Living that Vienna life

So I mentioned I am staying in the Wahring district of Vienna. I am in one of those tall apartment building that stand one after another in long rows.  The place I’m in is 125 years old. 

When you enter the building there is a cement staircase that is in a spiral that goes up as high as 3 stories. I’m sure it is the original staircase because of how it’s built and it’s appearance. At first it was kind of scary to go down, but now I’m used to it. 

What’s weird is that if you come in at night, there are no lights in the hallways or on the staircase. Maybe we don’t know how to turn them on, I don’t know. Kind of eerie. Especially in an old building. Probably ghosts of former residents wander the hallways.

On one level there is this wash basin thing (see picture) outside an apartment, obviously part of the original building. Maybe you washed your hands before you go in.

So the place itself is very decent. It’s weirdly designed in that there is a large room with a double bed and living room area. There is a kitchen. There is a small bedroom and a bathroom. The toilet is in its own small room. When you have to spend some time in there (!) it could be claustrophobic. 

The beds have very firm mattresses. Apparently Austrians and Germans like their beds firm.

Of course there is no air conditioning. A couple of good fans though. No screens on windows. Washing machine

is in the bathroom. No dryer. All of this has been standard with the trip except usually no fans.

To one side of the building is an outdoor market selling produce, flowers. There are a couple of restaurants that only have outdoor seating. One is fish. So smell of fish is strong. We aren’t on that side. 

There is a church about a block away that rings bells at 7 am, then at 7:45 am in case you didn’t hear it the first time. Then it ring at 6:15 pm and again at 7:00 pm. This is every day.

About a block away is street with groceries, coffee shops, clothing stores, restaurants, anything you need. Tram runs on that street. Train station couple blocks away. 

That is life in a Vienna neighborhood.

Tales from the Vienna church crypts

 St Stephens (Stephansdom) church in Vienna started being built in 1137 . Up until the 1700’s there was a cemetery surrounding the church. In about 1718 the cemetery

was closed and a crypt was built beneath the church. Between 1745 and 1783 over 10,000 people were buried in the crypts beneath the cathedral.

Well the crypts got filled to the brim and were walled off. Apparently this caused quite a bad smell. Only a small group of people were allowed into the crypts.

When the crypt got full, prisoners were sent in to stack the bones to make more room. There are cavernous ossuaries (container or room where bones of the dead are put) full of skulls and bones. 

The crypts have two sections. One part is for the bishops and in the past, nobility. In other words the rich and powerful. That area has caskets and urns. The other part is much darker and contains ossuaries where the skulls and bones are. This where the common folk ended up.

There is a tour where you can go down there and look at the whole thing, including looking down to see the skulls and bones. All for the low price of $5. Did I go down there? No. I’ll pass. 

Is Vienna public transport free?

Vienna has something that would probably never work in the U.S. its entire transit system is based on honesty. 

Vienna has commuter rail type train (SBahn), subway type train (UBahn), tram system, buses. You can use the same ticket for all of it. Same price. Here’s the thing: nobody is ever really going to check to see if you have a ticket.  There are no machines to put your ticket through, no ticket checks on the trains, trams or buses. It is entirely based on you doing the responsible thing of buying the ticket. Bazaar.

Hold everything!!!! They actually do spot checks. The conductor (driver) can decide to conduct a check. There are sometimes people who check at stops. There can be an inspector on the train. People are still RARELY checked.  You could probably easily get away with riding free. Fine for non payment: $105. A 2020 survey showed only 2% of people stopped didn’t have a valid ticket.

This is not the first city we’ve been in with this policy. In London you had to tap a card or ticket in and out. In Manchester we took the the tram. Nobody asked about a ticket. In Edinburgh there were random checks. In Belfast paid for bus like you would any bus. Dublin, nobody checked. Waterford and Cardiff we walked. 

Transport going from city to city is one of the more complicated things we figure out. What is the system? What part of it will we take? Where do we go to take it. It doesn’t take long to figure it out.  Now that we are in non English speaking countries it’s even more complicated.

But it’s part of the fun right? Har. It’s just part of the whole thing. Cant change it.

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August 29, 2022 at 06:07PM

Why are Vienna sausages in that little can?

 

I hope this isn't insulting but what I know about Vienna is Vienna bread (my mom bought it), Vienna sausage (in the little can) and it’s known for music. Beethoven, Brahms, etc.

We thought about going to Austria in the spring but changed our mind. France was too expensive in the last part of August so we did some rearranging. We’ll be here a week.

We are staying in a building that is 125 years old. It is in the Währing district. It’s considered a suburb of Vienna. 

It has an interesting history. It was one of the centers of Austrian resistance during World War 2. A Catholic priest and a local citizen organized a group. It passed on plans and production facilities of rockets, tanks and planes to the Allies. They were able to bomb the facilities and protect residential neighborhoods. 

It is also on the edge of the Vienna forest, a 500 square mile forest. Within it are 2 cities, a mountain almost 3,000 feet high, 150 types of birds and 2000 plant species.

Other Vienna fun facts: (har)

1) The snow globe was invented in Vienna. 

