today was to follow the Bloomsday trail around Dublin. What I the heck is Bloomsady? Well, James Joyce’s book Ulysses is about a day in the life of Leopold Bloom and to a lesser degree Stephen Daedalus. The book follows their paths through Dublin on June 16, 1904. Every year, loads of people follow the map on the anniversary. We did it ourselves 15 years ago. I got it into my head that it would be fun to do the trip in the off season with the kids.
We didn’t get very fair – but the videos below highlight what we did see. And we’ll start again where we left off another day. If you want to read some fun Cliff Notes for Ulysses, check out James Joyce for Dummies.
After the trip to Sandycove, we took a drive around Killiney and Dalkey. It’s not really that far from where we live but the homes and the views are amazing! We drove by Enya’s caste and Bono’s house.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
I forgot to mention last weekend that we went to see Frankenstein the play at the Pavilion Theatre. It was a very fun show.
It made me jump at least twice – thanks in large part to the strobe light lightning and loud thunder effects. So it wasn’t a subtle play – but you don’t really go to Frankenstein for subtlety. On the bud ride home we overheard someone on the phone tell someone just how great the show was. Now maybe I wouldn’t have said great – but knowing someone else loved it made it even better.
One thing they did that I sort of liked is they read out pieces from news stories about people trying to build people or bring them back from the dead – just a cloning or very early electronic shocks to bring people back.
Due to an accident of bus arrival – it was cold so we took the first but that headed near the house – we ended up stopping at a pub called the Dean’s Grange on the way home. We often stop there. In the daylight it’s a healthy walk from home in the park – in the dark it’s too dangerous. It was packed; it’s never packed. And they have live music – so it was a nice bonus.
Patrick’s mom has been in Galway this weekend. So there was no Fearghal out on Sunday – but we managed the longest day ever.
We started with a nice lunch at our favorite Dun Laoghaire – the GastroPub. Then we were going to walk to Monkstown to see a skateboard and bike event. We walked for more than an hour and we never made it. We walked by a church (see photo below). The view of the sea was nice. It was actually a nice walk until we realized that we were no where near the Monktown gym/pool. So eventually we got a bus into town.
Once in town we visited the Hugh Lane Gallery. Lily showed us about the Francis Bacon exhibit – she had gone to see it with school. Patrick wanted to go to the wax museum around the corner – but it had moved. So my tip of the day is to NOT use a book when you’re making your plans for touring Dublin. They are nearly outdated as soon as their printed with all of the development in Dublin.
So we walked to the opposite end of town to have yummy treats at Bewley’s Café on Grafton Street. The girls got hot chocolate and treats, which was good because it gave them energy for our surprise task…
The Irish Film and TV Awards took place in Dublin tonight. We walked by the theater (The Gaiety) just in time to see the people lined up to see the stars. I am uploading the video of the stars now I will post it on the blog as soon as I can, which might be tomorrow as uploading is VERY slow from here.
Saturday during the day we met us with a friend of Elaine Walsh (Who lives in MN but is from Ireland). Pauline has 3 kids just about the same age as our kids. They live in a beautiful house in Killiney. The kids had a great time. It was nearly like being at home. They played and neighborhood kids stopped by to play too.
After a while we left to meet up with an old friend of Patrick – David Kelley. We met up with David and his wife Andrea a couple of weeks ago. They invited us over for dinner with their 5 year old, Alex. They live in Greystones.
Again it was a really nice time. I know that Patrick especially enjoyed just hanging out with an old friend. But we all had a good time.
We did end up taking a lot more public transportation than anyone else going from one suburban location to another. Mostly not having a car doesn’t bother me that much here – but today it did. I think it was the day of suburban life on the bus and train that got to me.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
Friday afternoon the girls had two friends over. They are sisters and I have to say everyone played very well together. We had to include a picture of the four girls. They decide they could all be cousins. (I did not take the picture – and the fuzziness does not mean you need glasses.)
Friday night Patrick and I went to The Pavillion in Dun Laoghaire to see the Taming of the Shrew performed by Rough Magic. For those who have seen Father Ted, it starred the housekeeper (Pauline McLynn) and Owen Roe (not from Father Ted) who won an award for his performance.
