Dublin

Living in Europe has its advantages. To start with, it was the first time I had e-checked in. It was a weird feeling to walk into the airport just 30 minutes before departure, go straight to the security check and then into the plane. No standing in line to check-in, no baggage to check in.. It was as if I was taking the Metro from one local station to another rather than flying from one schengan country to another non-schengan one. Come to think of it, it did seem like a Metro travel. No refreshments were offered on board. I wouldn’t even have noticed that I was on a plane had it not been for the pounding headache. Totally amusing was the young guy sitting next to me who raised the eyebrows of a passing stewardness hwen she noticed that he was leafing through a semi-porn magazine. Whatever happened to discretion?
The return flight was just as hassle-free. I was the only one checking-in at the counter! Finished in a jiffy.

Have you ever been to a foreign country/city but felt like you had never left your home country? That’s what I felt when I landed in Dublin. I could have been in Chennai. If you’d travel the stretch from Madras Central (from the southern railway building) to Mountroad (upto LIC building) via the Island Grounds, you’d get the same feeling if you’d be in O’Connell street, except that the latter now has a swanky new, stainless steel Millenium tower. But otherwise, the street is dotted with numerous statues just like the way the Marina Beach road is.
“So, how do you find our city” asked a friendly Irishman striking up a conversation in a bus. (Much like the way an Indian native would ask a foreigner.)
“Well… this could be any city in England”. I answered. It’s true. The city could do with better maintenance, is crowded, lots of tourists, plenty of foreign residents and many Georgian buildings
“I guess we have a lot of their influence here”. Was his jolly retort.
Atleast he wasn’t unhappy about it!!

It’s amazing how the British trashed cities they colonised in the same, uniform manner; like they had a set agenda - If there is a large river that runs through the city – pollute it; (Thames, Liffey and Cooum), if people can be influenced, teach them to be uncivic; If you can manage to walk between 2 buildings, call it a street; – the list can go on.. The only exception they made to the rule seems to be Australia.

Must say that the Irish are quite friendly. I had absolutely everyone willing to help without even asking for it. Be it the middle-aged, well-dressed gentleman in the airplane who got up from his seat, helped me with the luggage and politely showed me to my seat, or the friendly customer service guy at the airport who told me where to take the bus from the airport into the city, gave me a map, drew the route from the bus stop to my hostel and wished me a happy stay. I even had over-enthusiastic ticket sellers and bus drivers who ‘namaste’d me. In Dublin, if you can’t read a map even if it clearly shows the street names and has a blue ink mark showing which way to walk, fret not – help is at hand. I turned into Parnell street, parked the suitcase and kept looking for a street sign that would say Great Georges Street, only to be greeted by an Irish man asking if I was having trouble finding my way. I told him the street name and he actually walked me to the street and wished me a good stay. Now, you would think that I would have been flattered by all the attention. But no. A mix of Swedish self-help culture and Indian don’t-trust-over-friendly-strangers culture made me very uncomfortable of all the attention. Sad, very sad. Btw, the Irish are a happy lot. I wonder if it has anything to with the numerous pubs in the city some of them dating back several decades. If I hadn’t read it in a tourist book that Irish people buy drinks for strangers more than any other people in the world, I would have been totally offended by the number of friendly offers I got! Nothing lecherous or anything, just plain statements like ‘My friends and I are meeting for drinks. You are welcome to join us!’ And this from a guy who’s seated in a bus next to you, who starts the conversation by saying how lucky I was that the driver was willing to wait till I got the exact change! That’s something you wanna know, if you are travelling to Ireland. You have to tender exact change to get a bus ticket. If god forbid, you have no change at all, then they might give you a slip that says how much refund you are due and you have to go to the bus station to get it!! But don’t bother to risk it. Most drivers are content to allow you to search your pockets, then bother with that slip!
And yes, I forgot to mention that the friendly stranger who showed me the way to the street where my hostel was located, said ‘Why don’t you take my number and if you should have problems, feel free to call!!’ I had to politely decline this magnamous offer! I’m such narrow-minded, suspicious Indian!

It was the first time I stayed at a hostel. I met a Dutch mother and daughter duo, who were travelling by themselves. The hostel reminded me of my school back in Chennai. The building was old Victorian style. The facilities were quite basic - just a bed and a common bathroom but was clean. Must admit that I couldn’t stay in it for more than one night. Too dark, too basic and just too claustrophobic. Had to move. From hostel, to a star hotel (paid by the company) just outside of the city, it was such a change.

Day 1 was a city tour on the Hop on bus tour.
The best way to travel in Dublin is the Hop-on and Hop-off tour. They cover most of the famous spots with a good commentary. And ofcourse the added advantage of getting off and getting on whenever you want. And yes, the bus drivers don’t care if you get into the red one or the yellow one. The former has a live commentator and the latter, a recorded commentary. The 2 highlights of the tour are the Molly Malone statue and the unavoidable Guiness Factory. I’m not a beer drinker and hence couldn’t be bothered with the factory. But by the end of the day when the bus driver insisted that it was the only place that was open until 7pm and that I shouldn’t miss it, I gave in. Five floors of well put together museum. Perhaps a beer connesiur would have like the 2nd floor, which explained the making of the McGuiness brew. All I did was pick up some burnt barley on display that was characteristic of the so called flavour. My favourite was the 5th floor, where they had an impressive display of the McGuiness advertisements over the years. Totally cool. Then ofcourse, I shocked the hell out of bartenders at the sky bar on the top floor when I asked for fruit juice instead of the dark brown beer which everyone seemed to love. Fanta was all that I got and I sat sipping it in front of one of the many glass walls of the bar. Oh ya, forgot to mention, the walls of the bar are all glass and you get a view of the entire city from there. It isn’t one of the prettiest scenes I’ve seen. From where I looked, all I could see was small, drab, grey buildings, with very little green anywhere.

Day 2 was a trip to the Wicklow Mountains and Glendoulough Monastery.
No trip to the Dublin can be called complete without going to the famed Wicklow mountains Glendoulough Monastery. Both these places aren’t too far away from the city and would be a sin to miss it - 45 minutes past the suburb of posh Donluery (owning a property here is much like owning a bungalow on the ECR in Chennai. The mountains are absolutely beautiful and it was toally amusing when the tour bus driver gave us warm brandy to drink from the top of the mountain. It never ceases to amaze me that just a few kilometres away from a rather ungreen city that there is such profound natural beauty.

Dublin ofcourse has its disadvanatages. For some strange reason, the best tours are not available during weekends. You would have thought otherwise where there would extra schedules arranged for weekends when most people travel. Either locally or as extended weekends by outsiders. But no – logic goes out the window here.
At the end of the day, I felt like I missed more than I had seen.
- The pub crawl tour
- The ghost tour
- The Newgrange tour.
- A show at the Odeon.

Had I not had the extra annoying task of applying for a Visa, I probably would have gone back to Dublin. But then, I do know that no country or city can be covered over one weekend.