Monday, February 21, 2005
Well, not exactly dead. More like reborn.
Buendia and I are going on holiday to Dublin. This is a weird notion for someone who lived there for a dozen years, but we’ll see what happens.
At the end of my time there, I was coming to the conclusion that it was better to be a visitor there than a resident – the reverse of the situation when I first arrived in 1993.
Then, the craic was mighty, the Celtic Tiger was yet to be born, and no-one had much money.
People looked at me strangely when I told them I planned to stay after doing my Masters. Economically, things weren’t at their worst, but a lot of folks were still leaving to find work.
No big-name acts came to play, and we didn’t know about lattes or pannini.
By the time I left last year, it was all changed, and not entirely for the better.
But we’re not coming back for an analysis of the state of the country. More like to have a week of Sundays. We’re planning to do all the things we liked to do on weekends – some obvious (take the DART to Killiney and walk along the Vico Rd), some more unique to ourselves. I don’t imagine many visitors to Dublin would be going out of their way to pop into the Java Bay cafe on Manor St.
A lot of time will be spent catching up with old friends and old haunts. We’re staying in a hotel – another first for us in Dublin – and should have access to some kind of internet connection (especially if we can find a signal from those phone boxes Eircom have set up with free wireless access), so I’ll try sending a report from the front.