Yesterday my friend Teresa (whom I keep calling Teressa (T-Dot!!)) and I took the DART (local train) out to Sandycove to yet another James Joyce museum however; this is no ordinary museum. It's within a tower along Dublin Bay built in 1804 by the British government to protect the coast against attacks by Napoleon. James Joyce's book, Ulysses, begins within this tower which a friend of his rented (it was no longer used by the army by the early 1900s but rented as an apartment to eccentrics).
The view along this coast is incredible. It looks out onto the Irish sea and Howth Head.
You can see clearly in the pics the changing Irish weather. It can be windy and rainy one minute and then sunny and warm the next. It makes planning and checking the weather network silly. However, the days in Ireland are really long. It only really starts to get dark around 9 pm. I expected the weather to be bit dreary here but it's not. It's invigorating!
We walked along the coast and eventually came to a beach where people were...I couldn't believe it...swimming! You can see the little guys in the background trying to psyche themselves up to jump into the water while I'm standing there in a coat and scarf! It was too funny. The littlest guy kept running to the edge and doubling back. An old gent walked over to us soon after and we asked him how cold was the water that day. He said he took a dip every day but today was in and out so quick he "never got wet."
The tower itself is quite cool and the guy running the place that day was the nicest. It has on display letters between Joyce, his wife and friends. On the second floor they recreated what the place might've looked like when Joyce stayed there. In the fire place is a statue of a panther because on one night when Joyce was there another guest had a nightmare that he was being attacked by the animal and shot 3 rounds from his pistol into the fire. Joyce left minutes later and walked home. Check it out, I'm a friggin' tiger!!
The view from the top of the tower was tres cool. There was a cool breeze, birds flew about and all you cold here was the flag on the tower flapping and the people yelping as they jumped into the sea below.
Well, I'm off. Oh, by the way, how does everyone like the new scarf? It's a straight up wool scarf from Galway.
Cheers all!
Steve
2 comments:
Yo Steve-O! Sounds like you;re having a great time! I'm leaving for the lake on Saturday, we'll miss ya buddy. Sounds like we're both in pour relative states of comfort. Have a good one, and keep the Guiness flowing!
I can hardly see the scarf in the photos, take a picture of the scarf up close and then I'll weight in with my two cents:)
Sounds like all is going well. can't help but notice all the well constructed retaining walls in the photos....
miss you dude!
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