2) OPEC headquarters

3) It has 450 balls a year. Big dancers these folks.

4) Vienna boys choir has been around since 1498.

5) German word for Vienna is Wein. So you see the word here, there and everywhere.

6) The end.

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August 28, 2022 at 06:56PM

Ryanair hawks scratch off tickets on their flights

 We flew on Ryanair from Dublin to Vienna. Kind of reluctant to book it but it’s cheaper. Other than leaving a half hour late, it was fine. 

It was one of those get on from the tarmac planes up some stairs. Aisle was reasonably wide. We had good leg room because we sat in the exit row. Interesting story about that…

The flight attendant took one passenger in the exit rows booze away that they bought at the airport. I don’t know if you can’t drink your own booze on the flight or if they don’t want exit row passengers drunk. 

Ryan air is no frills. You pay for carry on luggage. You pay for a coke or water or snack. First thing that happened was the flight attendant tried to sell us the inflight magazine. Then the $3 water, pop came through. Half way into the flight an announcement is made that they will be coming down the aisle with things for sale: perfume, cosmetics, electronics, jewelry, everything but the kitchen sink.

You could buy a $15 scratch off ticket. They came down the aisle twice in case you changed your mind. 

It was an older plane. The seats weren’t really comfortable. Sounds like I hated it. No it was fine. The flight attendants were great.

What is like to travel to 5 countries in 3 months?

In 13 weeks we have been to 5 countries: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland.  Three plane rides. Eight train rides. Five air bnbs. Three hotels. And a partridge in a pear tree.

In London we took the underground which was convenient and easy but sometimes involved walking long distances going up and down stairs. In Cardiff we walked. In Manchester we took the tram. In Scotland we took the tram. In Belfast took the bus. In Dublin took the tram. In Waterford we walked. 

The hardest part of this trip is traveling to the new place . Trains are fiascos half the time. Adjusting to staying in a new place so often is hard.

Figuring out local transportation such as trams is pretty easy because there is always a ticket machine at the stop. Buses are hairier for two reasons: 1) Sometimes you have to go to a specific place to wait, like Parnell stop 6004. The buses that run on the same street might stop every other stop or something. Another thing we learned the hard way is that you have to have exact change when you get on the bus. No cards. No change given. 

Since we have been in Ireland, we deal in Euros which is so much easier and almost equivalent to USD. In the UK it was pounds and it was confusing. 

Some things that are different in the UK and Ireland: No dryers. Clothes are hung to dry on racks. Washing machines are confusing and can take 2 hours or more a load. No air conditioners. One hotel had none but it had a fan. No screens on windows. Naprosyn is a prescription med here. (WTF!) They have “digestive biscuits” (crackers) that you can eat and they have an antacid effect. Black pudding, fish pie, beans at breakfast, sausage rolls, chips(fries), haggis. 

It’s been an interesting trip so far. Cant wait for tomorrow!

those rebellious Irish

those rebellious Irish
those rebellious Irish

 Tomorrow we leave Ireland. I am really sad about that. I cannot believe we have been here for a month. It has been a once in a lifetime experience. I grew up being told I was 100% Irish by my mom. Of course that wasn’t true and if I believe ancestry DNA I am about half Irish. I will always consider myself 100% Irish! What else would I want to be? I reject my other heritage, dammit!

Starting in Belfast was weird because of the continued tension there. The history of the troubles is real there even now. I learned a lot about Northern Ireland history. Although I’m no long a practicing Catholic, I thought about what it would have been like to be Catholic in Northern Ireland. Cant help but admire the Catholic people and their struggle for an equal place in society. I don’t think they’ve achieved it yet.

I was kind of thrown by Dublin at first. I thought so this is all about tourism? The Temple bar? There is so much more to Dublin than that. There is a rich culture and history. Dublin played such a major role in the country’s independence. It feels weird to be staying right in the area where a lot of it took place.I absolutely loved learning about Irish history. It gives you a real understanding of irish people and my background and the people in my family.

My great grandfather John was born a year before the famine hit. He grew up in a tumultuous time in Ireland after the famine. Imagine having 1 million people starve and 1 million people leave and the effect that has on the country, on the Irish psyche. It probably continues to affect people to this day because many more people left after the famine.

Every Irish I have met has had a relative in the United States or they have been to the United States. There’s a close connection.

Finally there’s Waterford, where my Dads family came from. His family is still here. Some left. It has been so interesting to see the area they lived in, to learn the history of Waterford and imagine what life must have been like for them going back to 1790, as far as I can trace them.

People in Waterford are friendly, saying hello to strangers, eager to talk to. 

So as we leave Ireland, if I had to describe it I would say there is a sense of melancholy.  Definition of melancholy: a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause. 

Other words to describe Irish people: resilient, rebellious, joyful. In a way that describes me. God knows I’m resilient. I’m defenitely rebellious(!). I’m happy, haven’t always been.

I think the part of the Irish people I like the best is the rebel in them. They never gave up, fighting til they won.

