Headed to Dublin

Fast-moving clouds

Woke to a slightly ominous cloudy morning; I think I’m going to have the joys of an Irish weather weekend. 
We got moving a little earlier because of Cleaner Avoidance Syndrome – they have a very nice Ukrainian woman who comes in to do the heavy stuff, and I think Eileen feels guilty about it.  With no reason – she still has to be careful about her breathing, and they do the heavy stuff quickly and efficiently. However, M&E like to be out of the way, so we took off for Mallow a little sooner, with Michael driving. The Mallow-to-Dublin train runs hourly, so there was lots of choice, but again, we needed to allow for Michael’s performing schedule, so I booked for a 12:45pm ticket.  

Eileen & Michael at lunch

When we’d talked about it initially, Martin had suggested we visit the Donkey Sanctuary, but it turned out to be 20 minutes north of Mallow, and sadly, there really wasn’t time for it. Instead we poked around at a farmers market (a very small one!) and then went to find a place for coffee, that turned into an early lunch.  I was dropped off at a very quiet Mallow station (Michael, bless him, did the bridge over the railway with my suitcase) and I waited. Five minutes before the train was due, another one pulled onto the platform behind, and suddenly everything was crowded. And then, getting on the train, I discovered that it was absolutely full of students all heading for some sort of pop concert event – and there was not a seat to be had.  I had to stand through two-thirds of the trip, and was just lucky enough to catch an elderly lady getting off at Port Laoise so that I could steal her seat.

Looking towards the Front Square in TCD

At Dublin Heuston, I managed to find the shop that sold a Visitors Leap Card – the ticket that’s good for train and tram and bus – and I found the bus I needed, and got off at the right place and found Trinity College Dublin, where I am for two nights.

Mine is the second door along....

The rain was threatening, so I settled into my room – one of a three-room apartment, and pretty basic student accommodation, but fine for these two nights – and occupied myself with reading my mother’s Memoirs (at least, the Irish part of them) which Martin had digitized and copied to me. It’s fascinating to me how detailed her memories are, and how that contrasts with how my own are not – I think a lot of my “memories” are from family stories rather than actual memory.
Good wifi here, and time to plan Saturday’s outing in semi-detail – though I think I will probably need my rain-jacket!