/travel/ireland/Some Dirt On Dublin
So it's been a while since I've posted. I was trying to get my photos caught up (there're some new galleries up, and some old ones captioned, but still a lot of work to do) before I made another post, but since that doesn't seem to be happening, it's time to post. Especially since I'm being outdone by a certain sister of mine.
So, I'm properly settled here. In some ways more than I've ever been -- the other day I remarked on how one of our two potted plants had several blooms coming. This is the sort of remark I expect to hear from my parents, or perhaps one of my house-owning sisters. But not me, no sir.
But then, the kitchen is still missing proper mixing bowls, and I don't have packs for my bike yet, so I can't be that settled.
Here's some things about Dublin, Ireland, and the Irish, that I'm now reasonably sure about: it's not very cycling friendly. There's lots of litter. The canal is filthy. Fill-thy. They're touchy on a couple of sore spots -- if you're bored and have too many friends, try suggesting that they're not a leading voice in literature over the last century. Things are changing fast here. Three years ago, they were ten years behind Canada in recycling. Next year, they'll be ahead of most Canadian cities. Dublin is eight years behind Saskatoon for broadband, but they'll only take a year or two to catch up. Country-wide smoking ban came in a year ago.
They drink a fair bit, but it doesn't bother me as much as England -- though I can keep up alright now, so it's hard to say. I think it's still bad here, though. After Paddy's day (a Thursday), I decided to see how long I could go without drinking or feeling really out of place. It didn't last through the weekend, although it was my own fault since I sorta forgot about it and invited someone out for a pint.
They're quick to anger. Someone was talking about how, in some far-eastern country that they had been to, people maintained a level of decency unheard of in Dublin, even if they were drunk to the point of passing out. It's like the alcohol let them go a little beyond social boundaries, but not too far.
There's some dirt. (aka "observations".)
My German friend Peter (the same one that drove me to the beginning of my cycling trip) came to visit me here. It was pretty fun. One of my coworkers from Mountain View also came, and we did some nice touristy stuff. The highlight of that was probably our trip to Newgrange, a ~5000yo tomb on top of a hill that was found about three hundred years ago. It's a giant mound, but apparently it was covered in forest, and the locals sorta knew something creepy was there, but that's about it. There's a thin, long passageway, and in true pagan style, the light runs through the passage into a little nook at the end of the passage on the winter solstice. Except it doesn't anymore, because the angle of the earth has changed since they made it.
We also went to Glendaloch, which I've been to before, but it's very nice. And we went to a beach with Peter and Clare and Clare's friend Nuala (pronounced Noo'lah). The beach had great big sand dunes, which Peter and I climbed up. It was fun. I said perhaps the most tactless thing I've ever said, but we'll not revisit that. Suffice to say it was very bad.
Today I went for my first proper bikeride. I just sort of left with no particular plan and low expectations, and had a delightful time. I even made it onto some fairly quiet roads, and up the side of the same mountain I climbed on my Wicklow Walk. Coming down that was scary, since the road was bumpy and narrow and I'm used to having lots of gear hold my rear wheel down. And I'm a wimp.
So that about catches you up.