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August 25, 2022 at 09:36PM


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August 26, 2022 at 03:11AM
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August 26, 2022 at 04:46AM

Homeless in Waterford

 We were sitting by the river this evening and an older guy stops and tells us his story. He lives in his car. We had seen him earlier making a meal on what looked like a barbecue. He had a big sign on his car that said something about homeless.

He lived on a farm but had to sell it due to problems with his neighbors. He never said what the problem was. He says he was harassed, car vandalized. He was beat up. No charges were ever filed against the people who did it. He however was arrested once. I think he said he took it to court and won.

He also said that he was outspoken about local police corruption and the problems he’s had problably had something to do with that.

Anyway, he has now made getting compensated, telling his story his life mission. When he sold the farm, he gave the money to lawyers and his kids, keeping some for himself. He managed to live in hotels for a few years but is now homeless. 

He spends his days telling his story. 

This is what happens in Waterford Ireland on a beautiful evening sitting by the river. A stranger tells you the story of his life.

Irelands number one town

What is interesting about Waterford? After all it’s a town of only 53,000. So let me tell you.

It is Irelands oldest city. In the 900’s Viking pirates starting raiding it. (They came all that way?!) Eventually they started a settlement here at the point where two rivers, the Suir and John’s (yup good ol’ John got his own river) come together as they make their way to the ocean.  

So they set up a tower at that point where the rivers intersected. The town/ settlement was in back of that and was shaped like a triangle. Eventually more Vikings settled there and a wall was built around the triangle. 

So things were going great for the Vikings til the native Irish attacked and took the triangle. Well the Irish were feeling pretty good about themselves when a few years later those pesky Vikings returned and took it over again. 

They kept it for over 200 years until, you guessed it, the English came in and took over in the 1100’s.  As time went on and more and more towns were established, the English nobility owned the land and rented it to the Irish. Eventually the Irish got fed up and took back their country.

Waterford was a big shipping center  and still is somewhat. That shaped the city, brought more people. Waterford crystal set up in the late 1700’s and employed thousands. Cattle farms and crop farms surround Waterford. 

Ireland had a big boom in the late 1980’s to 2008 when the recession hit. Waterford crystal shut down (now reopened), a tech firm and bank headquarters left, leaving the town economically devastated. 

It’s still here, keeping on, surviving just like a million small towns. People here really care about the town. It has a bright future. It has been named best place to live in Ireland.

Would I live in Waterford Ireland?

 I was thinking what would it be like to live in a place like Waterford. It’s a town of 53,000. I live in a city of 424,000. 

Waterford shuts down it’s retail and a lot of restaurants at 5-530 pm. I don’t really go to bars, but they close 12-1230 am.Waterford does have a couple small shopping centers. It has a couple of big grocery stores. You can get pretty much what you need here. Has arts community, small theatres.  People care about the town.

 Lots of beautiful towns on the coast and inland. Big advantage: beach is close. Dublin is 1 1/2 hours away. Bigger sports, retail, concerts.  Airport.

It’s definitely a slower pace. Less crime.  Probably really focused on friends and family. They become your entertainment.

Weather is moderate temp wise. Normally lots of clouds, fair amount of rain. Where I live snow and cold six months out of the year. 

Could I live here? No. I’m just too used to big city life. It’s not even that I take advantage of all big cities offer. I don’t go to museums, plays, even concerts. I live a simple life. It’s just that I am used the feel of a big city. I have lived in it all my life. I like the diversity. The variety. The changes. 

I don’t like all the problems that come with living in an American moderately big city. Crime. Violence. Poverty. Racism.

So it puts you between a rock and a hard place. I don’t have the answer.

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August 22, 2022 at 10:34PM

Waterford rolls up the streets at 5 pm

 I came to Waterford because it is where my dad’s family is from. I have traced the family back to about 1785.  That would be my 4th great grandfather David. I have located his son Philip born 1810’s, address. Philips son John, born 1844, left Ireland in 1868 at 24 and eventually ended up in Minnesota and married Ellen, also from Ireland.  They had Joseph Patrick in 1879 who married Leona and had my dad Bill in in 1922. Then came me and my brother.

And there you are.

Waterford is a charming town. It looks European. Sits on the River Suir. It is the oldest city in Ireland. It was the first place to fly the Irish flag. 

It was established in 862 by Viking raiders. They were driven out by native Irish in 902, but made a comebackin 914. and stayed until 1162. Then the king of England landed and the English took over. There was a brief Catholic government from 1642-1649 but it was squashed and the British retook control of Waterford. That lasted until 1922 when Ireland gained conditional independence from the British, and then real independence in 1949. John Finn was long gone by then.

Waterford was a big shipping port. It became famous for a crystal company that started in 1783. My family were farmers. I think some of them still live along the same road that Philip did. 

Waterford doesn’t feel like a tourist town. I don’t think it gets a lot of tourists from other countries unless there is some kind of connection for them. It is interesting that we have not seen one Irish tourist shop since we have been here. I think people come from surrounding small towns to the pubs and shopping. 

