Dubh Linn

After our arrival in Dublin, Maleaha and I were ready for a nice long rest. After getting up at 7AM every morning for four months, it was quite odd to wake at 10:30 (or "half-ten... pretty early" for Anthony, apparently). I just can't tell time by the sun here, like I can in Accra. No matter, because Anthony was up and ready to take us for a tour of the town...

Dublin is a suprisingly cosmopolitan city. We expected it from London (where Maleaha noted the lack of British accents), but not so much here. It seems that for once, Ireland is host to scores of immigrants (rather than emigrants), mostly Eastern European, so you're just as likely to be served by someone from Dublin as you are Poland. At the same time, you also have waves of tourists coming to reconnect with their roots (check two extra on that one) or just get drunk in a pub. And there are pubs EVERYWHERE. Adrian claims that St. John's, Newfoundland has the highest concentration of pubs in the world and if that's true, Dublin probably comes in a close second.

To complete this picture, it's Christmastime. The streets and promenades are filled with shoppers, carolers and hawkers and everything is decked out in seasonal decor. Lights, bows, garlands and all - it's a beautiful sight to behold. Mind you, it isn't quite like Rideau St. in Ottawa, but I'm enjoying it all the same.

Our tour guide Anthony took us around the downtown to see the shops, the cathedrals, the statues and the landmarks of the city and I'm sure we only saw a fraction of the city's interesting sights. In the evening, we went on a "Ghost Tour" of the city on a double-decker bus led by a really great old storyteller with a flair for scaring the bejeezus out of us. He'd tell us stories about ghosts, apparitions, the walking dead, etc. and would talk about the sinister places that they were encountered. Almost every story would end with, "and here's where it happened. The place is closed to the public at night for obvious reasons... but I so happen to have a key to the place." Yikes.

Anthony says that Dublin is like a hard girl that you have to slowly fall in love with and maybe it was the opposite for me, but I took an instant shining to it. Maleaha may disagree with me on this one, but I think Dublin is a fantastic city. It's expensive to live in (the numbers are all the same, but the prices are in euros!), touristy and don't even think about owning a car, but I really dig it. It's not too big, feels warm, there's so much history behind it and the beer tastes great. Maybe it's because it reminds me so much of Ottawa? Ah well, it's good to be here...