May 13-19: Another week in Dublin

May 18, 2009

Arrived back in Dublin from Oslo last Tuesday (12th) night. Managed to meet up with Jess just in time to head home. She had a very ill housemate and company coming in for the weekend, so we did not get to hang out together much.

I went off Wednesday (13th) to wander Dublin and see what I could find. Evening, tango class where I met some lovely folks, and we all went together to a milonga at the Wynn hotel after class. It was really quite crowded, and I only got in a few dances – one of them those stressful types where a person expects you to know more than you do and you can feel it... ah well. It was fun anyway and I was out late. I had arranged to couchsurf with Frantisek, who had decided not to stay for the tango class, so I was after finding my way to his place after all the buses had finished running for the night. I walked halfway (it was pretty far out) and grabbed a taxi, the driver of which insisted on driving me right to the door despite my insistence that I would be able to find it on foot more easily from the crossroad. This practice ran up the taxi bill, of course, to about 10 Euro. Arrived about 2am and we stayed up chatting about Japanese music and tea and swimming and mathematics and travel and place for an hour or more. It was interesting conversation, anyway. I slept poorly, and decided to get a hostel rather than plan to couchsurf as long as I was going to be busy dancing late into the night.

Thursday (14th) - Got a dorm room at the Abbey Court Hostel on the River Liffey and felt better to have the independence of it. But that feeling vacillated with one of wanting interaction, as it was kind of a keep-to-one's-own atmosphere in the hostel. More wandering, and I had a huge delicious dinner at the Hare Krishna vegetarian restaurant - Govinda's. I was supposed to meet Mar, an Icelandic guy I had met at the tango class the previous night, at the same venue and we would go together to the class that night, as I did not know where it was. He didn't show (or I didn't see him anyway) and I gave up on tango for Thursday night, but went off exploring and found the Cultivate Center, where there was a panel of politicians (elections June 9th) discussing their positions on climate change and other environmental issues. I sat in, and the discussion and energy were comforting to me, in their academic way. That over, I walked into Temple Bar, the touristy cultural center of Dublin, and past a venue where a crowd appeared to be waiting for a show. Indeed, the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival had two shows on, and the Dublin Dance Festival had one beginning in 5 minutes. I grabbed a ticket and saw a piece called Fall and Recover, in which professional dancers worked together with survivors of torture, to create and perform a rather inspiring dance piece. There was a reception afterward and I hung around a bit and eventually asked just the right person (unknowingly, the Marketing Coordinator, Ellie) about how I might get a t-shirt. She said I could have one (yay!) and I also expressed an interest in helping with the festival, if they were short volunteers. She introduced me to the Volunteer Coordinator, Eve, who decided I could be useful and I went out with them and a few others to the sponsor bar at the Crown Hotel (apparently owned by Bono) across the way. (Also had a great conversation with eve's sister, Ayelet, who is a sculptor and who just had the very refreshing demeanor of a professional, and successful, artist.) Nice time at the pub socializing and it turned out to be a great night.

Friday (15th), I went to volunteer at the office for the DDF, distributed brochures and got to see some groovy parts of town I had not yet explored. Then spent a couple hours folding and stapling programs and just socializing. It felt so good to be contributing, to be involved in something, and to be interacting with interesting, engaged people.
Evening, I walked out to Rathmines to grab my big bag from Jess' place and made it back to the hostel just in time to make it to tango class at the Morisini-Whelan School. It was a good class, though I felt off-balance. The milonga followed at the same location, really relaxed and again pretty busy, but with a bigger dance floor. I danced a lot and stayed until after 2am. Mar was really coming on strong, in a humorous and unthreatening but persistent kind of way, and I enjoyed the attention for an evening, but really was not interested.

