Dear loyal readers,
Now that I'm back in Canada, one more post to close it all up, I insist!
Ah, finances to be sorted, books to read, life to live. September still feels like a new year.
Must record details before they're run over by everyday occurrences here in Toronto.
After Paris we realized with some panic that our trip was drawing to a close. With fewer and fewer days left in each place, there was a slight sense of urgency to do more and see more. At the same time I also became more into going to bed early. I suppose I was tired. But I didn't want the flight back to Toronto to be the last one!
In Dublin we stayed for two nights with my cousins Tony and Sarah. Tony and Sarah and their siblings Carole and Christine were about as close to we got as kids to our Irish family -- they visited once for Christmas here in Canada when we were small, my family lived near theirs in the Donegal countryside in 1996-1997. Now we're all grown up and see each other every five years or so, and do things like eat fajitas and get a little drunk at pubs together instead of rolling around in the snow or playing Nintendo.
We went to a pub that apparently James Joyce frequented, an old man's pub, in my opinion the best kind (no music, only conversation), with Tony one night, and talked about his travels as well. He said that he thinks three and a half weeks is possibly the worst amount of time to allot for a vacation -- considerably more than a few days away for a quiet lounging holiday, but not nearly enough to fulfill what ends up becoming a desire to actually live away from home for a while, to continue moving about and chatting to people and figuring out maps and transit systems.
Speaking of James Joyce, Myles finished Finnegans Wake while in Dublin, and I'm very proud. I don't know if anyone's read it. Okay, I know someone must have, but he earned respect from a few passers-by who caught a glimpse of the task at hand.
People are always doing fun things in London! Like watching cricket on big screens in parks. We had trouble finding the nightlife on the Friday night, but on Saturday hung about in Camden area where the young people seemed to go. And we saw extremely angry drunk people. One average-sized intoxicated man tried to take on three bouncers ("I'll slit your throat! I will cut you!"); I saw a girl slap her boyfriend, a couple of people threaten to kill each other if provoked, etc.
In Cork we stayed in a hotel and caught up on sleep and went to a town called Cobh where we had a pint in another old man's pub where they talked about (Euro) football the whole time. We were depressed about seeing US chains everywhere in other towns so in Cobh we walked until it ended and found countryside, climbed up a hill and lay in the grass. Watched the cows. Read. As we left to go back into town we realized that we had been lying near a golf course. But it was still as far in the countryside as we'd been the whole trip. The river in Cork runs quickly.
Then a bus to Dublin and in Dublin we visited the Guinness storehouse, which holds a new swanky museum all about Guinness. We drank a pint in a bar at the top, which has a 360-degree view of Dublin (a city that, according to Myles, "looks like it was built by sad people"), and has displayed everywhere quotes from Joyce's works. We then took a train again to another small town called Howth, a fishing town, and dipped our feet in the freezing sea, and because we needed to get back to Dublin in time for dinner with cousins, got back on the train an hour later.
And now I'm in a café in Toronto, to start what feels like the new year.
Whoever read to the end gets golden star point special hugs.
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1 comment:
Looking forward to my gold star:) And the hugs xoxoxoxoxoxox Love, Mom
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