I spent a good deal of time wandering the streets of Dublin and quite liked the city. It's not too big, but is bustling and full of nice streets and old picturesque buildings. We made the requisite trip to the Guinness museum, though I was personally not too impressed, perhaps because I cannot see any earthly reason anyone would voluntarily drink Guinness.
After a few days in Dublin, we flew to Glasgow, Scotland and made our way in the dark to Edinburgh. Now Dublin is nice, but Edinburgh is gorgeous. It is chock full of beautiful old buildings and picturesque streets. (Prompting Caoimhe to remark that it must never have been bombed, though this turns out to have been untrue.) In the center is a castle, parts of which date from the 1300s and earlier. It looks great from the outside, though it is too kept up and restored for my taste.
We also quite accidentally bumped into David Hume's grave, which made me quite happy. (David Hume was an 18th-century philosopher who has a special place in my heart because I once had to do a project on him. He argued, among other things, that just because your senses tell you there is a physical reality, you can't really know for sure. It might be all in your mind. He's my kind of philosopher.) We stuck around Edinburgh for the day and had deep-fried Mars bars, which were heavenly. In Scotland, any fish-and-chips shop will sell you such delicacies, and many advertise that they will deep-fry anything you bring in. (It's no wonder Scotland's traditional diet is considered to be among the unhealthiest in the world.)
That evening, we took a bus to St. Andrews where another Hong Kong friend of ours goes to university. Now, personally I was not too excited about the prospect of visiting this town because I associate it mostly with golf, and a Scottish friend told us repeatedly (and in rather more colorful language) that it was in the middle of nowhere. It is certainly small, but had some beautiful medieval ruins, including a great castle. The castle was made even cooler by the fact that they recently discovered a mine once dug by a besieging force as well as a counter-mine dug by the castle defenders to stop the invaders. You can now walk through them and see where the two connected.
Anyway, after exploring St. Andrews for a few days, we headed back to Dublin. We saw a bit more of the city, and Monday night Caoimhe took me to a pub which was perhaps the highlight of the whole trip. It was full of mostly Irish people (though there were some tourists such as myself) of all pub-going ages. There were old men drinking Guinness and chatting, and there were people our age out for drinks. Eventually, a three-person group started playing and singing traditional Irish ballads and drinking songs, and the whole room sang along with them with great gusto to what I gather were the better-known ones. It was a great atmosphere. I even got to sing along when they did songs I knew (like the Molly Malone song- "In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty . . ."). At the end of the night when last orders had been called for by the bar, everybody sang the Irish national anthem (which is sung in Irish of course, since an English anthem would be ironic at best). It made me want to be Irish.
The last day I explored Glendalough, a beautiful valley in the Wicklow mountains with monastic ruins. The ruins were alright, but the natural beauty was probably the highlight.
Anyway, it was a great trip!
A street in Dublin
A street in Edinburgh
The Governor's residence in Edinburgh
A deep-fried Mars bar
Yasmin and Caoimhe walking along the perimeter of cathedral ruins in St. Andrews. Yasmin is attired in traditional St. Andrews University robes. These are still worn occasionally during exams and the like, and anyone wearing them can get into the castle for free.
A view of the cathedral ruins from the pier. (Attiya is sitting on the pier.)
The castle ruins
Glendalough from above
