May 7 - 22, 2017 View Photographs Dublin: May 7-13 My first impression of Dublin was that James Joyce was right. If any of you are familiar with his collection of short stories, Dubliners, you will know that he considered his home town to be dirty and overcrowded. Although I am convinced that life is too short to actually read anything by Joyce (Suzanne disagrees), we took a one-hour "walking Joyce" tour of Dublin. Now I am a Joyce expert. Our guide, the most earnest and serious Joyce scholar one can possibly meet, told us Joyce disliked his hometown. Only nowadays there are, in addition to too many pedestrians, double decker buses the size of whale sharks in a mix already crowded with jackrabbit sized automobiles, and bicyclists. Furthermore, I am convinced that the Dublin Bus drivers are trained at Italian Taxicab driver schools. Bobbing and weaving, narrowly missing the tiny tidbit cars, bicyclists and each other, the Muhammad Ali wannabe bus drivers appear to alarm no one except us white-knuckled tourists. All of this, mind you, driving on the "wrong" side of the street. However, after several days I grew to love Dublin primarily because of its people. Incredibly charming. It's difficult to explain, but they are so infectiously humorous, so delightfully friendly and such an integral part of the cultural scene, it's impossible to imagine one without the other. For example, Dubliners have hilarious nicknames for many of their most famous landmarks. See photo captions for examples. It's not like one can overlook dirty and overcrowding, but it's a packaged deal -- Funny and friendly filters filth.
Ireland
Ireland
Ireland
May 7 - 22, 2017 View Photographs Dublin: May 7-13 My first impression of Dublin was that James Joyce was right. If any of you are familiar with his collection of short stories, Dubliners, you will know that he considered his home town to be dirty and overcrowded. Although I am convinced that life is too short to actually read anything by Joyce (Suzanne disagrees), we took a one-hour "walking Joyce" tour of Dublin. Now I am a Joyce expert. Our guide, the most earnest and serious Joyce scholar one can possibly meet, told us Joyce disliked his hometown. Only nowadays there are, in addition to too many pedestrians, double decker buses the size of whale sharks in a mix already crowded with jackrabbit sized automobiles, and bicyclists. Furthermore, I am convinced that the Dublin Bus drivers are trained at Italian Taxicab driver schools. Bobbing and weaving, narrowly missing the tiny tidbit cars, bicyclists and each other, the Muhammad Ali wannabe bus drivers appear to alarm no one except us white-knuckled tourists. All of this, mind you, driving on the "wrong" side of the street. However, after several days I grew to love Dublin primarily because of its people. Incredibly charming. It's difficult to explain, but they are so infectiously humorous, so delightfully friendly and such an integral part of the cultural scene, it's impossible to imagine one without the other. For example, Dubliners have hilarious nicknames for many of their most famous landmarks. See photo captions for examples. It's not like one can overlook dirty and overcrowding, but it's a packaged deal -- Funny and friendly filters filth.