Thoughts, Raves & Outright Beatings

Yeah, it’s kind of par for the course here to say it’s been a while, but yes, it’s been a while.

It’s now been one week since we’ve touched down into Dublin airport and checked into our hotel (a slight personal ordeal for me since I didn’t get any sleep on the plane, and the room wasn’t ready when we arrived, but I got over it). If any of you two or three readers have been following my twitterings over in the upper right hand corner of this blog, the time here has been, actually pretty exhilirating, as well as eye-opening (well, as eyeopeing as it could be for any American who hasn’t been out of the country in the last 10 years, and hasn’t set foot on European soil in the past 17).

As of last night, we now have WIFI in the hotel room, thanks to BT Overzone (even though the hotel advertizes internet in the rooms, it is, as with most other services here, something you have to pay for. Nice.) So, with that ability in place, a few (kinda) quick thoughts:

1. Dublin is truly an international city, with a HUGE Polish population (as it is apparently is the case everywhere else in the U- ooops, the Irish don’t like to be considered part of the UK, but oh well…). In fact, we were here three days before we spoke to an actual Irish person. It’s been, along with the aforementioned Polish, Italians, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Cubans, Indians, Nigerians, Kenyans, etc. And out of all of those folks, the Italians were probably the nicest, the French (with a couple of exceptions - like the cute blond dude at our hotel’s carvery), the rudest (yo! You are not in Paris anymore! Get with the damn program!).

2. We decided that we were smart to rely on public transport to get around, as Dublin traffic truly is a nightmare, even to witness (the rush hour clog up outside our hotel room is something to see). However, since there is no train service, or even bus service, to most of the inner parts of Ireland, you are better off renting a car if you wish to get out of the city and into the smaller towns.

3. Given our willingness to forgo that, since we also wanted to explore seaside towns on the East Coast of Ireland, we found that DART and the extended Suburban Train routes that goes to Wexford was the way to go. It’s (relatively) inexpensive, and you get little signs telling you where the action is once you exit the station. We had a splendid time in Greystones and especially at this little cafe called the (Apple) Pear. We also went to Howth (in North Dublin bay) and spent some time there. It’s also in these towns (and on DART) where we got our first true taste of Irish hospitality, something that’s sadly missing from our experience in much of Dublin (this was also noted by one of the cab drivers who took us around, an Italian who had lived in the city for 23 years, and said things has changed in the last 10 to 15, which is when Ireland began it’s current economic boom; folks aren’t as nice as they used to be).

4. All that said, and yes, I’ve only been here a week, but I don’t see a lot of ethnicism or racism here. There’s a lot of live-and-let-live that I never saw, and still don’t see, in the United States. Sure, it’s quite the PC environment here, but everyone here truly seems welcome. Or they just don’t care. Everyone from elsewhere comes here to make money. Whatever issues you have, you left them at home. I did have some issues with some Middle Easterners (and Eastern Europeans) mistaking me for one of their own (or as someone who objects to their own) and giving me a hard time (glaring at me, not providing proper CS, etc. until I opened my mouth and my Californian accent popped out), but, for the most part, prejudice has not been an issue, except…

5. I’ve been using a makeshift fannypack in which to keep my money, PDA and camera. Hey! If Dublin’s experienced a bit of crime wave, it at least has kept me from being a part of it! However, according to my husband, in Galway yesterday, this French woman rolled her eyes at me as I was videotaping this street musician with my Flip camera, going on about how I could even be seen with a purse like that. Initially, I got a little defensive when the hubster told me this. Then I started going back to how I was being treated by some of the folks in stores, and I also noted that other American tourists here were not being seen with even a regular fannypack.

I got the message. I got a nice purse for 5 Euros at an international product shop in the Jervis district. After I switched purses, I seem to have gotten better treatment from folks, particularly at the local Tesco, where I had to get some aspirin. I guess nothing truly screams tacky tourist as much as a makeshift fannypack. It’s practical, but sometimes, being more fashionable gets you further.

6. The big issue facing the Irish these days is their country’s upcoming ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which, from what summaries I’ve read in the local free weeklies, is a major amendment to the current EU charter. Last week, the naysayers were out in full force with their campaign. This week, the yaysayers have been having a go at it with theirs.

You can get an idea of what’s going on via this wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon_treaty

The Yaysayers have their website here:

http://www.yestolisbon.ie

The Naysayers have theirs here:

http://www.libertas.org

Outside of this, some gangland turf wars in Limerick, the outgoing/incoming Taoiseach (sp) (Prime Minister) of Ireland, some stuff going on with Kerry Katona (huh?), Robbie Williams, Madonna or Kylie Minogue (you Yanks may laugh, or scratch your head, but she’s HUGE here), the news is pretty quiet. Minus all the stuff with the IRA or their supposed hatred of the British (historically, for good reason), the native Irish are, by nature, an easy-going lot.

7. Which leads me to the supposed Irish hatred of the British. Surely, since 1921, the Irish government could have forced the use of Gaelic as the national Irish language, rather than the Britishized use of English (with the use of ou’s, rather than o, such as in honor, or honour, as is spelled here). But nope, despite the use of bilingual street-and-else signage (in English AND Gaelic) everyone in Dublin speaks the Queen’s English-even the hardcore Irish, who have been begging the current Queen of England, in ENGLISH, NOT to visit them in their recent newspaper editorials. In fact, the WIFI currently set up in our room is provided by British Telecom. And, as a result, all of my default web settings, from my google home page to myspace, asks me if I want to point to, or automatically point to, .uk.

Of course, I politely decline. I do wish to “stick with the Yanks”, as I’ll be heading back to be among them at the end of the week.

I’m guessing there’s a begrudging acknowledgement to the British for setting up much of their current social, governmental and intramotional infrustructure. (WIFI being just one, miniscule example). Kids here, for example, learn English as their first language, however, they don’t seem to want to follow government wishes and learn Gaelic, and opt for something more practical, such as German, Italian, French, etc. (The children here are nothing if not practical; who knows if they’ll need to bail for other shores once their currently glowing economy takes a massive dump, as their forebearers have historically done). But, as with the insistance that Ireland is NOT part of the UK, I have the feeling that the British would stop trying to “help” them and let them do their own thing. The British have been trying to “help” the Irish for the past 600 years (from starting universities (good) to, according to the guys from the Musical Pub Crawl we went to last Thursday, banning harps, and, eventually, music all together (BAD)). With the Irish now doing better than ever, economically, perhaps that time has come. It’s like dealing with the big brother who’s a jerk, but who’s help you rely on.

And speaking of reliance…

8. This country is ALL about charity. It starts with the plea for Unicef on Aer Lingus (which we took to get over here) and continues with drives for the poor, the elderly, the Burmese Cyclone victims, etc (personally, for the US military, I’d say fuck the junta and drop the shit off there for the victims, but that’s just me). From my understanding, begging did not exist in Dublin until the current economic boom. Now, beggars are all over peeps at the Abbey Street LUAS station and on the Hapenny Bridge. At least they say “Thank you and God Bless”, unlike the ones back home in SF.

9. The Irish are…all…about…music. This was never brought home more than our trip to Galway or hanging out at Temple Bar and seeing these incredible street musicians get their groove on. As previously mentioned, we went on a pub crawl with some musicians last Thursday, and were given a primer on traditional Irish music, and how it fits in with their scheme of things. It’s a way they live, and it’s a way of their life. If you wonder why one in five Dubliners walk around with a guitar, or some other instrument slung on their back, well, now you know.

I’ve been at this for two hours. More thoughts later this week. Or maybe next.