As the days go by I find myself exploring and loving more and more of Howth and Dublin. Yesterday I started to improve on my non-existent golf skills. Max and I drove to the driving range and I quickly realized that it is an extremely good time to completely obliterate a tiny little golf ball. We immediately rushed to the second story because that extra height will add so much to your distance (it's all about projectiles Ms. Browne), making us look far better than we actually were. After adding 240 white specs to the green lawn ahead of us, we got lunch at the cafe right on the course. Later that day I headed into Dublin on the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit...kinda like BART, but for Dublin). I wandered around the Trinity campus taking in all of the amazing architecture while trying to not look like a crazy tourist. Pictures were taken, so I probably failed at that. But I did find out where my department offices were, so that was a plus.
To be perfectly honest, today wasn't too different! I did some more wandering of the Trinity campus, sans camera. That may have helped the whole not look like a tourist thing. Having wandered sufficiently, I took to Grafton Street which is just across from the main gates to Trinity. As a street that does not allow cars, Grafton is lined with little shops and cafes. Looking for a nice place for coffee and reading, I quickly found the famous Bewley's Cafe. Having served coffee since 1840, I new I could find a good drink here. As I was sitting down to a nice cup of coffee, I pulled out A Gambling Man: Charles II's Restoration Game. It's a great book, but he has not even gambled yet. Anyway, I could not manage to keep my focus as I was just completely mesmerized by the atmosphere of the European coffeehouse. We had studied them in one of my history classes but it was amazing to actually see everything as it was! Obviously things were not as they were in the seventeenth, eighteenth, or even nineteenth centuries, but it still remains to be a crucial social hub of Europe.
Just a Heads Up: This will be the first of many history references. It's my major and I'm in Europe, this blog can not go without them.
Well I must get going as it is currently very early on Thursday morning now. Hope all is going well with everyone and thanks for reading!!
FMS
I love Bewley's and Grafton Street! So excellent for people watching. Check out music by Mary Black and amazing Irish singer Andy Irvine. He's a legend. Both reference Dublin and/or Grafton Street in some of their songs. You might want to pick up newest poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize Winning Irish poet, living in Dublin. Something cool about reading his poems while you are in Dublin! Collection title is "Human Chain." xoxo
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