Dublin Day 18: "The snot green sea."
Our final day in
Ireland was bittersweet—many people have gone home over the past week, but we
stayed until the very end. We did as much as we possibly could in the time
given, and I think we have done a pretty good job the past three months. To
close out our trip, we had a nostalgic visit to St. Stephen’s Green for lunch,
then took a trip out to Dún Laoghaire to visit the Joyce Martello tower and
museum. A beautiful day for the beach and a wonderful way to say goodbye to
this amazing country.
The day started
off horribly. It was pouring rain and nothing was walkable for fear of drowning
on land. But by lunchtime, the rain had gone away—even if the clouds remained.
We walked one last time to Grafton Street and picked up some Thai noodles. I
chose the red curry as a mild reintroduction to spicy food. Then we took our
takeout boxes over to St. Stephen’s Green and had a final sit on the benches
there. We ate, watched the birds fly, and the people walk by. Though it wasn’t
sunny, it was warm. And the food was absolutely delicious.
After our short
picnic, I made a quick stop at Butler’s to grab some chocolate to take home to
my friends. I probably bought way too much and looked like an idiotic tourist,
but that’s what I figured would make the best gift! Then we made our way back
down Grafton Street and then onto O’Connell, where we stopped in for a last
gelato. I got hazelnut and something called cupcake, which was really just a
really sweet chocolate. They did not have the dark chocolate I had the last
time, which I was very sad to see. But I was glad to get one last taste of Suso
gelato before leaving it behind.
Once we returned
to the hotel, I quickly stashed my chocolate in my room and then went straight
back down to meet my English professor in the lobby. We had planned a trip to
James Joyce’s Martello tower—the home of Leopold Bloom in his famous novel Ulysses—out in Dún Laoghaire. That is
the opposite side of Dublin Bay as Howth, where we were the other day. It was
awesome to not only go by the Dart train instead of the ferry, but also to see
the other side of the bay, looking out onto the peninsula area of Howth. I got
to see a different side of Dublin that we hadn’t really gotten a chance to
explore.
The train ride
itself was non eventful, though cool. We saw Sandymount Strand at low tide,
which went out seemingly for a mile before it hit ocean. To avoid walking
further out to the tower, we stayed on the train one stop after Dún Laoghaire
and ended up just outside town. Once we found the beach again, we started our
walk out to the tower, on the tip of the peninsula. It was quite the walk
anyway, but we saw so many cool things to make up for it.
First of all, we
came across a tree planted to commemorate the 100th birthday of
James Joyce. Next, as we continued on to the tiny strip of sand considered the
“beach,” we saw this amazing vintage Bug decked out in chrome hubcaps and accessories
and an awesome metallic copper paint job. It was a pristine restoration that I
wanted to steal, it was so pretty. Then, as our walk ended, we came to the
Forty Foot—a small swimming hole where a character in Ulysses bathes and where real people like to take advantage of the
deep water to dock their boats and take a dip. The area is called Forty Foot
because of the unique feature of the forty-foot drop off directly next to the
mainland. Though it isn’t necessarily a great place to bathe, it certainly is
beautiful. Joyce called it the “snot green sea,” but I thought it was a lovely
little spot.
From there, we
walked up into the Martello tower, which was the fictional home of Bloom that
now houses the Joyce Museum. We were very warmly welcomed into the tower and
given a brief few facts about Joyce. After learning that our professor taught
Joyce and that Diana had read it, the guide got very excited and started
talking about as much intricate literature stuff as he could.
Since I had
never really read the book, I just used the time to look around at all the
amazing artifacts. There were so many books, prints, posters, original art
pieces, and postcards. I was amazed at the personal nature of some of the
displayed items—schoolbooks he owned, handwritten notes, annotated books. These
things were close to him, and they now live in this tiny little tower at the
end of Ireland. Crazy.
We moved on to
climb the stairs, which are very steep and very narrow. Even if we did fall
backwards, we would just fall into the opposite side of the spiral and not even
make it down. The second level of the museum is a replica of how the interior
would have looked when Bloom lived there. There is a bed next to the wall,
various books on a shelf, and even a panther to symbolize the panther that a
character saw in his dream and shot at in real life.
At the top of the
stairs is a door that leads outside, where the cannon would have been during
the war. Now, as a home/museum, it no longer has a cannon. But it does still
have an amazing view of the bay and of Dún Laoghaire. We could see well into
the Irish Sea, as well as Howth and all the way up to the beginning of the
marina. The Forty Foot was still visible, as well, as was the rest of the town
behind us. It was a great thing to see on the last day in Dublin. Another day,
another beautiful view.
After that, our
visit came to a close. We walked back all the way to the downtown Dún Laoghaire
Dart station via the coastal walk. There was a strange but really beautiful sea
urchin statue, cormorants drying their wings whilst sitting on rocks, lots and
lots of dogs, and lots and lots of graffiti. Some of the most prominent
graffiti was a Joyce quote: “The first faint noise of gently moving water broke
the silence, low and faint and whispering.” This comes from A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man,
another one of Joyce’s famous works that has some of the same characters as Ulysses. There were also come really
cool carriage booths with murals of early 1900s people painted in them, to
represent what they might have looked like when they were in use.
Soon after, we
came to the station. We fed our tickets and boarded the train, making our way
back to Dublin. It was great to see and smell the beach one last time before
leaving. But it is so close to going home that no matter what I would have
done, I would have been ready to pack and get some rest before waking up early
to catch our flight. We leave for Southampton tomorrow morning around 6AM, so
we should see some more amazing sights in the UK before going home. Though I
have had a great three months in Ireland, it is time to see something new and
then head back to the States for the summer.
♥
photo credit Diana Cleveland
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