February 6: Last day in Dublin



Ready to set off on a Dublin adventure, at
7:45am! (Behind me is the big needle thing)



I made it to St Pat's!



I was ready to go by 7:30, but the idiot in charge of setting out breakfast was not! I knew I needed to snarf down my food and be out the door by 7:45, since I knew it was at least a 30 minute walk to St Patrick's Cathedral, which is on the opposite side of town from my hostel. Unfortunately for me, this nincompoop was too dumb to get out anything till 7:30, and then he just put out bread without the toaster, then spoons without bowls or cereal, then coffee without cups, and so on, till I told him to put out the stupid toaster and hand me the jar of Nutella, because I needed to run. He did, so I was able to bolt down some toast with bad knockoff "chocolate spread" (like cheap canned frosting and pretty icky) and make myself a second sandwich for a midmorning snack (I still had a pb&j left from home for lunch, thank goodness), and I ran out the door into the rain (thankfully a bit lighter than it was yesterday) to try to make church at 8:30. Thankfully, the church was pretty easy to find, since I just had to walk down the Liffey River and make one turn. I made it to St Pat's at 8:25, snapped some very fast pictures outside, and ran to the visitor's entrance, which was of course closed till 9:30, but thankfully it pointed me to the "Church Service" entrance, which was also locked but I saw a an open gate around the graveyard that led to ancient heavy wood and cast iron door with a sign saying "8:30 Service in the Lady Chapel." I tried to open it, but it didn't budge, so I figured I'd come too late (it was by now 8:29) and it was locked. As I stood dejected in front of the door, it suddenly opened, and a friendly little old Irish man said, "Hello, lass! Are you here for the service?" I was so happy I almost cried (literally)!

The Lady Chapel (Sorry it's blurry, but after
 the service the place was put behind a fence,
so picture-taking was difficult). I sat on one of those
little wicker chairs you can just see in the back

He led me to a tiny little space behind the main altar of the church, called "The Lady Chapel." It's tucked away behind the main space, but sill shares the beautiful grand stained glass gothic windows of the main area. There were tiny little wicker chairs set up in rows, with little needlework kneeler cushions on top of each seat. There was only a few people there: two old ladies, the old man who had let me in and one other old man, me, and the priest or pastor or whatever the Church of Ireland calls its minister-guys, who turned out to be the Dean of the Church. The man who had let me in, Lesley, gave me a laminated script of the proceedings and a prayer book, which was nice because it was almost like a Catholic mass, but not quite, so though the general ideas of the prayers were the same, the word choice was just a bit different. The chapel was lovely, and it was so much fun to go to church at St Pat's Cathedral...I wonder how many of my ancestors have done the same? The service was pretty short, probably only about 40 minutes long. As I was leaving, Lesley asked if I would like a tour of the Cathedral (um, yeah!), so he took me about and gave me a personal tour and lots of diocese gossip ("The Dean's a good man, but he does do the service a bit short, though I suppose you can do what you like when you're the Dean, even if you cut the service short..."). He knew a whole lot about everything, and said he and his wife had been involved with the church since 1958. Then he just let me wander by myself, which was amazing , and since there was literally no one else around, I got to roam free in St Patrick's Cathedral, just taking pictures and marvelling, without anyone to get in my way! It was surreal! I bought a silver Celtic cross pendant and earring set, both because they're beautiful and exactly what I was looking for, and because I hadn't had to pay the entrance fee to the church and I was feeling guilty!

The Southern Coast, with a Marino Tower, originally
built when England was aftain Bonaparte would
try to take Ireland to invade England. There are lots
of these around the coasts.

When I left the church, I walked North and a little East, back to where there's a big sculpture of a needle-like object in the center of town that is a very good landmark. (That needle has a whole lot of nicknames, but I don't think I should repeat any of them here!) I went to the office of the bus company and told them that I had liked yesterday's tour so much I'd like to book today's, and asked if I could maybe still get the internet rate (it's normally 28 Euro, but online gets a 20% discount) because I didn't have internet access in my hostel. The nice lady at the desk gave me my ticket for 10 Euro! There were only 4 other people on the tour (the bare minimum, so for awhile I was afraid we wouldn't be able to go but whew, it worked out). First we went along the coast, which I thought was even prettier than the Northern Coast. We stopped at a pretty little harbor for some air, then continued on to some very scenic little coastal villages. Some of the houses we saw in the villages were incredible, since they're inhabited by some of Ireland's most famous citizens, including Bono. I had a lovely chat with my pal Joe about all the literary accomplishments of the Emerald Isle, and when I mentioned my love for Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf, Joe pointed out Heaney's house as we went by! For an English nerd, it was a dream come true!



