Dublin

As my flight broke through the clouds to provide a first glimpse of the emerald isle the Garth Brooks' Ireland queued up on the Ipod- I couldn't decide if that was a good or bad omen for the coming couple of days. Bored of post New Years London I decided to head to Dublin for the weekend, I left on Friday and came back Monday night. The most exciting part of the trip I think was that the flight across cost about 15 pounds- very cool.

Friday

I arrived in old Dublin town around 12:30, by 1:30 I had dropped my bags at the Hostel and set off for the most obvious venue, St James Gate and the Guinness Factory. 45 minutes later I was still walking, apparently I should have taken a bus. Nonetheless eventually I arrived and did the tour - which was surprisingly good for that sort of thing, not a patch on the Nurdle version of the XXXX factory tour but still good. The best part would have to be the free pint of the Black stuff at the end- excellent.
Seeing it was now getting on to about 4:30- so therefore sunset in this ridiculous hemisphere I decided to set out on a pub crawl back to town, and a big night in the famous Temple Bar district. Unfortunately I didn't quite plan for how many pubs would be between the Factory and Temple Bar - so my plan for a pint per pup quickly became realistic. Through 5 pints I was still a couple of blocks short of the destination and starting to get a little messy, on the positive side though I was half way through the 10 pint challenge and starting to think I would easily reach the magic mark.

Although as anyone who has rang that bell will tell you pints 8-10 are the hardest, and as I reached 8 I realized I was beaten, I chewed through 8 and then 9 but then had to tap out. By now it was about 10:30pm (the last two pints must have taken an hour each) and I think I had started talking to myself- at least people (bouncers mostly) were beginning to treat me a little like a madman. Beaten I headed back to the hostel.

Saturday.

So Saturday, much touristing to do. Got going around 10 and headed to the famous Trinity College- home of the Book of Kells. I had a look around the college then went into the library for the star attraction, I thought 10 Euro was a bit steep to see some old book, but they had a good museum attached so in the end it was interesting. After an hour learning all about ancient book making and the importance of scribes in the monestaries I finally moved into the Book of Kells exhibit, and was confronted by this:

"Sic enim dilexit Deus mundum ut Filium suum unigenitum daret ut omnis qui credit in eum non pereat sed habeat vitam aeternam."

I did a double take, but I shit you not, the Book of Kells, written approximately ad 800 was open to John 3:16 - apparently the Irish custodians did have a sense of humor- I haven't laughed quite so heartily in quite a while- BRING BACK STONE COLD.

So anyways, after that I did some more touristing, but was really marking time before the important part of the day- Leinster- home of BOD were playing the Ospreys that night so I decided to go out and see if I could get a ticket. I headed for Donnybrook around 4 (3.5 hours before kick off) thinking I would easily get a ticket, then find a pub to watch the big FA cup match, then go to the game. Only this plan was ruined when I got out their and a nice old fellow laughed at me when I asked where to go to get tickets.

Defeated I headed to the nearest pub to drown my sorrows- which was a mistake as it was the main supporters pub and therefore full to bursting of jerks in Leinster gear- I got even more down hearted as the night went on and Arsenal (who apparently everyone hear hates- sorry Ashes) were beating Liverpool. Until I was finally saved about 15 minutes before kick off of the big game when over the loud speaker came the voice of my Saviour- five tickets available at the bar- saved.
Donnybrook is an awesome field, just like Ballymore but even smaller- max patronage must be all of 10 000 maybe less. The home team's back line included: Whiticker, Contempori, D Arcy, BOD, and Dennis Hickey- rock and roll. They rolled the Osprey's (who omitted Gavin Henson, but did include Brent Cockbain) easily- all in all a good night.

Two discussion points for a separate post include how the Argies with a fit Contempori, and Ireland could cause a huge upset and keep the hosts out of the second round at the RWC, and two how the ARU can loose a player like Chris Whitiker to a club whose home ground holds less then 10 000 people, and third (I know) is how good it will be if the national club comp can start to attract about this number of supporters- its just the right size crowd- easy to get a beer, but still some good atmosphere.

That would normally end the Saturday section of this post but for a bit of misadventure on the trip back into town. In the pub earlier I had set about drowning my sorrows with a couple of pints, then at the game for some reason I went out after the Bakers Dozen (missing by heaps I am sure) but regardless after the effort I was fairly drunk. I got on a bus back to town planning all sorts of mischief but fell asleep. I woke up after a time somewhere on the North side of town- I got off the bus and then realized I was lost- a fucking random street in the middle of nowhere in the rain- not cool. I wandered around for a while and finally found a bus stop- there were two random German looking backpackers who asked me if I knew the way into town- I gave them a bit of a strange look and said 'yeah just get on the next bus' - you see I was hoping that that would be right (I had crossed the street from where I had gotten off the bus so hopefully the next bus would be retracing steps...). The bus finally arrived and we all hoped on, but the fucking Dublin Bus Service only accepts coins for payment so all of a sudden B A Tron was in danger of not having the fair- but thankfully Hans and Fritz as I had decided to call them came back down the bus and paid for my fair for me- those Germans, a friendly bunch of people...

Sunday

So after my huge first two days in Dublin I decided that Sunday would be more low key. I went to the two big churches St Patrick's (of the day) and Christ Church and then also went out to Croke Park- the GAA home ground which at 82 300 is the third biggest stadium in Europe- it will host its first ever Rugby match on February 3rd- up until now it has been against the law to play English sports (Rugby and Soccer) at the home of Gaelic Football and Hurling. Those Irish know how to take their hatreds seriously...

After Croke I headed back into town and decided to have a walk around in Temple Bar- nothing serious, just a few brews. Hahahaha – it went bad when I got to my second pub and met Christina – a 35 year old Seppo from Cheyenne, Wyoming who was also in town for the weekend- we ended up getting pretty blind and having a huge night in Temple Bar- another big night.

Monday

I woke up in my own Hostel to the sound of rain- apparently my plans for a round of Golf where cactus, so I decided to do more touristing, I went to the Zoo which was good, lots of animals (as you would expect) but fuck all other people- probably because of the weather, which was also good.

(A Brazillian Tapir- Apparently best when roasted and served with apple sauce and a Waldorf Salad)
I then headed home to dreary old England- a 1 hour flight bookended by four hours of busses, queues, trains, and tubes- really Ryan Air might be cheap but the gates are so inaccessible that some times I wonder if its worth it.