A place to remember

Bright sunshine, green wet lawns, great weather, and vintage castles! Jane Austen almost always transports me to such places with her books! I always wanted to go visit a place like that someday. I think I even wrote about a dream that talks about a castle sometime back.

Anyway, I’m finally here! In Ireland!!! A beautiful place with lovely warm people. A lot more culture than the States! Very pedestrian friendly. Too windy and cold, but obviously the Irish don’t think so! After-all, it’s what they call summer!

I got here on Monday and have been outside only week nights. With a quarter of the population of Ireland living in Dublin, this city has more people and cars than it can handle. Starting Thursday evening all shops and pubs are open until very late in the night. Picture a quarter of Ireland in pubs in Dublin and the remaining three-quarters scattered in the rest of the country. That’s how crowded and noisy the city gets on Thursday nights. Their weekends start Thursday evenings, and not surprising the Irish are big on shopping as well!



Anyway, I’m yet to explore the more green part of the country. Meanwhile, I did get to catch a glimpse of the bustling city, because I got to live right in the middle of the city center near Trinity College.



See anything unusual in this picture? Notice that the windows are taller in the lower floors than the upper floors? That’s not the only building that looks like it! Almost all buildings in Dublin have windows in a similar fashion.

It is said that in the earlier Victorian days, the taller your windows, the more you were taxed. Obviously, people that can’t afford to pay heavy taxes chose to stay in the upper floors with shorter windows and lower ceilings. The more the day light into your house, the more you’re taxed. Strange, is it not? Now that’s what I would call day-light robbery!!! Thank God the government doesn’t do that anymore.

Like they say, in Ireland, always look UP to appreciate the architecture of the buildings! Look at the architecture in that! This one’s called the Spire of Dublin. Springs up right into the sky.



Almost all of Dublin’s government building remains in the old Victorian style (the windows in this one appears to have been sealed shut. probably for the same reason) with the ground floors commercialized with shops, restaurants, and pubs! Pubs! Lots of 'em!!!


I’ve been here only four days and a few hours, so that’s all I have for you folks. During the weeknights, I did visit the Dun Laoghaire harbour; an astonishing place to be. After the sun sets, around 8-ish, it’s a sight to watch the lights lit-up across the bay with its reflection falling over the sea. Sadly, no picture of that yet.

I’ll be back with more after the weekend.