More in Dublin - Blogabond

By this time, I was running out of days to do Dublin before I had to move on to the walking part of the trip.

I started off by doing the rest of the National Museum. There aren't enough superlatives, really. If only the British Museum was this good.

After that, I crossed the river and walked up O'Connell Street, which cuts right through the main shopping area. It has a fancy tram system as well.

It also has this strange spikey thing, which is quite impressive.

Most of Dublin is covered in reminders of the fight for Independence. It's odd to remember that (apparently) at the time of the revolt that led to independence, most of the fighters were off fighting the Germans. The rebellion was started by some more dilettante types, and failed. It was only when the Brits killed the leader that public sentiment changed in favour of independence. It's funny how much of history rests on little things.

I was quite impressed by the cosmopolitan nature of Dublin after seeing this jacket!

Further up O'Connell St., there's a very grand post office, with this statue of Cuchulainn, just after he's died. Cuchulainn is too long a story for here- look him up on Google!

Still on the same street, and still on mythology, there's a war memorial gardens. At one end is a fantastic statue of the Children of Lyr being turning into swans.

I happened to go past the Gate Theatre, and noticed Sweeney Todd was just starting. It seemed to be fate that there was just one ticket left for the preview performance that evening, so I took it.

Just past that, turning left, is the Hugh Lane Gallery, with a nice modern art collection. Every nation has a few little known but excellent artists: Louis de Brocquoy seems to be one of the Irish ones. I'm sure that is spelled incorrectly.

OK, at this point I made the mistake of thinking I should walk to the botanic gardens. It was a boring walk, and a long way, don't do it! The gardens are good once you get there though.

There was one bit where there was a series of empty beds, with labels on but grassed over. I popped up to see what I had missed: it turned out to be a fine display of lawn grasses! Well, I almost wet myself with excitement.

That evening, I made it to the theatre on time. I felt really scruffy next to all the dressed up people (but hey, there's only so many clothes you can fit on one rucksack!)
My seat...was interesting. I'd known I was on the front row: what I hadn't realised was that the stage had been extended forward in the middle, so it finished, oh, maybe 6 inches from my left ear. This made the play quite an immersive experience. I had coins just missing me, being thrown off the stage, flour flying about, a dead body next to my head, you name it.

It was great fun though, first time I've been to a musical I think, and very entertaining: Sweeny Todd himself was excellent. A bit close at times, but excellent.

written by

martin_b on April 20, 2007 from Dublin, Ireland

from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland

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