It has a pretty long Main Street. There are no big name stores here. There are locally owned stores and pubs. It’s a city of 53,000.  It’s pretty diverse for a city it’s size. The stores close at 5 pm, the pubs at 1230 am. 

I like it.

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August 21, 2022 at 09:05PM

3 months on the road: reflections

 

So far we we’ve been to London, Cardiff, Wales, Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin.

My favorite so far: definitely Scotland. I loved everything about Edinburgh - the people, music, culture, the landmarks, the beauty. Linlithgow, where we stayed, was absolutely beautiful by the loch there. 

There is just something about Scotland. It’s.moody and temperamental. The people seem down to earth, friendly, authentic, a little bit eccentric. Perfect. I plan to go back some day and see more of that beautiful country. 

Every place has been great! Starting in historic London with its beautiful architecture and distinct neighborhoods.  It was fasted paced and crowded. The diversity made it really interesting.

On to Cardiff, a place we never expected to go. We added at the last minute. I loved Cardiff. Compared to the other cities, it was a small town. It was like a relic with a big castle in the middle. It felt like an easy place to fit in, accepting and no frills.

Manchester was fun. Young and hip. A mix of old and new. I loved riding through the neighborhoods along the canals. Water everywhere. No too big and not too smalll. Has everything you’d want: culture, music, restaurants, bars without being frenzied. One of my favorite places. 

Ah, Belfast, a city with a sad history and a lot of it continues to this day. Walls between religions still stand long after the peace agreements. The troubles still hang over the city. Hopefully some day, this city can come together. 

Last but certainly not least, Dublin. I read a lot of the history of Dublin and Ireland while I was here. Learned where the struggle for Irish independence took place in Dublin particularly.  History is everywhere going to medieval times with churches and old buildings and pubs. 

A lot of Irelands history had been tragic, but they have been resilient. So many people died and left Ireland during the famine, it devastated the country but they overcame again and again. 

With all the immigration, Irish culture, music, history has spread around the world, especially in the United States. 

This coming week is our last one in the UK and Ireland. We will be in Waterford, where my dads family came from.

Ireland is magic

Ireland is magic

So what are my impressions of Dublin, of Ireland so far? The people are resilient. The countryside is beautiful. Sounds kind of corny, but it’s magical.

Until the 17th century. Ireland was a series of territories ruled by kings or chiefs. It was made up of clans and divided by class (In other words, haves and have nots). The territories often fought with other. Gaelic Ireland had its own distinct dress, music, art, sport, etc.

Christianity came in the 4th century replacing paganism. The Vikings came in the 8th century. In 1169 came the Norma invasion and turbulent 800 years of English Rule. In 1916 rebels rose up for Irish independence but failed. Six years they would achieve  independence but with continued apron strings tied to England. In 1949 finall full independence finally came.

The Irish story, like that of many others, is one of struggle and perseverance. They kept coming back. People here know their history and are proud of it. They tell you about it.

Ireland is as beautiful as you think it is with hills and valleys, beautiful coastlines. It is as green as you have seen in pictures. The weather is temperamental with fog, clouds, rain and sun all in one day. It adds to the mystical qualities. When it’s foggy , you can imagine creatures from the other world hiding in the nooks and crannies.

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August 18, 2022 at 09:20PM

Dublin is more than the temple bar and leprechauns

 

Four Courts

The Temple bar area, all the Irish gift shops, hop on hop off buses are such a small part of Dublin.

The real Dublin is in the north part of the city which is rich in history. It is in the General Post Office (GPO) building which was the headquarters of the Easter rising rebels in 1916.  On April 24th 1916 Patrick Pearce read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic there. 

The uprising was a failure. All the leaders were executed. They were buried in Arbour Hill Cemetery on the north side. Their efforts were a failure but they inspired a struggle for freedom for Ireland.

It is in the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square.  It is a place for “all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom”. It is also the place where the Irish Volunteers were founded. They would later become the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The IRA played a large part in the war for independence. 

Last, it is in the Four Courts. The Four Courts is a series of buildings that house different court systems for Ireland.

 There was a civil war after a treaty was negotiated with England that gave Ireland independence but still kept it in the commonwealth. The newly formed government favored the treaty. It divided the IRA with some favoring the treaty and some rejecting it because they thought Ireland should be completely free. 

The anti treaty rebels occupied the Four Courts buildings.It was attacked by the army. The fight went on for a week destroying part of the complex. The rebels lost and the treaty was accepted. It wouldn’t be until 1949 that Ireland would gain full independence.

To think I am staying right in the middle of where that all happened.

What a bloody mess

Breakfast is included in the price of the hotel we are staying at. It offers a full “Irish breakfast”. 

What’s in an Irish breakfast you say? Well let me tell you.  There are scrambled eggs. There is bacon. The bacon is not your thin crispy strip of bacon common in the U.S. No, this bacon is round, thick and not as done as I’m used to. It’s kind of like round Canadian bacon. There are sausages, BIG sausages. There are sautéed mushrooms. There are baked beans. There are potato cakes. 

And now the funnest part of the meal - the pudding.When I think pudding, I thinking creamy chocolate goodness. But oh no …this not creamy goodness. 

