Dublin

let me start by saying i really love Dublin. such a vibrant city with the heaps of history and thing plenty going on. its funny, because a lot of locals form all the other places i've visited in Ireland have all said that Dublin is terrible and that i won't like it, but to be honest its probably been one of my favourite places.

You don't go far without finding something on the number of Authors from Dublin, one of there favourites is Mr. James Joyce who wrote a number of books that are based in Dublin. some of his more famous works are Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake and Batman... ok, he didn't really write the last one. he was also a roaring alcoholic and was constantly getting thrown out of bars for being soo drunk. supposedly he would say he was going to bars to get more inspiration for his books about the people of Dublin. yeah, right. i only knew of Joyce becuase i found out that John Lennon wrote a couple of books of short stories ('In his Own Write' and 'A Spaniard in the Works') in the early 60's that play heavily with words and he was compared to Joyce. theres a bit of trivia for ya!

something i found interesting about Ireland is up until recently, if you're an artist you don't get taxed. now if your an artist that earn over something like 2 million a year you get taxed, fair enough, but that pretty much narrows it down to U2 and thats about it, but get this, U2 probably one of the biggest bands in the world have decided to move a lot of there business from Ireland because of this. what dodgy buggers! like they even need the extra cash. Bono has a luxury house not far from here and they have a chain of hotels as well, its not like they're struggling. speaking of Bono, not far from where i'm staying is the shop he got his stage name from a hearing aid store called 'Bonavox' (his original name is Paul Hewson. not very rock star huh) i think its latin for beautiful voice, but i could be wrong.

Dublin has a number of good Art Galleries here, but i think my favourite was the Hugh Lane Gallery. Inside its got Fransis Bacons studio, which was moved from London to Dublin a few years back. i remember seeing a doco on the move a few years back so it was something i really wanted to see. it would've been an huge effort to catalog everything not only becuase they had to move a whole room from a house and reassemble it in a gallery, but because the studio was a pig sty! but its really interesting.

one of the guys that was staying in my room was a photographer from Paris and he was having a exhibition so i went along to that too. it was pretty good. it reminded me of what a great time i had there, i think i might go back if time permits. he was saying the light here in Ireland is perfect for taking photos. i'll have to take his word for it.

one of my favourite movies of last year was 'Once' and it was shot here in Dublin and since i've been here i've seen a couple of places that are in the movie, like the scene where Glen is busking on the street (Graften Street, which is a main shopping strip here, supposedly a lot of big musicians started out busking on that street.) and a guy runs passed and steals his change and runs into the Park (St. Stephens Green). anyway, if you haven't seen the movie, you really should, such a good film, it won an oscar for best soundtrack.

The Temple bar district is really cool. heaps of vintage clothing stores, i got chatting to a guy that worked in one of them about Ryan Adams and how good his first 2 albums were, i think i spoke to him for a good hour or so, nice guy. The Temple bar district, funnily enough has some great bars and not just the tradional ones, some really cool, kooky ones! God i love the kooky ones! i was getting a little sick of the tradional stuff. My friend Marcus who i worked with in Brisbane, originally came from Dublin and he told me to check out a bar called Doyles corner, so i took a couple of the people that were staying in my hostel there. it ended up being a really good night, they have this thing called 'Ruby Sessions' on a tuesday night and get people to play music. some pretty big names have started here, Damien Rice and the Frames are a couple of them. the night we went 4 acts played. a Canadian guy who sung country, a local guy who played guitar and had a string section, 3 guys and a girl that sung folk and the headline act, a guy called Bill Coleman (click here to check out his myspace) people are saying his first album is as good as Damien Rice's debut. let me just say whoa! hold your horses! that is a massive call, the guy was pretty good, but not that good. while we were there one of the girls ordered a Guinness with Ribena. sounds like a strange combo but supposedly its a common drink for the ladies. i tried it, i think it kind of tasted like a turkish delight.

speaking of Guinness, I went to the Guinness factory while i was here, and i wasn't that sure if i was going to like it. but it ended up being pretty good. it was kind of set up like Willy Wonkers factory, but for alcoholics, the factory is designed like a giant pint glass. at the factory you got to see how the beer was made etc and you got taught how to pour your own Guinness, which there is a bit of an artform too. but best of all was the Gravity room up stairs, that has a 360 degree view of Dublin, it was amazing. there were a few interesting things i found out about the Guinness family and the business. Mr Guinness signed a contract to lease the brewery for 9000 years for something like £50 a year. talk about good business! something i like was the company looked after there workers really well, they helped them and there families with health care and housing, how nice is that. so if you got a job at Guinness it was like winning the lottery. something a little obsure i heard about Guinness was at one stage, when people gave blood here they got a pint of Guinness at the end to replenish there body. how good is that, a pint for a pint, sounds fair to me!

I had a walk through Trinity college too, which is beautiful. some realy famous people have studied here Oscar Wilde being one them, by the way i saw where he was born and lived for a while. anyway, back to Trinity college. there is a big bell tower in the middle of the grounds. supposedly when its exam time, its bad luck to walk under it and students try and push there friends under it. the libary here is quite amazing and it holds the book of kells, which probably one of the most important books in Irish history, its a book a few monks made containing the four gospels and the new testement. its pretty old, and looking a bit tattered these days, it was stolen at one stage and was recovered a little bit beaten up and missing a few pages. a bit of a nerdy fact about the libary at Trinity college is a scence in one of the star wars movies was shot there (i feel i should give MYSELF a wedgie for writing that).

i ended up getting along with the staff at the hostel really well and we went out a couple of nights to a few different places. we met an aussie guy at one of the pubs and he was such a wanker, he was a real name dropper and thought he was it-and-a-bit, i could hardly contain the laughter. i really hope that Irish people don't think all Australians are like him. the people at the hostel were such a good crew, one day they took me out to a seaside town called Howth which was really pretty, supposedly the drummer from U2 lives there. something i liked was the seals that swam around the docks! they were massive and so cute they would just sit with there heads under water and watch you then pop there heads up when they thought you had food. i had such a good time at the hostel i considered getting a job there because there was a position available, but the boss was such a tool i could see myself clashing with him quite a bit. who knows, if i need the money i might come back.

Its a bit of a shame i didn't get to see a game of Gaelic football, i was really keen to see a game. but they are finished for the season. bummer! something that i found out that i liked about Gaelic football is its grass roots. none of the players are professional and all the money generated from games goes straight back into the clubs and the community.

Overall i've enjoyed Ireland, it was nice to see the place were Mum's side of the family would've come from. but something that was annoying with it was how expensive it is, i was really shocked, and i wasn't the only one, some people i've met and found that here more expensive than London. oh well, off to Liverpool to catch up with the Fab Four!