photos of dublin and bray

In lieu of an actual post, i offer 101,000 words in the form of photographs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/heraldk/sets/72157604577994423/

These are from Morgan's interview back in April. (If you've seen our wedding photos, you already know that Morgan is an excellent photographer).

It's a pretty good sample of some of the things we've seen in Dublin (including our 10-day stay at The Beacon when we first moved here). Xan and Diane toured the nearby town of Bray and the charming Dalkey area of town. Then we all did a tour through the downtown area.

More images

We bought a new game named Magnetix. It's made of magnetic rods and metal balls. You can build all kind of structures and it glows in the dark. It is quite addictive.



A funny picture downtown Dublin.
Even the statues commute.



Brady's of Shankill The Library in Shankill


Foggy afternoon Sunny rays

Cleaning the spider webs...

Well, it's been a while since the last post. It's just that things are happening and before they get transformed into a blog entry, other things happen. I am going to catch up with some pictures.

We had an interesting trip to visit a tower on a nearby hill. After visiting all the ruins from the map (or not -- some were on private property), we discovered that the tower is actually a chimney from an old lead mine. It looks cool though, and the real adventure was driving through tunnels of vegetation not much bigger than the car. Luckily the only traffic was a lady on a horse. From the top of the hill we could see all of Dublin, but there is not much to see because Dublin is quite flat. There are some proposals to build higher structures, but they don't receive approval from the municipality.

Hoping we are the only ones on this road

Up, up, through yellow bushes

Majestic trees Finally, the chimney
Defying gravity ;-) Dublin from above

Two full weeks

Last week went too fast. Morgan and Diane visited us and, while Morgan was at the office with Darse, I showed Diane some of Dublin. Since the weather is constantly changing here, I tried to show her as much as I could as long as it didn’t rain. Apart from a strong wind, we caught a beautiful day. We walked at least 10km along the coast. The sea was agitated and here and there made big splashes on the rocks. We started in Bray, the town south of us in Wicklow County, and then took the Dart to Dun Laoghaire (where I hadn’t been before). There we saw the shopping area, the harbor, people’s park, and had lunch and Irish coffee in a pub. Then we walked more or less along the coast to Dalkey. I had seen this area last year with Christine – actually we visited the “castle” where four actors showed four tourists how things were back then – but walking through Dalkey made me realize that it’s an extraordinary charming village/town. Too bad that I didn’t have my camera with me but Diane took some great shots. The day ended with dinner at Dali’s restaurant in Blackrock where we saw people parasailing and wind surfing.

Next day I wasn’t feeling so good so we just went to see how the big stores look. I showed Diane Cornelscourt, which is a good place for all shopping needs. Saturday we met them and other friends downtown, went to the well known tourist hotspots, and then visited a couple of pubs. After a nice dinner, the boys went to play some poker at the casino and the girls went to a nearby club, Café en Seine - beautiful setting, very crowded and the atmosphere reminded me the one at the castle for New Year’s Eve.

Sunday was income tax day. Unfortunately we couldn’t finish them, so this weekend it is mandatory to submit. As you can see, we didn’t have much opportunity to use our new car.
Actually, with the car parked in front of the house people ring my doorbell more often than before - usually service providers for gardening or charities. The good thing is that now I don’t find anymore notes in my mail from utility companies saying they came by and I wasn’t home. Now they actually ring. Talking about utilities, here you have to pay 160 Euros/year TV license if you own a TV. Otherwise you pay a fine of 634.87 Euros – I wonder how they came up with this number. In Romania it’s the same thing but it is not actually enforced. Here I’ve already received four letters about this. Finally, I called them and I will have to sign a declaration that I don’t possess a TV.


This week went by too fast, too. I am so thrilled to start learning again. The Open University is a UK long distance learning university. It is one of the biggest in the world. No wonder they are very well organized. Their website is so easy to use and has so much useful content. It seems that they thought of everything. I spent my time reading course preparation materials. It will be exciting to try creative learning instead of repetitive learning. It makes so much sense. The rule is: put the main ideas in your own words and challenge everything you can, and then recombine everything. Also, I’ve learned how to learn (most of it I already knew ;-)) and how to write essays for social sciences. Once a month I will have tutorials on Saturdays where I will meet my tutor and other students. They also have a list with students who, even though they cannot attend tutorials, would like to meet other students for learning and discussing purpose. They are called learning groups.

Next weekend is a long one. I am going to try to plan a small trip and hope for good weather.

Slow motion and fast forward

It is still spring in Ireland. It looks like the spring will never end. There are still trees without leaves, cherry trees are bloomed, and tulips and narcissuses are everywhere. It is spring in slow motion and I feel like doing something to speed up the process. I guess I can’t push the sap in the buds. That’s nature’s role.

On the other hand, it’s hard to believe that nature invented slugs and snails that eat big, soft and beautiful flowers. I had a slug attack on my petunias! They ate all the petals. Yum, slug delicatessen! Then I spread some blue chemical chips on the ground and the next day there was a snail cemetery in the flower bed. I couldn’t believe how many there were!

