Dublin to Galway

Sunday March 23
Woke up at 7 and went for a run. The sun was out, no wind but cold. Still warmer than Manchester. The city was quiet. We walked to the bus that would take us to Phoenix park. Hmmm not a lot of buses and O’Connelly st was blocked of. They were setting up a stage, gates and there were police. I asked one of the workers what was happening, “Eh, it’s te 1916 ayster ooprising. Ter’ll be a parade at 12.” Excellent. We will go. We decided that we wouldn’t find the bus to the park and ran along the Liffey River. We made it to Phoenix park and back, about 4-5 miles total. It was nice city run. Showered, checked out and stowed our backpacks at the hostel. On our way to church.the church was full. While I have mixed feelings about growing up Catholic, I still am fascinated by the ritual. Everytime I go to church I think I should expose the children. At times I want to get them at least baptized. The priest asked to pray for those suffering in the world in Palestine, Darfur and Iraq. That stole my heart. Maybe I will get the kids baptized. Maybe in New York I will send them to Cathecism.

After church we went to Glasnevin cemetery where many of the martyrs from the Easter Uprising are buried. There was a memorial to the hunger strikers that died in 1981 including Bobby Sands. We went back to town and made it to the tour. We wandered around looking like tourists. The guide found us! We went into the International Bar and waited a bit and had a drink. I had a shot of Jameson. James had 7 up. I realized I did not in fact have Jamieson last night. I must have had some other whisky. This was stronger. It hit me like Palinka but tasted better. So the guide is telling us the history of the uprising before we go for the walk. The whisky hits me hard. I have to work hard at my composure so I am not too silly. Finally we go for the walk. That helped me sober up fast. It was really interesting seeing the sites where the uprising took place. James and the guide talked a lot. We ended the tour at the gathering for the Easter rising celebration. Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein was speaking.

Time was running out so we grabbed some food from Supermac, a fast food chain with veggie burgers and curry fries. We got our backpacks and went to the train station for Galway. The train was old but comfortable. I caught up on my journal, napped and enjoyed the scenery. We arrived in Galway. I was happy that I remembered my way around. We stayed at the same hostel the children and I did a year and a half ago. The restaurant we ate at then was changed to a fancy club. Otherwise everything was similar. I was missing the kid snow as this had been such a big part of our trip together. I wished they were here with us now.

We toured the rest of Galway. Before, we had only remained in the square. There is so much more. Cute shops and pubs much like Grafton St in Dublin. People were having a great time. We dropped by the ticket office to collect our ferry tickets and had a nice conversation with a local about US politics. We were hungry and looking for dinner. We found a restaurant in our Lonely Planet book only to find that tonight’s menu was nowhere near vegan. We continued to walk. There was always Supermac but that would be a last resort. We found a kebab/wrap place and went for it. It was yummy and filling. Behind us a young man was passed out on his table with his tray next to him. At the end of dinner I checked to see if he was okay. He woke up and went back to sleep. There were a lot of drunken college students around and I am sure he was. James and I planned to get a drink but were both very tired. We went back to the hostel and went to bed.