LONG TIME, NO BLOG

Well, I’m now out of Dublin and in Galway hoping to find a job/accomadation. It’s kind of sad really. I was beginning to like Dublin—although not enough to live and work there. Nope. Sorry Dublin. Anyway, since I just got to Galway two days ago and am already feeling nostalgic for Dublin, I thought it would be a good to time to share some of my personal highlights of this great city’s offerings, and yes. There will be pictures. You have been forewarned. Fortunately though, I, unlike one of my American hostel mates, did not take 600 pictures. Yet, I did take enough pictures that these highlights will be in separate blog posts. Don’t worry, though. I’ll try to keep them short. I don’t have much Internet time anyway.*

*Highlights are posted below.

River Liffey

Now this may be an obvious choice, but any city that has a river running right through the center of it is way cool in my book. Not only is this river a good source for trade and transportation in Dublin, it’s also a good source of directions for lost tourists like myself. Need to find the Busaras (i.e. the bus station)? Just follow the river. Wanna find the concert venue featuring that Leonard Cohen concert you won’t be able to afford? Just follow the river. Wanna find some tourist—more idiotic than your tourist self—to mug the Leonard Cohen tickets from? Just follow the river. Wanna find a spot on the Liffey Bridge where you can pout, smoke a cigarette, and think about how that hypothetical idiotic you were going to mug is actually much smarter than you, because s/he has tickets to the Leonard Cohen show and you don’t? Just follow the river. So as you see, the River Liffey has many uses. It also doesn’t take a bad picture.

Temple Bar

Now this also maybe an obvious choice, but I’m not choosing Temple Bar for the reason you may think. Yes. I know that most tourists from all over come to Temple Bar to experience “authentic Irish pub life.” Unfortunately, this tourist marketing has made Temple Bar’s pub life pretty touristy and sloppy—especially on the weekends. Think of it as Ireland’s very own Bourbon Street. Yet, unlike Bourbon Street, Temple Bar has much more to offer than getting wasted and puking in a toilet on a Saturday night. If you go during the weekdays (or even the weeknights), you’ll experience the bohemian, funky flare well known to Temple Bar. I will say that I think shopping in Temple Bar is much more rewarding than shopping on Grafton Street. There are hordes of vintage (i.e. “hippie”) clothing stores, used book stores, comic book stores, record stores, tattoo shops, body piercing shops, etc., etc., etc. The Irish Film Institute is also here, so you can buy tickets/dvds of new and classic Irish arthouse films. There is also a flea market sort of thing during the weekends in Temple Bar Square. For those of you went to FSU, it’s kind of a condensed version of the one we had in the student union every weekend. Still, vendors sell all sorts of stuff: used CD’s, used books, incense, tarot card readings, Vote No/Yes to Lisbon stickers, etc. For me, it was shopping heaven. I had to stop coming here, so I wouldn’t spend anymore money.

PS—If any of you do make your way to Dublin, please, please go to Mojo Records. They have a great selection of Irish music: from The Pogues to The Dubliners. It also has a used bookstore upstairs and is only few blocks from this huge graphic novel store called Forbidden Planet.

Grafton Street

As I said before, I loved the bohemian charm of Temple Bar. Grafton Street seemed to be lacking that—for me, anyway. There were a few interesting street performers and street musicians, but I suspect that they may have been refugees from the World Showcase of Street Performers. Just a suspicion. I could definitely be wrong. Anyway, Grafton Street is known as Dublin’s premiere shopping area, so if you like overpriced, high end fashion boutiques, this may just be your very own shopping heaven.

St. Stephen's Green

Right at the end of Grafton Street is a Victorian Garden place known as St. Stephen’s Green. This is definitely a great place to meditate, feed ducks and pigeons, and contemplate whether or not is worth spending 5,000 Euros on that shirt on Grafton Street was really worth it after

all.

Marrion Square and the World Showcase of Streetperformers

I spent most of my last day in Dublin at Marrion Square. The reason for this, aside from it having some beautiful gardens, is because the World Showcase of Street Performers was being held here. Thus, since I like street performers as well as free shows, I decided to make the most of this combination. This showcase had pretty much everything as indicated below:

Thanks to the patrons, there were lots and lots of bubbles. Unfortunately, you can’t see the bubbles, because my camera sucks.






There was a magician who pulled a paper rope out of his throat. The kids were pretty stoked as you see by the way they tilt their heads.






There was a really cocky Buster Keaton impersonator who wouldn’t stop harassing the kids in the audience.

There was a really crazy sprinkler/cell phone guy who only move if one of the patrons started pedaling the bike next to him. (Couldn’t get the bike in the picture. Sorry.)

There was a really big, creepy pig passed out in the middle of the square.

And last, but certainly not least, there was Mario, Queen of the Circus. I’m actually going to post a blog solely dedicated to him, because he’s really that crazy. Crazy in a cool, Don Quixote sort of way.

Oh yeah, and there were also two bull whip ladies who threatened an audience participant’s manhood by putting a piece of celery between his legs and cutting it to pieces with the bullwhip. Don’t worry, though. The dude left the stage with all body parts intact. I wanted to take a picture, but it was too crowded.

Mario, Queen of the Circus

Now this was by far my favorite act from The World Showcase of Street Performers. Now, I’m not really what Mario’s specialty is. He seems to do a little of everything: juggle, cycle, recite lyrics from Queen songs—all while sporting that lovely tight leather ensemble. What he’s known for, though, is his love of the 70s rock band Queen. Yes. Mario is, as he self-proclaims in the show, the world’s ultimate fan of Queen. Actually, Queen is one the 5 most important things in his life—along with his mother, his father, any random female he picks out of the audience, and (of course) Freddy Mercury—all of which are symbolized by the 5 batons he juggles. This is not just a show of cycling and juggling. Noooo. It’s also a show of love and drama set (of course) to a soundtrack entirely devoted to Queen’s music. Thus, the show—very much like an onion—has many emotional layers that are exposed with the help of Queen’s music. Here are just a few of these exposed layers:

There is the layer of joy as Mario finds new love in one of the female audience members he chose to participate in the show. This new-found love is, of course, further captured by the Queen song “Bicycle Race” playing in the background. Oh, the love was just fuming through the air.

Speaking of fuming, the layer of joy is overcome by fear when the female participant’s boyfriend comes up on the stage and challenges Mario to a duel. Neither of them had guns, though, so they decided to fight this duel by spitting chewed up banana pieces at each other. It was pretty intense as you can by expression on the audience members faces. The drama of this moment was, of course, further intensified by playing the Queen (ft. David Bowie) song “Under Pressure.”

After the intense duel, Mario, even though he didn’t win the duel or the love of the random female participant, won the hearts of the audience members. There was a feeling of joyful elation as Mario has the audience members, one by one, carry him off the stage with Queen’s “We are the Champions” playing in the background. Yes, Mario. You are indeed a champion among street performers.