THURSDAY, AUGUST 29
With lots to accomplish in Dublin, it was a day of walking many streets, looking in many shops, and moving through this wonderful, lively and diverse city. Northumberland Road, near where we are staying, has the best souvenir/local crafts shop with scarves, sweaters, prints, etc. all made by Irish artisans.
The National Gallery of Ireland and Merrion Square are located on Northumberland Road on its way to Grafton. A short visit to the National Gallery felt like a refresher of our long art journey, bringing back painting memories of other places where we’d seen Titian’s, Calder’s, Nolde’s, Monet’s. The Museum’s collection, primarily European from the 1400 to the early 20C, was limited but for us it connected to so many other paintings…and introduced us to some interesting Irish artists.
Food stalls were set up in Merrion Square…maybe for the returning Trinity College students, maybe just for the workers in the neighborhood. It smelled of burritos and sausage. A beautiful park, with odd sculptures…a particular favorite was a copper-colored chair/throne that reaches about 20 feet high.
The downtown offered up more souvenir shops but they weren’t what we were looking for. We want quality for the people who have helped us during this year, collecting mail, taking care of the cat.
Downtown Dublin near Grafton street and across Liffey River is chock a block with shops from Chanel to Top Shop, and we visited a lot of them, also in search of “school” clothes for Chloe. Vegetarian restaurants abound and we found one for lunch.
Our goal was to get to the Irish Film Institute to see the most recent Almovodar film, “Pain and Glory” but at 3:00 we wondered how we could keep going until 8:30pm when the film would begin. We were exhausted. But at 7:00pm, still downtown, we realized we had better hustle to dinner, if we were going to make the film. Time flies! We ate at the cafe attached to the IFI, and it was excellent. The film was excellent, too.
Our walk back to the hotel took about 30 minutes. The night was mild, and as we left the downtown center, the streets cleared of people.
At one point during the day, we were both so out of it…tired, confused, despondent, grumpy. Overwhelmed, I suppose, by what is behind us and what is coming. This is one of the biggest transitions we will face.
