Tuesday, February 26, 2008

i imagine my life is a photograph....

More, from Ireland.

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My second favourite place in Dublin is St. Stephen's Green. If I had decided to live in Dublin, I imagine I would have been forced to spend a lot of time there. Nestled in the heart of Dublins fair city is a giant very green park. People are sitting on the grass or on benches. Kids are feeding the ducks. There are people everywhere, since it's nice out, but it still manages to be quiet. Like a library or a bookstore, there's a concensus that one shouldn't be obtrusively loud. Not meditation quiet. But at least... slow and safe. Beside the monument for the Potato Famine, a boy is sitting against the trunk of a magnificient tree, sketching. Late afternoon, the sun is shining through the tree's leaves to make gorgeous patterns of dappled sun rays on the grass and the pathway.

In some ways, St. Stephen's Green is just another inner city park. But... it was really the only real spot in Dublin.

As you can tell, Dublin wasn't my favourite place. We did go on a gorgeous tour from Dublin though. We saw an old monastery, some castle ruins, the hill of Tara. Some beautiful celtic crosses. I loved this tour so much that I went on it twice. Once with Jez in the beginning, then with Kristen when she came. And not just because there's a restaurant on the hill of Tara that makes the best scones I've ever had (though that was part of it). Because even the second time I went I took hundreds of gorgeous pictures. Because it was just that breath taking.

The Hill of Tara wasn't all that much to see... but i you think about it it's amazing. To be standing there where they crowned hundreds of Irish High Kinds. I mean, right now it's just a hill with lots of sheep crap on the ground. But especially the second time I went.. I felt like I could feel something more. Ah, I'm a sucker from history and romantic legends.

The bus ride from Dublin to Galway was beautiful enough to convince me to move there. Before we even found a place I had secretly decided that that was where I wanted to be.

When you come in from Dublin, you hit the coast before you hit the city. And there's this little bay, all rocks when the tide's out, and an old castle looking out over it. It's gorgeous There are boats in the harbour. There are pools between the rocks. It's a really nice way to first see Galway, and, in my opinion, it only gets better.

Galways reminds me of Ottawa. I miss Ottawa, surprisingly. But Galway has the same sort of feel. It's a big city, but there's no dirty big city feeling. There are cobblestoned pedestrian streets full of buskers. When you walk down Shop St., you're likely to be accompanied by a saxophone or a keyboard. Or an accoustic guitar playing Coldplay. Or a four piece string quartet. Sometimes it's feels like being in a movie. And unlike Dublin, I feel like I belong. I don't feel like a tourist. I live here! People even ask my for directions. And most of the time I can give them, too.

Galway is so full of Irish culture. There's live Irish music. People playing tin whistles on the Oscar Wilde statue. Conversations conducted completely in Irish.

And it's got everything you expect from a seaside town too. Fish and chips. A promenade. A beach. Which you can drink on. At least, no one's ever stopped us. But the garda don't seem nearly as concerned about drinking in public as the police back home.

On the few sunny days this city has (it's one of the rainiest cities in Europe) the beach is gorgeous. And almost everyone's as pasty as me! Because they all have the Irish complexion and there's never any sun.

The rain took a while to get used to. You never leave the house without a jacket, as a rule. Even if it looks sunny, odds are that it will rain at least once before the day's out.

But I've always loved the rain and now that it's not as ridiculously cold, I don't mind the rain. And we even had a week of really nice heat. I should have brought more sweaters though. Of course, it's not even July yet. Hopefull it'll still get a little warmer.

We did two tous out of Galway. Both were amazing.

The first was the Cliffs of Moher. The day was really foggy and we didn't actually get to see the cliffs.. but the rest of the tour was worth it. We saw the limestone mountains and the famine walls. That part of the country is so interesting. The ground always seems to be made of stone. And ever now and then there are random hufe boulders sticking up. Our guide said they were left there by glaciers in the ice age. But they might as well be put there by a God of some sort. Musterious and with some deep spiritual meaning, like Stonehenge. I suddenly understoof how the ancient Irish were so religious and devoted to the earth. Things just look.. so much bigger than you. So planned, but beyond human understanding.

The other tour we took out of Galway was Connemara. I have this gorgeous picture from this lake we stopped beside. I got closer than everyone else to take the right shot. And I was just crouching there by the water and suddenly everything was so stil and quiet. The lake was smooth as glass. The picture was perfect, but the moment is what really stuck with me. It was as if I was inside of a photograph, really.

On that same tour we saw the Kylemore Abbey. It was one of my favourite places so far. I seriously would have been baptised Catholic and inducted as a nun right then and there if it meant I could live in Kylemore Abbey. It was beautiful. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it from every angle. I have over twenty of the exact same picture. Because every time I looked at it it seemed more beautiful and I was sure I hadn't quite captured it the last time.

more to come, some time.

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