Dublin :: Ireland
A tale of two cities.
Places: Dublin & London
Coolest thing I did: Some of Michelangelo's raw work.
Coolest thing I didn´t know: Dublin was founded by Vikings.
It has to be said that between the two most familiar cities I've visited over the last fortnight, one has undergone dramatic change and the other seems much as it was before. After the buzz and excitement of New York I was ready to feel that same energy applied to London, a city I've known better than all others over the last half a decade or so. What I wasn't prepared for was the dramatic shift in fortunes of Ireland's diminutive capital, Dublin.
Despite the fact the airport is still under construction, as it was when I first visited Ireland in mid 2000, and the roads are struggling even worse to deal with the increase of traffic of all kinds, there has been a notable change in the composition of the city. The boutiques on Grafton Street have spilled over into the neighboring alleys and side streets, and while Chinese may have been considered exotic a few years ago, you now have an interesting mix of foreign cuisines and trendy new bars (or renovated pubs) inter sped with the ancient boozers that I recall. This change, I admit, was well under way with the infusion of IT capital when I was last here in 2003, but it is far more noticeable now than it was back then. Then other big change has been to the make up of the people. You did meet people of non Anglo-Celtic backgrounds before, but now the streets either side of the Liffey are starting to look like the United Nations. I think I've heard the term cosmopolitan bandied about more than once, meaning the locals are starting to notice the change too.
St Patrick's Day, the day after I arrived, went much as expected. Our original plan to start at 7.30 at an early opening pub was thwarted by the Guardia, who seemed to think last year's chaos with underage drinking was somehow fueled by letting young kids get booze early, so we spent some time wandering Dublin looking for open pubs or hotels that would serve us, and in the end we went back to Mark's in a taxi, stopping at every off license on the way until we found one selling beer. Thankfully, we found one and managed to being at 9, slightly behind schedule.
It has to be said I can't imagine it would have made much difference down the stretch. We went back out quite happy at midday, making our way slowly into town, won some money on the horses, lost that same money on some horses, saw about 10 mins of the parade on TV and then it starts to get quite hazy. By the time the smoke had cleared, 17 hours had elapsed and epic damage had been done to our heads, wallets and probably livers.
I was informed that I should take the opportunity to see the Irish play the English at absolutely anything possible, and the last game of the Six Nations Rugby happened to be on the day after St Pats. I can now assure you that it quickly becomes chaos if the Irish win said contents with the English. Again, more damage to myself ensured, and the rest of the weekend was understandably quieter. I went on Monday to get my legal alien card thing, which now has a picture of me in a beard on it. That's going to be a pain every time I go through customs, I can feel it.
London, well, was much like it was when I left it. I think that has a lot to do with spending pretty much all of my time there with the same people I knew when I lived there, but there is nothing so good as catching up with old friends. I'd describe the place as a few more bars, a few less pubs and one great big glass gherkin different to last time I was there. Still, it's a city that I have such fond memories of, and it only took a short time of walking the streets around Westminster to realise I do miss it. I'm kind of glad I did leave to go and try other things, as I don't know if it's a place I could live again any time soon, but I could definitely visit it over and over again. I miss that stark contrast of the ancient with the modern, something you don't get on the same scale anywhere else in the world. I think it's one of the few great cities that looks like it's actually been lived in for the last 2000 years. Sure Rome is older, but it looks like they gave up doing anything to it for centuries at a time.
I took a side trip out to Cambridge, which appears to be lots like Oxford, only less so. I can't believe the cheeky buggers make you pay to go into the most interesting colleges, so despite having a good look at lots of old stuff, I was a little disappointed in it. Still, I loved all those little niches on every building with the statue of a saint, bishop or chancellor in them. I don't know if I'm seeing more of those kinds of things now I know what to look for, but I'm appreciating the old stuff far more than I would have in all those months of traveling around Europe. I guess when you've not seen anything man made older than the1700s then you forget about how much beauty that old church money created. I'm sure the people toiling the fields to pay for it didn't think so, but we get to still see the results.
By quite a fluke I read one morning about the collection of Michaelangelo drawings on display at the British Museum, so I made a special effort to go out and see them on my last day. It's all the raw sketches he did for practically every major project he completed, from David to the Sistine Chapel, mostly sketches of the male models that would have later been warped into biblical type people for the finished product. Despite having to go elbow to elbow with the grey haired brigade that had come out in force to see them, it was well worth it. Despite the being an understatement, man, could that guy draw. I also was glad to get an excuse to go and take another look at the building itself. I've always loved that dome over the central courtyard and only recently learned that it was the work of Norman Foster, the same guy that did the new Swiss Re Gherkin and the Reichstag remix in Berlin.
So I'm back in Dublin, already having moved into my new room and having mournfully removed the beard I spent so many weeks faithfully refusing to shave off. I know it's only been about 7 weeks, but I'm constantly being startled when I catch my own reflection in anything. It looks so different and I guess I'd become accustomed to the new look. Still, eating is now far less time consuming. This will probably be it for a while, the trips are over for the short term and I have to look for a (horrors!) job next week. I've been glad I took this break between countries again though, I'd forgotten how much I like seeing the world for weeks on end, rather than days. You feel like you're accomplishing so much more when you can take your time.