The other news is that we finally bought a car -- a 2001 Honda Civic. We picked it up from the dealer today, and we both got to drive it on the way home.

[Darse: We had been waiting for weeks for an advertised 1.3 litre Corolla to arrive from Japan, but when we finally got to test it out, we much preferred the 1.5 litre Civic. I was actually a bit unnerved driving Aaron and Christine's 1.0 litre Yaris, as it seemed somewhat under-powered when i needed acceleration the most -- like merging onto the highway, or turning in the middle of an intersection with double-decker buses coming at me in both directions... The 1.3 litre Yaris we test-drove was much zippier, so i thought the Corolla would be everything we'd want. But it didn't really have a lot of zip either -- maybe because it is much heavier than the fly-weight Yaris. The Civic isn't like my little sports car, but the it gives me much better piece of mind when it comes to evading all the crazy drivers! It is also in *amazing* condition -- it only has 36000 km, and has been impeccably well-maintained.]

The car is comfortable to drive and has lots of space inside. I think we made a good choice and can’t wait to see the Irish countryside now that we have wheels. Now we have the fast forward option for getting around town, too. We still intend to use the public transit system for convenience, especially to commute and to go downtown. The Luas LRT and Dart train systems are very good for that purpose. They don’t need 20 minutes to cross half of city center.
[Darse: the insanity of driving in downtown Dublin would require a full blog entry to itself. I fully intend to avoid it -- forever.]

Colours

Daffodils
Daffodils, planted a long time ago and now spread unevenly on the banks of roads, brighten the landscape. Yellow and green for many kilometers. I saw some pictures taken in our neighbourhood during the summer, and it seems that it will get much greener than it is now.
By the way, my daffodils are still in shape after almost a month, and there are more bunches coming into bloom. Now I understand why there are so many bulbs planted everywhere. They require little maintenance and last for so long.

Red Luas
The Red Luas is actually purple, just like the Green one. Actually it’s the red line and the green line. You would think there must be a reason for these colours, but they could also be randomly chosen -- like the bus numbers, which have no apparent logic or meaning. Plus, I couldn’t find route maps anywhere, just general sketches. Google is much more helpful than the official bus website because Google has the bus stops. (Bus is actually pronounced like boss and it’s funny when you ride the boss ;-)).

The names of the train stops are sometimes intriguing like: Museum. And you wonder: what museum? The mystery vanishes when you see the entrance to the National Museum of Ireland two meters away from the door of the train.

Downtown, the train goes on narrow streets, 1.5m away from window shops. Between the train window and shop windows, pedestrians walk minding their own business on the sidewalk. It’s dazzling when the landscape is so close to the train. I had the feeling of a metro going through a tunnel of buildings and walls.

Downtown it is always crowded, no matter where you are. Citizens are told by the Luas announcement lady in a sweet and reassuring voice that they should watch their belongings, as pick-pockets may operate on the train. After all, Dublin is a tourist city.

Spring

It is totally spring in Dublin. Buds are growing, trees are blooming and spring flowers are coming into blossom. Actually it is very interesting how vegetation grows here. It is almost continuous and very slow. For instance the trees started to bloom two weeks ago and they are not yet done. The daffodils in my garden did the same and, to my joy, they last much more than the ones in a vase.
I went for shopping in the morning and I couldn’t resist stopping to smell the sweet fragrance of the flowered trees and feel the gentle sun beams on my skin. Too bad that I caught a little cold and I can’t stay longer outside.

Home

I am home again. Home… I lived in six cities and four countries. Where is home? I visited Romania, the country where I was born. So I was home and then came back home? And when I’m going to go to Canada, it will be again, home? Some would say that home is where your heart is but what can I say, my heart is big.

For me, home would be where I feel safe and comfortable. It is just a matter of getting used with your environment. When I moved in Canada, everything was foreign, different from what I knew. It was easy there, though. The society is built in order to accommodate newcomers that is, everything is well explained. In Ireland, things weren’t that simple anymore. Everybody knows this and that, if they lived here forever. But I think they are catching up with North America because the newcomers group is significant now. I was really surprised to see how many foreigners are in Dublin. In both cases, after three months I started to feel safe and comfortable. The longer you stay in one place, the more you get used to your environment.

Now, after almost four years, I visited Romania. I was amazed how familiar was everything I was experiencing, and yet, I was detached, observing and having fun of things that in the past would make me frustrated and angry. I guess my attitude was due to the fact that I knew I will leave soon. In a way I was disappointed that things didn’t change much. On the same token, I knew this will happen, that’s why I left in the first place. In a sentence I would say: the private business and property exploded whereas the public services and government duties are extremely disabled. I wonder when the elected leaders will realize that they have to work to improve people’s lives, not only their own pockets.

