Dublin - the First Day
Walkers are 'practitioners of the city,' for the city is made to be walked. A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities. Just as language limits what can be said, architecture limits where one can walk, but the walker invents other ways to go.
- Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Dublin. We arrived in Dublin after about a full days travel, picked up our car and headed to our hotel. It may have taken us a bit to get out of the parking lot, but get out we did! It is a bit unnerving at first to be sitting on the left hand side, with no steering wheel or pedals and cars driving at you from ridiculous directions. But alas, we made it to the hotel without hitting any curbs, driving down the wrong way on a one way or just generally driving on our normal side of the road - we saved that for later.
Dublin is quite something to see - full of a vibrancy and life amidst the carefully maintained nonchalance of artfully crumbling facades, hip restaurants and age old paving stones. We arrived the day of the Pride Parade, and needless to say Dublin came out to party. The streets were thronged with all sorts of people and the vibe throughout was a vociferous one, boisterous and lively laced with glitter and feathers.
I took many photos that first day, below are some of my favorite - Ha' Penny Bridge, River Liffey, the Merchant's Arch, some fun side streets, Trinity College and the Long Room - my favorite - and where the books are organized by size and weight, heaviest and largest on the bottom shelves. The Winding Stair Book Shop, Temple Bar District and Christ Church and the crypt - which has manuscripts referencing the church to the site in 1030. Oh and the entrance to the original Dublin Wall (1240 AD).
We walked a lot ;)