I had been wondering what these dishes of black disc shaped things were. Beside it was a dish of lighter color disc shaped ones.  I thought it was some kind of overcooked sausage.  Nope, turns off this is pudding - black and white pudding. Also served in the UK.

I had looked it up and black pudding has pork or beef blood, pork or beef fat and oatmeal or barley. It also has a herb called pennyroyal, a sort of mint type herb.

White pudding has oatmeal or barley, pork or beef fat, breadcrumbs, spices and sometimes pork meat or liver. No blood in this one.

It’s the notorious pudding of the UK and Irish. Why is it called pudding for cripes sake? Pudding is liquify. Everybody knows that (smh).

So there you have it - an Irish breakfast. I have been reluctant to try some of of the local foods on this trip like haggis, fish pie, sausage roll, etc., but this looked so, shall we say different, I had to try it. 

So I bravely bit into it…wait for it…it tasted like spiced bread, yeasty, kinda bland. It wasn’t awful. It wasn’t great. It just was. It’s all in what you are used to I guess Did I go back for more? No.

Could you eat 14 lbs of potatoes a day?

 Between 1841 and 1901 Ireland lost six million people. The population was cut in half. People had been emigrating prior to the famine, but that crisis opened the flood gates. 

My great grandpa John was born in Waterford Ireland to Phillip and Catherine  on the eve of the famine in 1844. He emigrated when he was 25 years old. So he left in 1869. He was part of the great immigration from Ireland to the U.S.

In 1845 half of the potato crop was destroyed by blight, a type of fungus. People managed to survive that year. When it came back the following year people started to starve to death.

For most of the Irish people potatoes were the daily diet. They were easy to grow and plentiful in the climate. The way Ireland was set up with the English owning most of the land and renting it to the Irish, it was all they could afford. So when the crop failed they were in serious trouble.

With little help from the English government they began to die of starvation and disease. They couldn’t pay rent so they were evicted by the thousands. 

0ne million people died during the famine. One million people left Ireland during the famine. After the famine and potato blight ended, people kept leaving leaving by the hundreds of thousands til half the population was gone, among them my great granddad John. He settled in Minnesota, married and had 10 children, among them my grandpa Joe. 

Grandpa Joe had eleven children, among them my father Bill. Can you tell they were Irish Catholics? 

The average Irish man ate 14 pounds of potatoes a day prior to the famine. Seems like a lot of potatoes doesnt it? It isn’t if you divide into 3 meals a day.  That’s 4.6 pounds of potatoes a meal or maybe 5-6 potatoes a meal.

Brazen Head debauchery

 What would Dublin be without pubs? There would be plenty of space since there are 776 of them in Dublin alone. 

The city of Dublin has 544,000 people. That’s 1 pub per 700 people. Thats about 3 times as many bars here compared to where I live. 

The pub is one of the central aspects of Irish culture. Going

way back to when there were kings in each area of Ireland. One of the rules was that each king had their own brewer. It was expected in ancient Ireland that there would be a place of hospitality for anyone to meet, rest and have a drink in each county.

In the 17th and 18th century pubs became the norm for common people as a place to gather without having to pay a fee for a private club. If you could pay for a pint, you were welcome.

They became a place for political gatherings as well. The Easter uprising and war of independence were planned in pubs. 

The oldest pub in Dublin is the Brazen Head dating back to the 17th century still serving pints today. There’s debauchery in that there pub. I tell ya there is…

Pubs are places locals hang out in their neighborhood to socialize, hear news, watch football and of course drink. People know each other. It’s a part of life and Irish culture.  Every neighborhood has a local pub or two or three, maybe four.

They can also be big money makers. Tourist flock to them in the Temple Bar district every night of the week. The Temple bar itself has had thousand of selfies in front of it. The bouncer sits there with a smirk on his face taking it all in.

Dublin disappointment

I’m finding that I can’t trust my initial impression of a place. Dublin is a good example of that. 

Being Irish felt like a big thing all my life, I had big expectations coming here. Initially I was disappointed and kinda mad about Dublin. 

I remember after seeing the central part thinking: Really this is it? A crowded tourist place with nothing Irish about it? What did I expect? Not leprechauns, fairies and shamrocks that’s for sure. I expected music. Irish music. 

Every city has buskers especially in tourist areas. I expected them to be playing Irish music here. They weren’t. They played American rock mostly. WTF? 

Of course the music here is in the pubs. Neither of us are drinkers, so we havent gone into any pubs. Silly, I know. I’ll remedy that shortly.

It wasn’t long before I started looking into the history

of Ireland. Of Dublin. I really only had very broad knowledge about the country. Knew it was divided. New about the troubles. Had formed a tourist impression of the rest of it. It was a sort of background place in my life but I never really looked into it. That changed here. I read up on the history. 

History makes a people. History has made Ireland. Ireland has only been independent of English rule since 1921. Even then, they were part of the UK until 1949. Prior to that, the monarchy and UK government had a part in external affairs . That ended in 1949 when they became the Republic of Ireland. 

