Dublin for the day

We got cheap flights from Ryanair to fly to Dublin and back. Only £10 return and we were most indignant when they charged us airport fees! We paid a grand total of £20 each for the return flights......When you consider I pay £8.60 return to travel from Weston to Bristol by train,it was a bit of a bargain.

I've never flown Ryanair before and have heard the horror stories so I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there was a bit of a scrabble to get on first and as the seats aren't numbered and allocated, you just have to sit where there's a free seat, there's no guarantee you'll sit with your friends. We were dotted all around the plane, but it was a short flight, so it didn't really matter. There wasn't much leg room but the seats were comfortable.

When we got to Dublin we got the shuttle bus right outside the airport to O'Connell St. We walked past The Spire, which is incredibly tall new monument, built to replace Nelson's Pillar, destroye by the IRA. Sorry, I couldn't fit it all in one shot!


Here's the bottom:

And here's the top!

Then we had breakfast in Bewley's in Grafton St, famous for being the hang-out of Irish writers, like James Joyce, Sean O'Casey and Samuel Beckett and it's mentioned in Joyces Dubliners. The original decor with stained glass windows is still there and they do a good full Irish breakfast.....Potato farl, bacon, sausage, tomato,black and white pudding, mushrooms, poached egg, toast, orange juice and tea. OK, I was a wimp and didn't eat my black and white puddings........

Then we walked around the shops, all to the sound of Irish music from the gift shops, and passed the statue of Molly Malone, also known to the locals as he Trollop with the Scallops............

Then we took a boat trip on the Liffey,

Ha'penny Bridge

Samuel Beckett Bridge.

They say they make Guiness with water straight out of the Liffey, going by the colour, I think they're right....

There was an art installation by  Fergal McCarthy on the Liffey. It is Monopoly style houses and hotels, which light up at night, it's a comment on the homeless problem in ireland and the vast amounts of money speculated by the banks on housing projects which now stand empty.

And here's the culprits, the AIB, whose speculating in property led to the banking crisis and a bail out by the Irish taxpayers.

The we walked back along the Liffey by the very moving memorial to those who board ships to America to try to escape the potato famine.

So, by then, our legs were hurting and we were all sight-seeing'd out so we adjourned to a pub in Temple Bar. This bit is full of pubs, clubs and restaurants and is the centre of night life in Dublin. We had a pub meal, a few drinks, and we all had some Guinness, even those of us who don't drink it, all to the tune of a live Irish band. Yes, we did make it back on the plane..........

My favourite song to get you in the mood!

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The Donkey Parade at Weston-super-Mare

It was a great idea in theory. Local business's paid £500 each to decorate and sponsor resin donkeys which were to be turned into little works of art and placed in the streets around the town.

There have been similar projects with lions in Bath, dragons in Newport, rhinos
in Chester, elephants in Norwich and penguins in Liverpool.

They are all street art and suffered some vandalism but in Weston it's been so extreme that they had to remove the donkeys from the streets for their own safety. On the first week-end they were put out they were attacked. One was stolen and later dumped with it's legs ripped off, another was thrown in a skip and another had it's tail cut off.

The poor donkeys had to go into hiding, some went home to their sponsors, others are cowering in shop windows until they may a brief appearance on the pier to be auctioned off for charity. 

hiding in Marks and Spencers

This one went to Specsavers.............

lurking in a department store

And taking refuge in the local newspaper office...................

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