Dublin - A History Lesson Before Going Stateside

Tuesday June 27th, we had an extremely engaging conversation with a nice Irish couple during breakfast and learned more about how and why things have been booming here in the last decade. They also told us about a movie to see, called Ryan's Daughter, part of which was filmed at the Inch, where we were just this past week. After our delcious breakfast, and paying Mrs.O'Conner, we loaded the car in the light mist, and made our way back to Dublin. The drive was uneventful except for the atrocious traffic in the city, and we quickly found our hotel which was right close to the airport so we could easily drop our rental car off in the morning. For the third time now, the hotel did not have a record of our reservation, and I had to print off our confirmation from email. However, they got us into a room, even though we were quite early. After dropping off our bags, we took the #4 bus into the center of Dublin, visited a large department store, and then relaxed in an Insomnia Cafe where we talked, sipped our drinks and read our books. Our goal for the afternoon was to find a movie theater showing a new movie called The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which was about the divisive and sad history of Ireland's fight for liberation from England. We found a theater closeby that was showing the movie, and it was excellent. We then decided to stick around and also see "Thank You For Smoking", another excellent film, a satire about the sickening world of lobbying. In between movies, we grabbed a few goodies to eat, and did again afterwards, then took the bus back to the hotel and checked the World Cup scores. Brazil beat Ghana, and France beat Spain. Tomorrow is our final full day in Europe. Unbelievable.

Wednesday June 28th, our final full day in Dublin Ireland, and the last full day of this entire European experience, was most significantly spent learning more about the history of Ireland through a guided walking tour of Dublin. But first, in the morning, we drove the rental car to the airport and dropped it off at Eurocar no problem. We took a bus from there to Connolly Street in the city center and stopped into the tourist information center to get some ideas for walking tours, then made our way to or usual hangout, the Insomnia Cafe, where we looked at our brochures and made a plan for the day. We read and had our coffees, then walked to the Trinity College campus where we met up with our friendly tour guide, a young lady from London who was finishing up a PhD in history at the College. For the next two hours, we followed her to various important places in the city, amongst our group of about 15 people, while she explained the complicated history of Ireland along the way. We visited the main square in the College, then a large bank across from Trinity College, that once served as the parliament building, then on to Dublin Castle, Christ Church, and ultimately to the Temple Bar area where we paid up for the tour at another information center. We inquired about some plays and found one that sounded interesting, but first we needed something for dinner. First trying a really cool microbrewery, we left after about 15 minutes of sitting there with no service, tried an Italian place across the street with no tables available, and finally, just down the block, another Italian place where we had a delicious dinner, wine, dessert, and excellent service is an authentic quiet romantic setting. We then took a long walk to find the theater where this play was going to be put on, and found out that they offered no same-day discounts, and decided not too spend the money on tickets, and instead took the bus back to the hotel, filming the ride from the top level along the way, and pretty much called it a night.

Thursday June 29th, our last day, we woke up around 5:30 checked out and took a taxi to the Dublin airport. The driver was super-friendly and we chatted the whole way. On AerLingus, we flied into Shannon airport, where we waited a bit before re-boarding our plane that flew us ultimately into JFK in NYC. Once there, we got our bags and asked the information desk person how we could get from the airport onto a train to Philly. We took the "AirTrain", then the subway, then an Amtrak train, then a SEPTA train to Mt.Airy where we made the strange walk back to the house, thinking how just 4 months ago, we had had made the same walk in reverse, full of excitement, anxiousness and anticipation of the unknown. This time, it was a mix of sadness, melancholy, and nostalgia plus excitement to see family and friends and the Bay. We didn't bothered to look around the house much, and just grabbed a bunch of stuff, threw it all into the truck, and drove straight down to Perryville, stopping at Weavers to select some tastey brews, for our first quiet night along together back in the States. We toasted our arrival with a cold beer and stayed up late going through our huge box of mail. So it ended. And begins again. A fantastic life abroad so quickly morphed back into life at home, and the inevitable yet welcome near regularity that it brings.