Powerscourt Gardens, from the Ballroom window

 When we arrived at Powerscroft Estate, it was about 12:30. Joe told me that it would start getting crowded around 1:30 or so, so I should hurry up and enjoy the place, which I was only too happy to do. I raced through the little display of the history of the estate and the ballroom, which was supposed to be pretty impressive, but honestly I thought it was boring as heck. The old ballroom had burned in 1970-something, and so they had "recreated" it, sort of, by just re-doing the floors and the walls and the fake columns around the edges...it wasn't even painted the same color. But then I glimpsed the gardens out back from the ballroom windows, and I fell in love. I couldn't get out there fast enough! When I got to the ticket booth (the ticket was included in my bus tour), the man told me that some of the paths were closed because of downed trees, which was sad because it seemed like the dumb trees had hit all the places I wanted to go! I was so excited about getting to the gardens that I got all tangled up in the silly metal turney-county-thing that you're supposed to walk through and the man had to help me through while he laughed. I didn't care, though, because I could see the gardens and I knew it was worth it!



SO HAPPY!!!



Honestly, roaming the gardens all alone is an experience that will stick with me forever. It was just so indescribably amazing! Because it was early and raining and windy, there was literally no one out there but me, so I had this beautiful estate, all 47 acres of it, all to myself!!! I was smiling like a fool the entire time, and I may have skipped down the big mosaic steps toward the lake. The gardens are done in a very classical format, with everything being symmetrical on a closely trimmed lawn with lots of carefully groomed topiaries and statues. The gardens sit on a gentle hill, with the focal point being a lake with a fountain flanked by two rearing pegasi at the bottom of a man-made rectangular valley. In the background is Sugarloaf mountain, making the scene absolutely perfect. All the way down, the path is made of white and black stones smaller than my fist, which create beautiful mosaics with bright green moss growing in between. Statues of Apollo and Artemis (I assume) are set at the top of the path, surrounded by giant urns, lions, two beautiful angels, and other classical sculpture. I could hardly contain my glee as I ran down the steps in the rain. I didn't even care that my shoes were soaked and my umbrella was turned inside-out by the wind: I was able to make that time all mine, enjoy the gardens the way I wanted to, with no one to spoil it for me. I took lots of pictures and a few videos, trying to capture the moment.




Norman Tower



 I wandered down by the lake with the merman fountain, which seemed almost alive, as his tail was covered in emerald moss, making it look like a real merman's tail. Then I roamed through the carefully sculpted woods, admiring crocus patches and the multitudes of snowdrops that had just begun to bloom. Because there was no one to see me, I completely ignored the "Keep off grass" signs and roamed wherever I pleased. I checked out the much advertised pet cemetary, which was interesting and a little sad and also a bit comical (see the picture of the cow's epitaph). There were big trees down here and there, and I do mean BIG trees, like several hundred-year old trees, but I just climed over the trunks. I wasn't going to let a little thing like that get in my way. It was a little scary at a few points, because the wind was really really bad and I did watch around me to make sure no more trees were coming down. I loved the little "Dolphin Pond," with a dolphin-type statue in the middle of a little lake. The walled gardens were pretty, but I'm sure they're much nicer when they're actually blooming. I wish I could see the roses in bloom, because they just looked like they would be pretty. My favorite part was the tower, a re-created Norman-style castle tower set at the top of a steep ravine, giving the feel of a real castle on a hill. It looked just like I would imagine Rapunzel's tower to look, covered in vines that looked almost like they had been painted on, they were so perfect. I had wanted to explore the Japanese garden, but there was a very big tree down right in the middle, and there was no way I could climb over that. Roaming in the deserted gardens was such a wonderful experience. I will treasure that time forever.