So it has only been 73 years since Ireland has been completely independent. The history of English rule has greatly influenced the country. They were treated like shit a lot of the time. That and the struggle for independence probably has shaped the Irish character.

 Put that in the middle of a beautiful island with a unique culture of music, literature and humor and you have Ireland. It’s magic.

the Temple Bar is in the Temple Bar

 Who hasn’t seen pictures of the Temple Bar in Dublin? It’s THE place to have your picture taken. Actually, there are two Temple Bars in Dublin.

THE Temple bar lies within the area of Dublin known as Temple Bar. A bit confusing. It is known as the cultural center of Dublin. It’s definitely a tourist hot spot. 

The area was outside the walled city of Dublin sort of like a suburb. The city itself was controlled by the English king, so the area outside was often attacked by native Irish and became rundown in the 14th century.

In the 17th century wealthy Englishmen built houses there near the river. The street along the river became known as Temple Bar, probably named after Sir William Temple, who came to Ireland as part of the military. He built a house in the area. He and his family were prominent. Either this is the story or it was named after the Temple Bar district in London. You decide.

In the 18-20th century it deteriorated becoming an area of crime and prostitution. In the 1970-80s, a company wanted to

tear a lot of it down and build a bus terminal. While this was being planned, artists moved into low rent buildings. The bus depot idea was dropped after protest about it. Plans were made to make it a culture area.

The Temple Bar itself dates to 1840. It has had many owners over the years . It wasn’t named the Temple Bar until 1992 when the current owners bought it. 

It is now one of the most identifiable places in Dublin. The thing is, most Dubliners would never go there deeming it overpriced and a tourist trap. 

This hotel is haunted by crying babies

 Where I’m staying is a very interesting place.  Part of the hotel used to be an infants hospital. That building was incorporated into the new hotel. It is now used for rooms.

In 1919 Sinn Fein, a political party instrumental in establishing the Irish Free State, set up a womens committee. They, along with two women doctors set up St. Ultans Infants Hospital. That building is now part of the hotel.

 Interestingly, their first concern was treating women  and infants who contracted venereal diseases from returning soldiers from world war 1. That was the basis of them wanting to focus on women and infant care. It was a big problem. They did lots of education.

One of the doctors, Katherine Lynn,  worked with the rebels during the fight to free Ireland from English rule. She was jailed afterwards.

They wanted the hospital to be a “university for mothers”. They started educational “babies clubs” for mother to decrease infant mortality. They encouraged breastfeeding.

By the the late 1930’s, the hospital had 35 beds. They became leaders in TB research. They pointed out the connection between poverty and disease. 

Most of all they were a women established hospital dedicated to the needs of women and children. It changed Ireland and Irish medicine.

How did I discover all this? I noticed this unusual part of the hotel and asked someone at the desk about it. Then I looked it up on the internet and learned the story. 

Below is what it looked like way back then. The hospital name is in Irish. There’s a picture of it as part of the hotel. Last is some of the nurses and babies.

Dublin where for art thou?

 One thing I have noted about the big cities is that there is the tourist version and the real version. I suppose that makes sense. Over here it’s so much more obvious.   

London was a big busy mix of tourists and locals. Just overwhelmingly crowded everywhere you went. It’s obvious there were a lot of tourists but there were a lot of londoners too. London is so diverse, every other person spoke a different language. London was very distinct with its own history and culture.

Edinburgh is another big tourist city. Oriented toward tourists. However it still maintained a real sense of Scottish culture with the bagpipes and kilts and overall feel of it. The castle, the port, the atmosphere. 

Dublin is an interesting city. It is overwhelming oriented toward the tourist and thousands of them flock here. It’s very crowded. Dublin has decided that people come here for the pubs. There are so, so

many of them. They overwhelm the city. 

There is music in a lot of them. There is an area of central Dublin called temple bar (not the bar this is the name of the area). It has THE temple bar in it, but it has a lot of other bars in it too. It is an overwhelmingly tourist area. Thousands of people fill the streets in the evenings. 

Is what makes Dublin Irish all the pubs? It feels like you have to search out other Irish culture in Dublin. It doesn’t feel like a lot of it is emphasized. You could easily come here and spend a lot time in pubs and think that’s Dublin.

Dublin is a lot more than that. I’m finding you have to go away from the pubs to find it.

Seagulls are not my friend

 Seagulls here are not my friend. I noticed the further north you go, the bigger the seagull, the louder the seagull.

I have always like seagulls. Pretty and graceful as they glide through the sky. Where I live they are not that loud. Just a fun thing to look at. 

Here they are LARGE. I swear they are as big as an eagle. They are very loud. They will sit on top of buildings and squawk and it will echo down the street. When two of them are doing it, forget it…

They are really noticeable in cities on water which makes sense. They circle around, 30 at a time over an area. They will walk right up to you just like a pigeon. 

Why the interest in seagulls you ask? I’m getting to it. 

Let me set the scene: it’s a beautiful day in Dublin. We are sitting by a pond in St Stephens Green park. There are seagulls, ducks all around. They walk around. They swim in the pond. They soar overhead. It’s an idyllic scene. Or at least it was.

