Tuesday, 15 August
Started out with half an Irish breakfast (LOL),...2 toasts, 2 sausages, an egg, 1/2 tomato and a mug of coffee, 2.75 punts. {Note: Bring your own cigs; 3.80 punts/US$4.75 is the cheapest for a 20-pack. They sell 10-packs, too.}
The statue of James Connally is by the Custom House, under a railroad overpass (same railroad that runs behind Jacob's Inn, a good landmark!). He was a leader of the 1916 Uprising, executed by the English. The bronze statue stands in front of a huge granite "banner" with The Starry Plow emblazoned on it. The stars are gold-anodized metal and the Plow itself is made of stainless steel (at least that's what it looked like to me).
I walked over to the Irish Life Insurance building and sat on the edge of their fountain to rest my feet and write a bit in this journal. The fountain's bronze centerpiece is a massive chariot, pulled by two nearly life-sized horses, coming out of an ocean wave. The chariot is driven by a heroic bearded figure, probably Lir. The surfaces are rough, all the fingerprints from the clay model are right there, giving it an archaic flavor, even though the style of modelling looks modern and impressionistic, rather than realistic. It is not a light and airy water sculpture; rather, it gives the feeling of massive power possessed by storm surf crashing on a stony shore.
A very chic Irish Tigress, power-suited and carrying an attache case, came along and sat near me to take a break. I waited until she was done, and then begged her pardon and asked where I could get some walking shoes. She suggested a couple of shops and even walked part way with me to the nearest one, to make sure I didn't get on the wrong track. She was another in the series of unfailingly kind and helpful people which I met wherever I went in Ireland.
Got myself a good pair of walking shoes(21 punts) and went to American Express, (41 Nassau St.) & cashed $250 into 209.21 punts. Better rate than the $100 into 80.20 punts that I got at the airport Bank of Ireland desk. (The Am. Ex. rate is 83.68 per $100.) Went up to Dublin Tourist Bureau to sign up for 2 one-day bus tours: Newgrange and Glendalough, total 30 punts. Then I went back down Nassau St, which runs alongside the campus of Trinity College, and found a cafe/bakery which served great coffee and superb apple "tart" (=pie). That was all I needed at 2p.m. to keep me going until suppertime, after that 1/2 Irish breakfast, <*chuckle*>
On Nassau St., I met my first gypsy ( in Ireland, called "traveller") beggar, a young woman who looked East Indian, but was dressed like a classic "fortune-teller," and was nursing a baby. Her line was that she needed food so she could feed her child, a chubby-cheeked little cherub. Based on several later experiences, there seem to be two kinds of gypsies,- the "dark" ones who speak with an accent somewhat like Hungarian or Balkan, and "light" ones who sound more like regular Irish people (but with a "twist"). The women all dress in colourful scarves and long flowing skirts. The women seem to be the only ones that beg; their menfolk stand off and pretend to not know them, while they are hitting up the tourists.
Spent until 5 p.m., closing time. looking at the arrows and axes in the National Museum on Kildare St., the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age artifacts. Didn't have enough time to get into the Medieval collection or the Viking displays. There were many gold ornaments and a HUGE dugout canoe, 59 feet long. The earlier gold "lunar crescents" are very thin and inscribed with intricate geometric patterns and fine hatch-lines. There were many gold bracelets & "dress fasteners," hair ornaments, and earrings, also fat gold rings with a little slit in them that were presumed to be money. They certainly were far too little in the middle to fit on even a baby's pinky finger.
I spent much of the time looking at the developing tools from 7000 or 8000 BC on up to Bronze Age [around 900 BC]. The Neolithic artifacts looked to me like what you might see in an American Indian exhibit. Ther were significant differences in the way the shafts were fastened to arrowheads, but the basic point design developed like in the New World, -- flaked flint, later they were polished and thus smoother. Some of the ceremonial mauls were very beautiful, especially one made from a mottled red and white stone with carving of spirals on it that looked like a curling wave.
Then there was the poor mummy they found in a bog, strangled. The guide who was telling (I snuck up and listened) said he was probably someone who was highly respected, a perfect physical specimen, dressed in a ceremonial deerskin. The body had been in much better condition when it came out of the peat, she said. His beard was intact and limbs weren't as shrunken and shriveled as they are now. She said the archaeologists surmised that he was sacrificed to appease the gods.
At 5 o'clock, I went over a couple of blocks and got the wrong bus, winding up in the suburbs northwest of town. Caught a bus back to the GPO (the post office), after snapping a few pictures of brick townhouses, a palmetto, and "housing estates" ( the "projects," i. e. the slums). Got back to GPO at 6:30. Got stamps for the postcards I'd bought. The GPO was used as a "fort" by the rebels in the 1919 Easter Uprising, and the fluted columns in front are scarred by bullets. The building burned in that fray and has been beautifully restored. Polished granite of many colours inside & old-style woodwork. Paintings of the struggle are every 10-12 feet around the very large reception area (reminded me of Stations of the Cross).
Then I walked in the general direction of Jacob's Inn (the hostel) and hit it, right on! Was some pleased with myself, especially since my feet were complaining loudly, even with these new walking shoes which are very comfortable. Probably walked 4-5 miles today.
This hostel is the most expensive one in Dublin, but it's worth it. Excellent showers and kitchen as well as the breakfast/lunch shop. They have a nice rec room, too. "Mad Max" is on the TV, ugh.