The time was short but I was happy to see my family, old friends, taste foods that are hard to find here, remember how it feels like to walk on streets with many loose dogs, and travel with crowded means of transportation. The weather wasn’t very good either, overcast and foggy, melting snow and lots of mud. Next time I’ll go in a better season. :-)

And above all, I was happy to return in Dublin, not only because the streets are always clean but because here is Darse and most of my heart is where he is.

Our new place

After seeing a few places and walking in selected neighborhoods, we decided that maybe it is better to give up some convenience in order to find a nice place. Darse accepted taking the bus to work each day, instead of being close to the shuttle. I remember Darse’s first trip to the University by bus after so many years of walking or driving. He came home pouting because he didn’t get a seat on the bus!!! I compare that to the time when I was traveling by bus in Romania and you could consider yourself lucky that you managed to get into the bus and you still had your wallet after the trip (I am exaggerating a little but there was a high probability of such things happening).

Coming back to the subject, our house is in an absolutely charming district, full of stone architecture, lush green grass, trees, hedges, bushes, and chirping birds of all descriptions. There are still bloomed flowers here and there and we saw a bloomed cherry tree too. We are close to the sea, away from the chaos of the city, and only about 15 minutes from Darse’s work (half by bus, half by a short walk through a park, very healthy for so many hours spent in front of the computer). “An awesome find by Xan” says Darse, but I guess we were lucky too because I browsed the rental availability a few months before coming here and there weren’t many detached houses in nice areas or in our rent limit.

It is a good-sized two-level three bedroom house made of brick. I took a few pictures in the area to give a better image of the surroundings. I am especially thrilled with having the small back yard with lots of plants to take care of, and big windows very suitable for potted plants. But I guess I should start by decorating the house a little to feel more at home before I think about gardening. Plus, it's still winter -- not that you can really tell!

When you rent an older place you find a lot of things in the cupboard like pots, dishes, glasses, and cutlery left by previous tenants. They are quite useful before you assess what you need to buy and find something that you like. The selection is not as vast as it is in North America; stores are very small in comparison, and they cannot hold too many types of the same item.

And wow, I have to walk to the stores! First because we don’t have a car yet, second, the parking is limited. There are a couple of grocery stores, a post office, a hardware store, two restaurants and a few take-out places within a 10 min. walk. There is also a good bus link (the Quality Bus Corridor) to the nearby shopping centers and downtown. One day we went downtown, and coming home, Darse reaffirmed his joy and relief that we live so far away from the noise.

Last weekend we went to the local Irish pub. It has an absolutely lovely old-style décor and has good food. The atmosphere is very different from the city center -- or maybe the warmer environment makes people act differently.

I am very glad that we found this location. It is much friendlier than other places I’ve seen, and people even say hello to you on the street. Well, at least some.

View from front door


View from the bedroom

My garden from the dinning room

The Cubes

Have you seen the movie The Cube? If you didn’t, it is about a bunch of people trapped in a cube-like construction made of cubical rooms and square doors. The trick was that the rooms would move, and some had various deadly traps. Hard to escape.

Anyway, The Cubes and The Edges are apartment buildings in the Sandyford area where the shuttle from Darse’s office comes. It is in the same area as the Beacon hotel so we started to look for an apartment there first. We walked around to see how it feels, and I wasn’t very convinced that the place is hospitable to life. There were enough pluses (close to stores, LUAS (LRT), work shuttle, and all brand new) to at least have a look at the inside. Well, I think the architect who designed those apartments hates humans. He might be looking toward the future when those apartments will be inhabited by cyborgs. Even Darse’s worst-case scenario of hard, cold surfaces was surpassed.

The other thing is that you could get lost so easily. The buildings were all the same, and because of the surrounding construction sites the paths were sometimes closed. Many times we found ourselves in with no known way to get out. We were joking about the movie when we were wondering what The Cubes would be like, but it turned out to be no joke!
REJECTED!

The Beacon

We stayed nine days at the Beacon hotel in Sandyford. The style is trendy, almost extreme, with hard surfaces and weird decorations. The lobby and the restaurant are fancily decorated but not especially functional. There are things that can bother you every day but it seems to be a sacrifice for the sake of style. [Darse was driven insane every minute.] Example: every time you want to reach the elevators from the entrance, you have to either jump over the armchairs or make a big detour. Another one: the elevators are upholstered but constantly smell like fried fish; and in front of the mirror there is a frilly lamp that blocks seeing your reflection.

The rooms are very edgy, both figuratively and literally. They have many sharp edges and corners that assault you. The bathroom walls are made of glass (!), the desk chair is sharp and totally transparent, the garbage can is made of sparse wires (no bag, of course, to not spoil the decoration), no clock at all (!!), and many other details that in the long run drive you batty. Plus, there is a bush at the back entrance that will knock you down if you aren’t watching. I’m serious, it happened to me and I got big bruises on my knees!

The only place that looks human is... the underground parking! It is extremely clean, quiet, has some soft music and it is not windy. After some walking in the windy, rainy weather and noisy traffic and construction sites in the neighborhood Darse said “At last, the warmth and cozy comfort of the underground parkade.”