Sugarloaf Mountain at Powerscourt



The bus home took us through the foothills of the Wicklow mountains, which was beautiful. The best part was seeing a good-sized herd of what looked to me to be mountain goats. They were white with black horns, and looked to be wild, scavanging on some very steep, inhospitable-looking rocks. I'll have to look up if Ireland has any wild mountain goats, but they looked just like the ones I've seen in Montana. I was a little sad to be leaving Ireland...actually a lot sad. I said good-by to Joe, and met my friends at the hostel exactly on time. We made the 3:40 bus and were at the airport by 4. Our flight didn't leave till 6:30, but we saw that there was another flight to Heathrow at 5:30, so we decided to ask the lady at the Aer Lingus desk if there happened to be 3 empty seats available (our 4th friend Ariel had left on her regular flight at 1, since she hadn't lost the day that the rest of us had). The lady said, sure, but she also had seats on the 4:30 flight, if we didn't mind running, which we didn't, so we sprinted as fast as we could to security, where Leigh and I made it through fine, but for some reason they had detained Jamie. We told her we'd run to the gate and ask them to wait, expecting her to be right behind us, but she wasn't. The nice men at the gate let us wait, but we were getting pretty worried about her. They paged her 4 times, and just when Leigh and I had about decided to stay for the 5:30 flight, she came running. Apparently the magents she had bought as souveniers had registered as "unidentified metal" in the machine, so they had had to unpack her carfully assembled backpack to the very bottom. It turned out just fine though, because the flight was delayed 30 minutes anyway, so we hadn't inconvenienced anyone. We made it home in time for supper.

The trip to Dublin was just wonderful. It was hardly a stress-free weekend, in fact I don't know how much more stress could have possibly been heaped on, but it was so much fun. I felt like, though every single aspect that was out of our control tried to make us miserable, we made sure that everything in our control was fun, so we still had an absolute blast. I loved the city of Dublin. I thought it was much more friendly and inclusive than London, and I definitely like the Irish more than I like the Brits. They're so much nicer and more laid back, plus their cars are less mean. I would very much like to go back someday, preferably someday soon!



Gardiner Street: My hostel is the one with the orange and blue sign about halfway down on the right



The Needle

St Patrick's Cathedral

Inside St Pat's

This stone "may" have covered St Patrick's Well

Pretty windows!

The Altar area

Even the floor is pretty!

Completely alone!

At the front of the church

Another terrible picture of the Lady Chapel, but at least you can kind of see the chairs and the pretty ceiling and beautiful windows

This is the inside of the door I had to knock on to get in...kind of scary, right?

St Patrick

This is where Jonathan Swift is buried (I've had to study him a lot in school) next to his very good "friend" (wink, wink) Stella (I got that bit of gossip from my pal Lesley)

Interior of the church after the light started coming out

Graveyard

Really funky tree

Celtic cross I got at St Patrick's

On the coast...see the fuzzy brown lump in front of the black car? That's an Irish wolfhound!!! I was so excited to see one! I LOVE Irish wolfhounds!

Those are PALM TREES!!! Ireland has a surprisingly warm, tropical climate

All the signs are written in Gaelic first and English second, which was kind of neat

Irish countryside

More Irish countryside, foothills of the Wicklow Mountains

The Ballroom at Powerscourt Estate. Not all that exciting, but the gardens on the other hand...

So pretty!!!

Artemis, I assume

The manor

Mosaic

Mosaic steps

Look at the steep angles over my shoulder! How do they mow that?!

Fountain

View of the manor from below

The signs said "Keep off the grass" but I didn't listen because there was no one to see me break the rules! Woops!

Eugenie and Princess Cow!

At the "Dolphin Pond" (By this point the wind was really scary)

This picture is for Mom: That would be a giant bay shrub behind me! Lifetime supply!

Pretty gate

See those topiaries behind me? Those are some sort of ornamental apple or something related, I think. They were amazing!

Loved the angels

My favorite urn

This tree is being eaten by ivy!

Rapunzel's Tower

Bad picture of a mountain goat-type creature! There were about a dozen or so, but the bus was moving too quickly so I couldn't get my camera up in time

Beautiful Irish countryside