It was one of the best Shakespeare performances I’ve seen. The timing was perfect – and usually I don’t notice stuff like that. What I did notice that is that the normally kind of boring lines were said at breakneck speed – yet you got the idea and the really funny parts were drawn out.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
After our super full weekend, we didn’t do much today. We managed to get it together to have lunch in Dun Laoghaire. We ate at the GastroPub. Once again Kate considered eating a mussel through the whole meal. Once again she didn’t do it. We stopped in a craft store to get some activities for the week.
Lily wrote up a proposal for an allowance. She had an itemized list of chores that could do with line items charges for each. The weekly proposed total came to €25. (That’s almost $40 a week.)
We’ve talked her down to €5; €6 if she does all of the jobs cheerfully.
Patrick’s birthday landed on one of the nicest days in January. We went to Dun Laoghaire – only wearing sweaters. We had lunch at our favorite Asian restaurant – Mao. It was good but as I told Kate, I will be so glad to be at home where they fill up your diet coke throughout the meal. But despite my complaining – we really did have a nice meal.
After the meal we walked down the Dun Laoghaire pier, through the People’s Park and got on the bus back to Cabinteely. Patrick’s mom got a nice cake and we all had a piece.
Sunday night Patrick and I went in to see the Traditional Music Gala Concert at the Olympia (same place we saw I, Keano a couple of nights before). Our seats were excellent, the music was nice – the woman humming long behind us was a little crackers. But we left at the intermission – we were just too tired from a long weekend and both being a little sick.
So, maybe that wouldn’t be my favorite way to spend a birthday, but Patrick seemed to enjoy it.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
Sunday we went to the People’s Park in Dun Laoghaire. They usually have a market on Sundays but on Sunday they had a winter festival – the recharge festival. It’s held on the gloomiest day to try to perk up everyone’s mood. It was a good idea and a good little festival.
There were bouncy castle types of equipment for Aine. We had a sad benchmark when Lily looked at the bouncy castle slide and said, I think I’m too old for those rides. Fortunately she wasn’t too old for the laser tag. Or the face painting or the craft projects where they made T-shirts.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
On Thursday we went to Dun Laoghaire. Most of the shops were still closed but we had lunch at a great Asian restaurant – Café Mao. We hadn’t had food like that in a long time so it was very good. The fried rice was actually like the fiend rice we’re used to from home.
We went into the few shops that were opened and enjoyed a walk down Dun Laoghaire pier – it’s about a 30 minute walk to the end and back. The sea seemed very calm. There was a banjo playing busker at the end of the pier – so that was kind of fun. The pier sort of gradually dips into the sea – but as Aine walked on the side of the pier I got a glimpse of how quickly the sea becomes deep and pretty cold looking. She wasn’t allowed to walk on her own for very long.
We had another busy day on Sunday. We had afternoon tea at the Ritz Carlton in Powerscourt. (Powerscourt may sound familiar – we visited the Powerscourt Garden a couple of weeks ago.)
The hotel opened on October1. The big deal about the Ritz is that it is home to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. (That’s the chef from the Top Chef program – who swears a lot.) We didn’t eat there because it was booked and because we decided we’d wait on that until we could get a babysitter.
Anyways the restaurant was very nice. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we did get full on tiny sandwiches and desserts. The service was very good. Our table, actually all of the tables faced Sugar Loaf, a beautiful mountain. And what was very very fun was that we got a private tour of the hotel while we were there – and Sunday was the last day they were going to offer the tours.
There are 3 restaurants and a ballroom and lots of wonderful gardens. The rooms were really nice. We’ll have to find an excuse to stay there at some point. I’d say that there will be plenty of weddings there since it is so beautiful. I just need to meet a bride!
After the hotel, we went to see the tallest waterfall in Ireland – the Powerscourt waterfall. It too was striking. There were a couple of playgrounds nearby and the girls enjoyed that a lot.
Sunday night Patrick participated in a children’s story slam in Dun Laoghaire. That’s where the readers tell their stories and the judges decide who was the best. Personally I think Patrick was the best but someone who wrote a young adult story actually won.
We enjoyed listening to all of the authors. None were professional but all of them were very good. After Patrick read the judges said – oh you’re a storyteller. They were speechless but though that he should find a way to either work with students to perform the story or otherwise find a way to tell the story to people.
Again pictures should follow – soon I hope
10 Questions About... 