Day 1, Ireland

Monday’s Short Take from Niagara Express

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The next 12 Days or so will be an indulgence of sorts, a travelog chronicling our visit to Ireland.

Day 1 across the pond

Prepping for this trip

Recent trips to Canada revealed a 3% charge on our Visa debit card for a foreign transaction fee. We settled on Capital One Savor because of a $500 credit and 3% cash back.

I stopped at the Niagara Falls Boulevard BankOn Buffalo to inform them we would be traveling.

As if on cue, a never-helpful bank staff said “you have to do that online. Do you have our app on your phone?”
It was a perfect millennial response but I don’t use my phone for banking. I went online to their Website and took care of it there but how is the idle bank staff not empowered to help a customer with something that simple?

We miss the Bank of Akron where when we walked in, the staff greeted us and treated us like family.

We flew Air Canada from Toronto. Traffic wasn’t bad but then we’ve become used to Niagara Falls. If I have to drive somewhere more than 10 minutes away, or I get caught at the Grand Island Bridges, I am annoyed.

Dublin

Dublin is a struggling city just like anywhere – new financial sector economy is taking off but still, there is an undertone of poverty with people hanging on the street outside the soup kitchen and every vacant storefront (and there are many) marked with graffiti.

Many of the people who used to live here likely can no longer afford to. The people with those fun new tech jobs working for Google, Meta, State Street and Salesforce have good jobs but in the downtown core, at least near where we are staying, there didn’t seem to be a grocery, convenience store or pharmacy.

We took a taxi from the airport to River Liffey where we met our hostess Niamh outside a coffee shop. She led us through a private gate to a well-appointed 3rd floor apartment. Everything is locked down with key fobs because this is a city.

She stayed and chatted a spot, told us about boat tours and kayak and bike rentals and what to avoid. It was exactly the sort of thing we stay AirBnb to encounter, because real people know where the cool stuff is.

For example, the oldest pub in the world is actually several blocks of tourist trap called the Temple Bar. We somehow found our way one block from our lodging, a tavern that opened at noon. People were queued at 11:50 a.m. “Brazenhead” opened in 1198. Yes that is a year. Joe had bangers and mash. Ben had bacon and cabbage. Beth went for the Guiness stew. I had fish chowder. As we left the place had come to life, mobbed with tourists.

I wouldn’t have recognized Brazenhead but Beth enjoys research so when we come to a place, she knows. It is a thing of beauty. Thank God she plans.

A sign on the wall quoted James Joyce, Ulysses, “you get a decent enough do in the Brazenhead.”

We walked the River to the Temple Bar District. Beyond, we stumbled upon a tour boat ready to leave the dock. The captain, Mark, headed us off on the gangway.

“I have people I am dealing with who thought they could just walk on and there is a language barrier,” he said, mid-crisis with unhappy customers. “Give me 10 minutes and someone will help you.”

A bit later we spoke to Hannah who sold us tickets using Fareharbor software, just like home.

The river cruise was 45 minutes on a low-slung diesel-powered canal boat of sorts, narrated by a lovely guide with a great wry wit. “There’s a wax museum over there with Superman and Batman if that’s your thing. It’s not mine.”

Maria spoke with great detail about several of the 21 bridges that cross the river, including one designed to evoke the image of an harp and another built as a swing bridge but inoperable for 4 years because “the man in charge lost the remote” (sexism intended).

Ben looked at the Harp-shaped bridge: “An architect designed it. An engineer lost his mind for a year trying to make it work.”

Boats left this river in the 1850s, headed for America during the famine. There is brazen memorial art, skinny people, looking destitute with their dog.

Later we passed the Temple Bar district which claims to be even older than Brazenhead. She was at it again. “You can go there if you like but everything’s expensive and I wouldn’t.”

She talked about the architecture, some old and beautiful, some modern and beautiful and some meh, like One Niagara or the Brydges Library in Niagara Falls. What were they thinking?

I tipped her generously because her candor is rare in the service industry.

I felt a kinship to Niagara Falls “Friends don’t let friends eat at Hardrock or Anchor Bar or go drink Starbucks.” There are locally owned small businesses around more worthy of support. Of course you can get Papa Johns, Hardrock or KFC? Who isn’t ready to pay 25.50 in Euros for a Mesi Burger? Stick to Brazenhead.

With no car here, we are kind of stuck with walking distance unless I can convince the family to rent the public bikes available everywhere. We walked at dinner time and made it to the Temple Bar District.

For a Sunday night, the place was hopping. We settled into a bar for dinner and listened to a guy strumming his guitar to cover James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel and Johnny Cash accompanied by his buddy on flute and sung with an Irish accent.

Outside, after dinner, the place had come to life. It felt like Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ontario. There were crowds dancing in the street, singing along to music. Everyone seemed to be smoking or vaping. Panhandlers and homeless people were more evident. Urban chaos. Watch your wallet.

A hustler had a pullup bar set up with a sign: “Hang for 100 seconds and 5 euros will get you 50.” We watched a couple suckers try and fail. 100 seconds is a long time, especially when not allowed a reverse grip. One guy made it 55 seconds.

There is an antigovernment under-current here. Our cab driver had a sticker on his dash “cash is king.” I saw a poster on a graffiti wall “No more fees to use cash AND no more restrictions on the use of cash.”

The gig economy appears to be thriving as well with food delivery happening by bicycle via “Just Eat.”

I suspect the burgeoning financial services industry is gentrifying the city, making it hard for businesses to find help because employees can’t afford to live here. Those graffiti scarred vacant storefronts face a twofold problem: Rent is high and employees are expensive. Still, there is that critical mass of people needed to make business go.

A gorgeous romanesque building houses the offices of the Bank of Ireland, or once did. On the porch, behind the pillars, I saw the poke of a foot and the corner of a bag, then the same behind the next one. Homeless people in plain sight.

As my MAGA friends back home say, this is what happens when the Democrats run the cities. (I know nothing of the Politics here, but urban poverty and homelessness seems tied to systemic problems, not crime and punishment. Love is the answer.)

Tomorrow, we will hit Guinness and perhaps Jameson. We have about another day here before heading to pick up our rental car and moving on to more “real Ireland.”

Dublin is a lot of things but I don’t think it is real Ireland. It may as well be San Francisco.

Thank God for Beth planning this trip. I could never.