day 76

Hellos from Dublin. The weather's gone miserable again. There's been a dip in the temperature this week. Of course its raining too. I can really empathise with why the weather is such a talking point. It damp and dreary gets to you.

It certainly got to me. I decided to skip school on Thursday and stay home. Linguistics classes have been particularly underwhelming too, and I don't feel like I'm learning much. It has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of what we're doing is familiar for me.

I also can't help but feel that the learning expectations here are lower. The teaching pace is slower. The volume of work is definitely smaller. And there is no post term break jitters. The only word I her from my friends back at nus is "stressed".

Clearly we have a culture of stress. But I'm beginning to wonder if it is such a bad thing. Yeah, I'm sure if I were back in nus now I'm be pulling my hair out too. But over here I see that the lack of pressure means that less gets done.

I'm not saying that that is a bad thing, just that as Singaporeans a lot of us will be unwilling to settle for that. We actually are a driven people with aspirations, and I think that is something to be proud of. Stress almost seems necessary for drive though. It's very much a part of the way we live our life, whether we want it or not. If that is the case then maybe we need new ways of looking at stress.

Okay moving on. Today I had a nice-ish day out at the markets (it was quite cold out). First I went to the Red Stables Market at St Anne's Park. Took me a while to get there: two buses and a misguided detour. I ended up walking the length of the park twice because I went to the wrong end.

Walking in the park

Spot the dog

Finally, the market!!

(A random point of interest: the big red building, Red Stables, used to be the home of the Guinness family.)

By the time I got to the market I was starving, so I bought a hot dog and chips. The vendor sounded genuinely grateful I bought stuff from him. I suppose there wasn't many people that day. Actually I'm getting the sense that markets aren't a big thing at all.

Live marketing for Blackrock Market

More promoting!

The market was a decent size... about twenty something stalls? There was a booth selling fruit and vegetables, another pottery, one selling random clothing, and like four pastry stands. There was quite a lot of hot food too. Chinese, Indian, hot dogs, burgers, crepes, pizzas and coffee. It was okay. I thought the pottery was nice but I wasn't sure about parting with eleven euros for a mug.

The other market was more interesting. It was at Blackrock, not too far from ucd actually. The Blackrock Market had a lot of antiques: furniture, books, toys, vinyl records, dvds, knits... There was also a fortune teller there! She actually gave me a bit of a shock. I wandered through a passageway as it turned a corner, and she stood there staring wide-eyed and mysteriously.

Looking at stuff

Exactly my thoughts!

I didn't find anything I wanted though, so no purchases from there either. I might go back another weekend just to see if I can find anything interesting, if not just hang out at one of the cafes. They seemed pretty nice.

day 70

As mentioned in my last post, I went up to Belfast on Thusday. It was interesting because many Dubs seem to mystify the North a bit as a strange and dangerous Otherland. Even my landlady and her husband, who have travelled the world, say they've never been there. It's understandable. I suppose the memory of the Troubles there still persists.

The questions I was asked about it amused me too: "What was it like? Were people friendly? Did you feel safe? ..." It's almost ironic how they asked so earnestly about a country that is so similar (on the surface).

But in case you're wondering, yes it was a nice place, and the people were friendly.

The sun makes everything look nice

Great great grandfather clock

Belfast didn't give a very good first impression though. It rained on me when I first arrived, and it felt like winter in Dublin again. Good thing it warmed up later in the afternoon, if not I wouldn't have walked through the city at all.

One of the first things I noticed was that Belfast was a lot more visitor friendly. There were many signs and maps along the streets. Not to much here in Dublin. I suppose having a history with the Titanic does make a big different for them.

Belfast had a different vibe from Dublin too. The architecture felt more English.. or European. But features like red brick, green copper domes and elaborate gothic facades reminded me of places like Liverpool and Hungary.

I also thought the city felt more spread out than Dublin, but maybe that might have been because it's small, and it was off peak hours.

The atas shopping square in Belfast

How can there by student who call this their university?

The English influence was also apparent in the way people spoke. I heard a few British-like accents along the way, although there were many other variations too.

That's about as much as I managed to glean from my walk through town really. It would be interesting to spend more time there to see how they perceive Dublin.

So, the travels continued on Saturday. Jamie and I took a trip to Dun Laoghaire (Excuse the Irish spelling. It's pronounced as "don leary"). It's a harbour town just South of Dublin. Nothing really stood out about the place though. It felt like being in a small and sleepy version of Dublin.

We walked along the coast to the next town, Dalkey. That was like a rich man's village. Everyone there drove fancy cars and lived like five minutes from the coast. The museum there marketed Dalkey as the home of some famous writers like James Joyce.

The fancy streets of Dalkey

A farmer's market though not many farmers

The town had a lot more character than Dun Laoghaire for sure. There were many artisan shops and cafes. Even their supermarkets looked fancy. The who place was felt very expensive and almost hipster.

But I think it was the walk between the two towns that took the cake. The ice cream cones we ate along the way might have something to do with that. But the view was really nice, the sun was out, and who could complain about the sea?

The quarry, golden with sunlight

This view of Dun Laoghaire was more impressive in person

More rocks and sea

Anyway, so much for my midterm break. It's back to uni tomorrow. Ho humbug.

day 68

Yesterday was a day of museums. I went to two! and all the way in Belfast. Maybe I'll write a bit about Belfast tomorrow. Today I want to write about museums.

