Dubliners, Glaswegians, and Storms

As we were getting ready to head to Dublin for a quick weekend trip, we had heard from a array of people that Dublin is really expensive. How could it be that much---it's euros and I now have pounds? It can't be thaaat expensive. Well, it is. The bartenders are really strange there too. They stare at you when you say you want to share a pint of Guinness with your wife.

Heck, I shouldn't complain so much. All three of you will stop reading the blog.

Dublin was actually a great city for a short time. I thought that the UK had a strong drinking culture, but it really pales in comparison to the Irish, and I don't mean alcoholics, I just mean drinking every day until you pee your pants and barf on the guy next to you. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I think it was one of the harder things coming here is understanding that pub culture doesn't mean getting drunk every day. The pub is just the social center and shared space that everyone interacts in. Dubliners are good at interacting.

Our hotel was a little outside of the city center, but that gave us the opportunity to walk a bit more and explore. They have a series of canals and locks that very much look like what I thought Manchester would look like.

We acted like most Dubliners and stopped in for a pint (or two). We met a dude who was just about to move to Toronto. We were talking about Canada and he said he is interested in visiting Vancouver and asked if the train ride from Toronto was three or four hours. When we said it was about a five day drive, I don't think he believed us--"Hey Robby, some Canadians were taking the piss outta me! Five days! Ha!"

One of my favorite places in Dublin was St. Stephens Green. Just a nice relaxing park in the middle of town (where you don't go on the grass). We hung out and held hands.

In some of the cities we have been to you can tell when they had their time in the sun. Dublin is old, but the architecture is all from the same time period. The Georgian houses are ubiquitous throughout town in residential areas and for businesses. Sure there are modern buildings around, but they are either restored row houses, or a modern take on the same design.

It was kind of funny. They sell Tim Horton's coffee all over Dublin in the 7-11 type stores.

Afterwards, I thought of an American taking a pictures of a Starbucks, or an Italian taking a picture of a espresso machine and I realized that I was a dork and felt shame and regret.

So, we were walking back to our hotel to go out for dinner when we ran into these two characters. The guy was just taking his cat out for his first bus ride! Oh, little Seamus!

The next day we headed out to explore. We hit up Dublin castle (underwhelming) but then went to the Chester Beatty Library. It is a private library collection of an early 20th-century American mining magnate. It has, without a doubt, the most beautiful ancient texts I have ever seen. There was an eight-hundred-year-old Japanese scroll that was about 25 feet long depicting a battle of animal samurai poets. It was amazing. You weren't allowed to take any pictures and I couldn't even sneak one. If anyone ever goes to Dublin, it really is a must see.

Here is a picture from the roof of the library.

After the library we went to a pub. Looks like an Irish pub doesn't it.

Here is the Needle. The locals apparently call it "The Stiffy on the Liffey" although that seems like something the guidebooks love to tell you and no one really calls it that.

The Liffey is the main river that runs through downtown.
Here I am during the day.

And here is the Ha'Penny Bridge at night.

And some more Dublin.

We ate at a dynamite restaurant that night called the Winding Stair. Yum Yum Yummy. Ohh man those were some good prawns on toast.

For our final day, we walked around some more to the train station taking the scenic route. We were taking an excursion to the seaside!

We took the train to a town called Malahide and picked up some lunch for an oceanside picnic.

It was a real sort of picturesque Irish harbour, and it was sunny too.

The town was small and easy. Quite a nice afternoon out.
We had a really early flight the next day to Glasgow. My old friend Bryan has been living in Scotland for a while and we weren't able to hook up when we went to Edinburgh in March, so we flew back through Glasgow and had a quick day visit to see him and his family. He and Pauline and Caleb were nice enough to take us on a wee tour of Glasgie. I took all these pics of Glasgow, but none of Bryan or Pauline! I'm a jerk.

This was in the parking garage where you buy your ticket. 

I liked the architecture in Glasgow a lot. It reminded me of Manchester in many ways. Just like with Dublin, you could tell when Glasgow was really built up, and it was probably around the same time as Manny- hence the similarities.

The main cathedral in Glasgow was gothic, but surprisingly open and bright with really nice stained glass.

I really liked the different unions that contributed to the stained glass. Oh those wacky barbers.

Here is the mini-Daubney. A real happy little guy (and he even had a fever).

Remember my story and description of chavs in the Manny library....Apparently, instead of Chavs in Glasgow they have NEDS (Non Educated Delinquents). They sort of celebrate themselves in this weird, I'm more NED-like than you, kind of rivalry. We saw lots of NEDs through the car window (rolled up and door locked of course). Here are their portraits of love to each other.

It was great to see Bryan again and we all had a really fun night together. We'll definitely have to do it again before we leave.

Time crunch! Time crunch! These are pics from a game with the team I played most of the year with. Notice how close my jersey actually is the the real one! Skillz, yo, skillz.

So last weekend, I went to Birmingham to play in a single sex ball tournament. Our team was made up of the dudes from two separate Manchester teams. Turns out, we were good. Like really good and won the silver division. This was the single sex nationals tournament so we are acutally the 7th best men's slo-pitch team in the country! I love being a champion! I love it! I got a medal (and a can of beer). I wore it around for two whole days. Heather called me a dork, and this time she may have been 100% right, but I don;;t care. The women's team was also from Club Thunder and went undefeated, winning their division too! Whoop whoop.
Here is the winning side! The Isotopes!

OK--Time to leave things on a high note. I am leaving in an hour to go back to Slough for another ball tournament and then Heather is meeting me in London and we are off to strike in riotous Athens for three days and then to the the islands for the rest of the August. I'm hoping to come back only slightly more tanned than I am now. Slightly. I probably won't be able to blog while gone, but will have sporadic access to email along the way. OK--Peeps have a good end to summer and I'll catch you all in September! Later! CC

Ohhhhh Cat right...
 Ummmmm Sneaky Steve! Later!