May 11 and 12th, 2009

It's the 15th of May, nearly the 16th, and I am finally motivated to talk about the last two days of my trip. I'm beginning to fear that if I don't do it now, I never will, and that I won't remember everything that I wanted to say. So here goes nothing:

I don’t even remember where I left off in the last note, so will say that I took the train from Cork to Dublin. Enough Ryanair for me! It was among the best decisions I made all week; I thoroughly enjoyed the pace of it all, and no one weighed by bags; bags filled with way too many clothes…I’m so female when it comes to packing! I caught the right train, got off at the right station, talked to another very nice taxi driver. (So different from NYC, where they make you feel like the dentist if you ask them a question most of the time.) He told me about his daughter who’d been to Canada all last summer with her girlfriend, and the girlfriend came back pregnant!!! Can you imagine coming home with that one!? He said that he doesn’t get updates anymore because he basically said: “How could you be so stupid?”, when he heard. We had a good laugh about that. (She was 27 and is due any day, and seems happy about the whole thing, even though it’s less than ideal. I’m not judging, just sure as hell happy it wasn’t me who had to tell my mom….oh hi mom….my news was quite enough, I’m sure.)

I settled into the hotel and then took off with my pass and ubiquitous knapsack (don’t you just love that word? Mr. Dell, my high school VP said that to me one day, many years ago, as I left track practice, and I looked at him blankly, so he explained what it meant. It really was the perfect adjective to describe me and my knapsack. Go to www.dictionary.com for those of you who are lost.) I went to the Guinness Factory tour. I quite enjoyed it. At first, I was disappointed that it was self guided, but I got over it quickly and took my time reading everything. It’s an awesome building that housed the old factory. It has been renovated and turned into a tourist attraction. The best part was the pint of Guinness that you get when it’s over, and the 360 degree bar at the top. I walked around, chatted with a young couple from the US, and talked with Tania on the phone for a while, and quite honestly, wished I had someone to share the experience with. Sorry, a moment of weakness there…actually, I had several of them throughout the whole trip; they came on at the most unexpected times, and in a wave. Just being melancholy, not depressed here people. To be expected, I guess.

In the evening, I headed over to the Oliver St-John Goggarty’s Pub, where I met the couple from Utah last week, and heard some more fantastic music. Actually, this time, it was twice as good. The musicians were of much higher caliber, and they had a guest fiddler, whom I thought was outstanding. A man offered to buy me a drink, but of course, the only guy to hit on me the entire trip, was red-faced, ugly and old! What the hell!? Went to bed, had an OK sleep—too noisy for me.

May 12th, my last day. Let’s see if I can do this quickly…probably not…um…went to the Kilmainham jail tour, met a couple from Kingston, yep, I said Kingston! I couldn’t believe it either. The tour was the best touristy thing that I did, and at the end, I was hungry and needed to use the ‘toilets’, so as I approached the café; they had a photography exhibition. There was a guest/comment book, and as I went to write my name, I noticed that the couple, who signed just ahead of me, was from the same place I was. I couldn’t believe it; I did the blink your eyes thing, just like in a movie, to make sure I had seen it correctly. I was able to find them in the café, and....the story gets better...... they come to every Cantabile Concert and live just down on William St. Man, this world is way too small sometimes. We took our pic for the Kingston This Week “where have you been?” section, and I promised them I would submit it. We had a great chat, and I told them they won’t be able to miss me at the May 30th concert, since I have to introduce the guest conductor, and will be right up at the mic. Then I went to the National Museum and ran into a guy that had been at the jail tour. I asked him if he was following me. (I know, I’m nervy, but it felt like he was following me! I wasn’t rude about it…geez!) At that point, it was nearing 5pm, I was tired and very hungry. After an internet fix at the hotel restaurant, I went out for the highlight of my day….

The Literary Pub Crawl was pretty much what it sounds like, a great mix of bars and literature. Two actors recited or acted out various poems, plays etc of famous Irish authors in front of about 5 famous bars in Dublin. Little by little, the single folks in the group of 15 gravitated together, and we ended up ‘hangin’ for the evening. Once the crawl was over, we stayed at the Davy Byrne Pub, and closed the place. That sounds really amazing for someone my age, but they closed at midnight, so it wasn’t that wonderful a feat. But it does sound good, doesn’t it? Well, it does to me…3 new friends were made: Alex from Seattle, Washington, Frances from Melbourne, Australia, and Stan from Los Angeles, California. (in pic above) Not sure how old everyone is, but my guess would be between 30 and 42, interests/careers are in photography, writing, and computers/network security. All super nice, and a pleasure to be around. I didn’t want the night to end for various reasons, but I did manage to stumble off, somewhat intoxicated and yes, alone, and returned safely to my room, where I had a helluva time getting to sleep, but you’ve heard enough about my sleep issues in these notes. I went home on the 13th and clearly, I arrived safely. It was great to see the kids again, and I have since seen just about everyone in Kingston that really matters to me.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these notes. I’m glad that the chore of writing them is over, but also sad, because it means that my hectic, over-committed life is about to go full-throttle by Tuesday. I know, I have to do something about that too……maybe after the next trip......hmmm....me thinks Rhode Island, NYC and Mexico for sure...then Africa? South of France? Bali and Indonesia?

Warmly, Steph