July 21, 2020

One Time in Dublin

By roads-rus

Over time I have learned not to trust my memory. I keep a diary. This turned out to be an invaluable tool as I began to sell travel articles, but every time I remembered a great travel experience and went back to review the actual occurrence, it was always different. All of this recent recalling of what cities and countries to return and not return to has made me remember some past events that were especially memorable at the time.

For example, I became focused on the time Ruth and I met my cousins in Ireland. On our first complete day together in Dublin, we saw the Book of Kells at Trinity College and considered sprinkling a few of their mother’s and my aunt’s ashes under a tree in a church garden next door to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to keep a promise. We were all shocked to find that there was a charge to see this cathedral.

We went to Howth for dinner. Howth, which rhymes with both, is a scenic fishing village about 8 miles from Dublin’s Center. It was easily accessible and cheap to go there. After we dined in a fun waterfront restaurant, we stepped outside to find a storm brewing. It rained but not for long, and it was now early evening. The sun came out and a rainbow appeared. The light was sensational, so I began snapping photos of the boats in the harbor. Later, I judged a couple of them to be about the best photos I had ever taken. I just reviewed them to find that they are ordinary.

We walked around Howth and the yacht-filled harbor and talked to some of the villagers. They told us that their town had become something of a residential suburb for Dublin. They told us the best views of Howth were from the hill above it. We climbed it to see what they were talking about. They were right. We went back to Dublin.

I had found Howth charming and began doing research. It was originally a Viking settlement. By the 18th century it had become the main harbor for Dublin and was filled with boats from England. As was typical, the harbor began silting up and Dun Laoghaire became Dublin’s main port facility. Howth went to sleep and reawakened as a quaint fishing village, as did Malahide. I only wrote in my diary that Howth was delightful. That opinion has not changed.

Hank

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2020 at 9:44 pm and posted in Travel memories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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