We get ready to go. I stand up and I feel water on my hand. I move my purse a little bit and there it is! One of the bastards has managed to shit between my shirt and purse. I never knew it happened. I didn’t see it happen. It was not obvious. Somehow they went perfectly in the place between my shirt and purse. The perfect placement was amazing. 

I went somewhere and cleaned it off. Gross. I’m lucky. It could have been on my head. Not so much a fan of seagulls anymore. 

I met Mary in the park

 So today I met Mary at the park. She was probably 80. Dubliner all her life.  I was sitting in Iveagh gardens park and so was she. I had come there for the fountains. They weren’t on. 

I went over to ask her were they ever on? She told me they were on until noon. That started the conversation. I learned a lot from Mary (like you always do from older people). 

She told me this park (which is sort of a secret park popular with Dubliners) was the front yard of the Guinness family of beer fame. St Patrick’s Greene park down the way was the back part. Their old house is the Irish Ministery of foreign affairs. 

She said that when the place was too “common”, they moved to the coast and donated all of it to the city. We’re talking a huge swathe of land here.

She asked me what part of the US I was from. When told her where, she said her brother lived in Milwaukee and she had visited him in the 1960s. She loved the city. 

She had two brother who went to the US. One lived in Massachusetts and been “Irishman of the year”. Quite successful, that one. She had been to the US a few times.

I told her I had been to Belfast and she was disgusted with what has gone on there.  “It’s not about religion, it’s about politics”. London keeping control in other words.

Older people love to talk. I found that out as a nurse. You can learn so much about them in a short time. What you learn is usually really interesting.

That’s the fountain in Iveagh park.

Are you lace curtain or shanty Irish?

There seem to be a lot of lace curtains in Ireland these days. I’m not kidding. Walk through a neighborhood and you’ll see them. 

Lotsa high fallutin’ people round here as my mom would say. You don’t even have to ask because these are the lace curtain Irish. 

Me, I grew up shanty Irish back in the U.S. My mom would say sometimes we were showin’ we were shanty Irish. 

Everyone who came to America started out shanty Irish. They were poor and lived in shanties. Shanty defined: “a small crudely built shack”. The shanties took the form of tenements in New York.

Hopefully you would move up in life, make more money and become a lace curtain Irish. You would find yerself among the high mukkety muks of the world. Example of lace curtain Irish: the Kennedy. Definitely lace curtain. Even though patriarch Joe had a bit of a shady background.

So if you were Irish you were probably Catholic. Irish Catholics had big families. Sometimes twelve kids. Everybody was baptized. The girls dressed up what is essentially a child wedding dress for communion. The boys in a white suit. Then there was the confirmation. Nobody really understood that.

Confession. You go in a wooden booth where you can’t see the priest. You are a 6 year old kids thinking up sins to tell the priest. Then you would get a penance of three Hail Marys and four Our Fathers. What a strange deal it all was. 

Any self respecting Catholic parent would send their kids to Catholic school if they could. I went one year. 5th grade. St Lawrence school. Sister Rose Angela. The nuns still wore habits. We wore uniforms. 

The boys and girls played on one playground, the girls on another. What I mostly remembers is the fact that we were heathens(ha). We didn’t go to church every Sunday. What if the nuns at school found out? They never did. After the year, I went back to the unholy public school.

Where are the damn leprechauns?

 Ever since I came to the land of Eire one week ago, I have been looking for them. Where are they? 

Sometimes I think I see them but it turns it’s some kid with red hair and a green t shirt. They look at me funny when I go from a big smile to a frown in two seconds flat.. They usually start crying. It’s a mess. 

When I was in Belfast I asked a woman on the bus what time do the leprechauns appear? She got really angry and shouted “They’re not real you foolish American!” Wow, calm down lady. You don’t have to believe in them if you don’t want to. Cripes.

The world could use some leprechauns right now, mischief makers that they are. We’re all too serious. We could use a few practical jokes. Hey wait a minute…have they been around all along? Is that what the years 2016-20 were in the United States? A big practical joke? It would explain a lot…

Oh but I digress. So I had almost given up on my pilgrimage to the nooks and crannies of Ireland looking for the little green men …when a brilliant light appeared. And there it was, The National Leprechaun museum of Ireland.

At last! Apparently this is where they hang out, live, party, get into mischief. I have to go. Now I’m not much of a museum goer especially if it lightens my wallet. I will make an exception in this case. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Beware the glittery vases in west Belfast

  One of the things I like to do in every place we are is walk around the neighborhoods. You see the houses, the stores, parks, people going about their everyday life. 

The houses here are terraced just any other UK city. Here they have tiny front yards where the put flowers or sometimes just gravel.

The other day on our way back from the peace wall, we walked through a Catholic neighborhood.  It was on a busy street with the usual terraced houses, neatly kept.

Then we came to a section where there were small artificial turf lawns in front. Then I noticed that the houses had these glittery silver vases in the front windows with different designs. 