Saturday (16th) - I arranged to couchsurf in Balbriggan, a 40 minute train ride north of Dublin, little town on the seaside. But I was going to see a couple of shows in the DDF in the afternoon so I was wandering more (Amid the feeling: "I'm done, with all the waywardness, really, I have had enough wandering, I want to do something more productive with all this energy and time".) It turned out that the two shows were sold out so I did not get into either of them. Alas. But in between trying, I found a food market and a craft market in Temple Bar and both were very entertaining for me. Later, I had a salad at The Farm restaurant and later a desert at Govinda's. There, Shane met up with me, who I would be couchsurfing with in Balbriggan. I was exhausted, again, after walking all day with my stuff for the weekend. He seemed to want to hang around Dublin, though, and insisted on taking me on what he could remember of the Dublin walking tour. I did, indeem see some interesting things that otherwise would not have sought or noticed, but I wasn't very energetic about it all. Whenever he would ask what I wanted to do my answer was 'something relaxed, easygoing, laid-back.... in fact going home would be just fine'; but he still seemed to have quite his own agenda and we went to a pub and then to a club he was interested to see along the way to the train to catch the last one out at 11:20pm. When we arrived, we had some tea and listened to Mum, which was nostalgic and relaxing for me, but it was all a bit awkward of a household and by this point it seemed that Shane himself is a bit awkward and anxious and, well, generally lacking awareness in social cues. Anyway, it felt really good to go to bed finally and I slept great. Next day we cycled out to the Sonairte Ecology center, about 10km away. It was sunny on the way there. There was a small farmer's market, where I spent too much money on too many delicious baked goods. The garden was nice and I was glad to have a chance to visit the place. It began to rain just as we were leaving and it was quite a slog back. On the way, though, Shane decided he wanted to see this place that had been a holiday camp, but about 5 years ago was turned into a sort of refugee center, a place to house asylum-seekers. So we went off our path in the pissing rain to check the place out. Enter zenflowingrivermind. But it felt so good to get home and get dry. That's the way my brand of masochism works, anyway, after all.

Evening and we watched 'Sunshine', then had a nice walk by the seaside at sunset. Another movie 'Harsh Times' and bed.

Monday (18th) - Generally futzed around with breakfast and tea and got the train at noon to Dublin. Check in to the hostel again and repacked my bags for the next week, then just took a nap. Went to the venue for the DDF at 6pm to report for volunteer duty, which was rather light. It looked like I would not get to see the shows (the festival has been quite successful, which makes me quite happy) but at the last minute I was able to see both shows: 'Standing in Ink' by Daghda Dance Company and 'Happy Hour' by Wendy Houston.

Tuesday (19th) - When leaving the hostel, met up with a Canadian girl named Annika who went walking with me to find free internet at a cafe and we wound up at a place called Mocha, chatting and netting. I had an iced Orgeon Chai which went well with the Seal and Sting and the like on the stereo and suited my nostalgia just fine. She was good company and had great stories to share of her recent 3-month adventures around Ireland. She joined me to meet Jess, with whom we went to meet Rachel (EM's friend who was the original connection there...) for lunch at a really decent spot called Woodstock's. On the way back into town to pick up the handful of pounds I'd forgotten in my backpack from my little Belfast tryst way back when, we saw an art gallery and had a couple hours to pop in. There was a little exhibition of pieces of stained glass, a couple of which were captivating with their finely detailed fairytale art scenes. There was also an installation called 'Egg Fight' which involved a curtain constructed of eggs and two headless figures wearing funky pirate costumery. I could explain more, but I think that's enough. Oh, and it was based on Gulliver's Travels. Alright, that's all you get.
Onto the bus, to the airport, time to kill, read some more of Food First which has been more motivating and inspiring and informative in the recent chapters, perhaps simply because I have been able to focus better. Then chatted with a pleasant fellow named Greg, about farms and travel and restlessness. Very quick flight to Edinburgh, easy on to the bus into town, chatted with a good-looking young guy about work and recession and Ireland...
My couchsurfing host in Edinburgh, Calum, met me at the bus and showed me a winding back-route to his place through many stairways and cobblestone paths. He and his sister share a comfy little flat in the UNESCO World Heritage Area old town of Edinburgh right next to the castle. It's alright :). And they are vegetarians who have traveled in India and make delicious dinners at home. Ah, I'm contented here! The company is a very important part of this, but the feel of this gorgeous old city is wonderful and I want to spend more time with Edinburgh.
Also met Sara, from Mexico city, and Raquel from Brazil, who were staying just for the night with Calum and Mairie.We went out for a quick drink at a pub where there was a traditional music set going, and Calum, who is an absolute encyclopedia of whisk(e)y knowledge, recommended a nice peaty variety called Ardbeg. Excellent. What a wonderful day.