I actually went to one in Dublin on Saturday as well – the Natural History Museum. It might have been because it was a weekend, but the atmosphere there was great! There were mostly families with little kids running around declaring their love for such and such an animal.

"Oh look at that! I love elephants."

And on your right the skeleton of an elephant

There was quite a selection of animals on display. Unfortunately nearly half of them weren't open to public because of some renovation works. I might have to go back when its done.

I thought the curation was slightly odd though. It had a lot of animals that weren't local to the region (like elephants). The ground floor was somewhat dedicated to local and marine animals. In general the grouping and flow of the displays didn't work so well.

Also the quality of taxidermy wasn't that great. Some animals looked a bit odd:

A head too full of stuff

Someone had a facelift

I still enjoyed the museum a lot anyway. I wonder if there are taxidermy courses I can take... Anyway, here are a few more pictures from the Natural History Museum.

Death whales swimming overhead

Tall persons view of giraffe

Surprise!

How do you do?

This is what it must look like to ride a zebra

Supermodel working her stripes

Jaws of death

Public display of affection

Its expression before the car hit

Oh good you aren't bored yet. Now to the two Northern museums. The first one I went to yesterday was the Titanic Experience. True to the Titanic experience, it had a hefty entrance fee (considering entrance to most museums here are free).

Even the building looks Titanicy

Okay you knew that

Actually I thought it was interesting that the entire area (what used to be a ship yard and all) was named after Titanic. On the maps its called the Titanic Quarters.

The streets are sort of part of the exhibition. There's a Titanic trail that leads from the city centre to the museum, which has sign boards along the way that give you little bits of history. Oh and there are outdoor displays too.



One of the cranes used to build those massive ships

The last surviving ship from White Star Line

And that's just outside the museum. Inside was pretty impressive too. The museum presented a comprehensive story about the Titanic, going through the historical context of how Belfast grew from flax fibre spinners to major ship builders.

It then went through the construction, sailing, sinking and locating of the Titanic (and its wreckage). It even covered the personal to the public, going through memorials of passengers lost and the political disputes that ensued after Titanic's sinking.

First class luxury

Pretty drawing

Pretty handwriting (also a list of ships built by White Star Line)

Sail away, sail away

Okay this is turning out to be a very long post. The last museum I saw was the Ulster Museum. It was very strange, but I enjoyed it. It had everything! Bits of natural, political and geological history as well as science and art (paintings and sculpture) quite interestingly strung together in one place.

The architecture of the museum was intriguing. Instead of having distinct 'levels', the gallery space kind of spiralled up like one big staircase across the building. I think that really helped the curating of the exhibit flow, particularly with such a breadth of seemingly irreconcilable topics. Okay some things felt out of place, but it was cool to see how they used the space to fit or separate the different sections.

There was also an exhibition of Victorian animal prints. Unfortunately the museum was being paranoid about copyright and stuff so I couldn't take pictures. I did get pictures of their animal mounts though.

Dried lizard

I would like one of these for my birthday

A more handsome polar bear

With what few specimens the Ulster Museum had, their animal mounts were all of much nicer quality than those in Dublin's Natural History Museum. I think it's very clear when you compare the polar bear ones.

And the Irish Deer! (That majestic beast above.) It's the only replica I've found so far. Most other mountings of it I've seen were of fossils only, and those alone are quite amazing. Imagine them alive and walking. They're the kind of creatures that would make a great Patronus. I wish they were not extinct.

Anyway, I just looked up taxidermy courses that they cost like five grand. Not even in Singapore dollars. Have to fly to the US or Australia to do them. Sigh.

Maybe I'll ask the natural history museums if they do internships or something.

day 65

Hello, hello, yes I am still well and breathing. Dublin was bustling with much green and tourists over the weekend. Celebrations for St. Patrick's Day must have started since Friday.

It's clearly a big deal here. A couple of roads were closed for carnival stuff: you know, ferris wheels, carousels, bumper cars and the whole shebang. My favourite part was the ice cream trucks.

Last week that was a road for cars

Clearly this traffic doesn't move

The best kind of vehicles

All dressed up for St Paddy's

The weekend was only a build up to the big parade on Monday, St Paddy's Day. The crowds were huge. I wouldn't be surprised if the population of Dublin had doubled over the weekend.

I went for the parade with couple of other Singaporeans. We sat along the bridge to O' Connell street. We could see the top parts of the larger floats, and glimpses here and there in between the crowds. The best entertainment was the snarky commentary from a Dubliner girl who sat next to us. She wasn't very happy to be there. I guess I could see why. Not many Dubs were in town that day.

Anyway the rest of that day wasn't that interesting. Most of the shops were closed, save the pubs. I suppose most people just spent the day drinking. That's was probably the main point of the festival anyway. Imagine how much boozing there would've been for the neighbourhood supermarket to bar (literally bar, with mobile fences) the sale of alcohol before twelve thirty (in the afternoon).

So that's St Patrick's Day for you. Here are some pictures of the mess:

Crowds crowds crowds

Say hi to my photobombing friend

Crowds from different angle

I am green with envy

Man on phonebooth

Supportive family

Green anything

Patriotism starts young