I wondered what’s this about? Is this some kind of tradition? A religious thing? I looked it up online. It’s just a thing they do on some west Belfast streets.

There were a lot of people from Belfast who made sarcastic remarks about the phenomenom saying they were tacky, some kind of competitions with neighbors.

Here’s my favorite remark: 

“It’s for the ashes of your enemies, sometimes pets. But mainly enemies. Be very afraid”.

Here’s another good one:

“It’s an anti burglary measure. It says this house and everything in it is tacky. There is nothing worth stealing”.

I was thinking you could turn the the from artificial turf patch into a putting green. 

At Christmas you could put one of those 1960’s color wheel lamp for silver trees and shine it on the tree. Voila! Instant Christmas decoration!

Is there liquor in that tote bag?

 It doesn’t seem to matter where you are in the world, weather is a universal topic of conversation. Our ability to cope with the local weather we wear with a sense of pride.

Standing at the bus stop and I was talking to someone. I mentioned it was a nice day and it seemed that forecasts here (and all over the UK really) are useless  Her response:”They always lie You can have all four seasons in one day here.”

 I always look at the coming weeks weather and 90% of the time it’s rain everyday.  Most days there are a few hours of sun or it’s cloudy with no rain. 

Weather in the UK changes through the day. There is never a day when it’s clear all day. Clouds always come. We really have had little rain in our time in the UK. Some light rain at times. A couple downpours that were short. I haven’t even bought an umbrella. 

Because you never know the weather sometimes hard to know what to wear. I learned what everybody in the UK already knows, especially those in the northern countries. 

I was sitting on a bench next to two older ladies talking about their upcoming trip to Italy. (Yes I’m an ease-dropper). 0ne was talking about having a water bottle to fill at the hotel because “I’m not paying 2 pounds for a bottle of water”.  Also she wasn’t paying 3 pounds for a cup of coffee either. 

We sit there and it clouds up. Gets a little cooler. One of the ladies takes out a zip up sweatshirt and puts it on. A little while later it starts very lightly raining. Out of the tote bag comes a raincoat she puts on. She seems to be ready for any weather change. 

So you buy yerself a tote bag, put in a sweater in, a raincoat, perhaps some galoshes, a pair of gloves. There’s room for a water bottle, perhaps a light snack. You are set for the day in Belfast. Wonder what else she’s got in there? A first aid kit? A sewing kit? Perhaps a flask for a wee nip?

Entering through gates and walking the peace wall in Belfast

 A bit of a bazaar day today. We decided to walk down to the peace wall from central Belfast.  It’s about a 1.2 mile walk. It takes you up falls road, a notorious road in Catholic West Belfast. We were following google maps an did not realize we were on falls road until I saw a sign.  

So we came to an area that had all these political murals about oppression of Catholics and uniting Ireland. There were murals about political struggles across the world including Black Lives Matter. 

Went further where turned down a short street that looked industrial. Galway down we’re iron gates that were open but could be closed across the road. We just thought some company didn’t want people past this area after a certain time. Later we would learn this was one of the gates that closed off the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods from each other at night.

So at the end of the road we turned left and started down the road where there was a continuous wall with graffiti on it. I eventually looked up and realized this was the peace wall. It was one long wall with fencing on top that was 25 feet high. 

So on one side of the street was this tall wall. On the other side there was a maybe 10 foot regular fence with houses behind it. The area looked poor.  This was the Protestant side. 

So we walked to the end of road - about half a mile and came to a place where you could turn back into the Catholic side. A little ways down are steel doors that stretch across the road that were open. They could be closed and are every night.

So when the troubles started Falls road was where a lot of clashes took place. Houses were burned down. People were killed. It was out of control. That’s when British troops were called in to “protect the Catholics”. There were clashes bff were tween Catholics and police. The neighborhoods were also fighting each other. Barricades were put up between the neighborhoods by police. Eventually all of this led to the building of this peace wall which has stood for more than 50 years.

So the first gates we went through on the short road closed at 6:30 pm.  The second gate on a busier street going back into the Catholic area close at 10 pm.

And that’s life in Belfast…

Belfast: city of surprises

I never really gave Belfast much thought. It was home of the troubles. I knew there had been a peace agreement signed.  I knew more about the politics back in the 70’s but hadn’t thought much about it since.  

I didn’t even want to come but M has a friend here so we came. It has turned out to be a lot of surprises. 

As for the peace agreement, I didn’t know there were 20 foot high walls between Catholics and Protestants. There are still skirmishes. The city is divided along religious lines. I probably thought it was kumbaya  by now. 

I didn’t know the titanic was built here. It was the biggest ship ever built at the time. 100,000 people saw it off. It sank 4 days into the voyage. The main architect of the ship went down with it.

I didn’t know game of thrones was filmed here. 

From 1968 to 1998 Belfast was one of the most dangerous cities in the world. There were 45,000 bombings. 45,000! There is such a sad history here.

C.S. Lewis was born here.

The defibillator was invented here.

Belfast has one of the best hockey teams in Europe. They have huge arena in the titanic quarter.

The end.