#tram stop. LUAS

[streetsofdublin]

THE POINT TRAM TERMINUS AND NEARBY

This Luas link to Tallaght connects the Point Village to other transport options, including the DART, suburban rail, Busáras, mainline rail, and the future Dublin Metro.

NORTH WALL AREA OF DUBLIN The Point Luas stop is the easternmost terminus of the docklands extension of the Luas Red Line light rail system. This Luas link to Tallaght connects the Point Village to other transport options, including the DART, suburban rail, Busáras, mainline rail, and the future Dublin Metro. The Dublin Port Tunnel southern portal is located nearby. There are a few entities,…

[rogha]

me and my brother trying to explain to a guy from libya on the luas that the reason there’s a stop called fatima is because there was a social housing project called the fatima mansions built there in the thirties that have since been demolished and replaced with the herberton apartments and those were probably named after our lady of fatima which is a way to refer to the virgin mary because during ww1 in fatima, portugal mary appeared to three kids a couple of times and told them secrets and things and everyone was like ‘yeah sure’ and the kids were like ‘be here on this day and you’ll see’ and then the sun did some weird stuff but most people kind of think that if you stare at the sun and you start seeing weird stuff that’s probably not a miracle it’s just what happens when you stare directly at the sun for a while but it was declared a miracle worthy of belief in the 30’s and the reason there’s a place in portugual called fatima is probably because there was a big chunk of history where the iberian peninsula was mostly under muslim control from the 8th century to the 15th and that is why there is a random tram stop in dublin with an arabic name probably

[hannahssimblr]

Chapter Two

It feels cliched, like something from a film about a character working in some business firm, but I’m getting coffee for everyone at Mezzotint, the print studio where I am doing my internship. The studio, located above a little craft shop, opens right out onto a quaint street in Stoneybatter. 

It’s up and coming around here, that’s what they call it when they don’t want to admit to its gentrification, and the café that the staff frequents is one of those hipster places where there isn’t any room to sit. The exotic hanging plants in the window form a lush curtain where you can peer inside and see the moustachioed barista at work underneath a wall of interesting looking coffee paraphernalia.

This café is so close to the Luas line that you can hear the ding ding and swish of the tram as it passes every two minutes or so; Tallaght to The Point, Saggart to Connolly Station, over and over and over again. Each day is accompanied by the music of the city. It seeps in through the windows of this café and of our little studio across the road from it in a way that makes me feel like this little street in North Dublin, and I by extension, are woven inextricably into the fabric of the city. 

Everyone likes to pretend that September is the autumn, and even though the leaves are a little bit rusty and the waters a little choppier, the temperature is still warm enough to walk around without a coat in the afternoons. This is something seasonless that can’t decide what it wants to be yet, caught between one moment and the next. A warm breeze licks across my arms as I cross over to Mezzotint with five complicated coffee orders and a paper bag of pastries, pausing to let a woman with flowers in the basket of her bicycle pass me by. 

I pass through the shop first, where Petra is placing a new batch of little ceramic bud vases on a shelf, and I give her her mocha and pan au chocolat. “I like those.” I tell her, and she nods, subtly rearranging the vases and confesses that she’s already bought one. She spends way too much of the money she earns from working at this shop buying things in it, but I get it. I’d be buying stuff too if they were paying me. I head up the stairs to the studio above.

“Aw, thanks chicken.” Izzy, one of the printmakers, takes a coffee out of the holder marked with the letters FWAL on the top. I have learned it stands for Flat White, Almond Milk. It’s only half nine in the morning, and she’s already stuck into her work, the tips of her fingers blackened like burned matches from the ink. She doesn’t eat anything in the mornings because it makes her feel sick, but she’ll have her slightly softened croissant at eleven, I leave it in the bag for her. 

I bring a vanilla soy latte and a maple pecan twist to Gabriel who peers up at me impishly over his small, round glasses. “You look very nice today.” He says, and I grin. “So do you, but you look nice every day.” 

“Stop.” He grins coquettishly and lifts the lid off his coffee to sniff it. “This is soy, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah of course.”

“Good.” He takes a cautionary sip. “Because I’ll know all about it in about fifteen minutes if it isn’t. You’ll all know about it too.” 

“Yeah we definitely will too.” Izzy groans. “Remember that time they gave you whole cows milk?”

“I will never forget.” He says solemnly. 

“Yeah, no, me neither.”

I go over to the back of the studio to give Simon his flat white with oat milk. He told me he was vegan within an hour of meeting me, and I told him I’d actually never met a real vegan before, so it was an honour. It was supposed to be funny but if he thought it was he didn’t show it. 

He’s sitting hunched over an angled desk with a blade, digging grooves into a block of wood. This is what he does, this old style wood block printing, but it’s always got a contemporary twist to it. Like today, he’s working on a scene in a dark lake, ripples swell behind a woman with long black hair who’s naked, submerged up to her waist and looking up at the full moon. 

“Do you like it?” He asks me as I leave his coffee on the table next to him.

 “Yeah it’s really cool.”

He leans back to look, and quickly blows some of the loose curls of shaven wood out of the carved areas. “I like it as well, I think. It has something.”

“Who is it?”

“My girlfriend. It’s always my girlfriend. She’s my muse.”

He’s a very particular type of artsy-intense like that, like he doesn’t think it’s weird to call someone your ‘muse’ in a non-ironic way. “Oh right.” I say. I start turning away to head towards a pile of paper and tools in Gabriel’s corner of the studio, the same ones I’ve been trying to organise all week, but he calls me back over to him. “Yeah, Simon?”

“I’m thinking we should get a start on Christmas cards for the shop.”

“But it’s September.”

“Yes but it takes ages to get everything sorted and printed. It’s best we start designing in the autumn.”

“Oh, alright.”

“So…” He sits up and twirls the blade around his fingers in way that makes me nervous for his precious hands. He doesn’t look at me that much, including now. He’s still examining his work. “You’re doing a degree in illustration.”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Could you draw up some designs? I don’t have time.”

I start to get flustered. “Oh, well, I wouldn’t really know what kinds of things to do.”

“Well, we don’t usually go for traditional type things in the shop, so if you can think of something that’s Christmassy but also, like, bright and modern and fun, that’d be unreal.”

“Mhm.”

“Do you have a portfolio?”

“Not really, just sketchbooks.”

“You’ve not done any kind of client work or anything?”

“Only a shop window.” I clear my throat awkwardly, unsure if I even want to admit to the work I did in Tullamore. “I did some window typography for a cafe during the summer.”

“You like typography?”

“Yeah it’s cool.” I shrug. “But I’d say I’m not very good at it.”

Simon’s mouth twitches up into as much of a smile as he appears to be capable of. “Why don’t you give something a lash for me, just see if you can come up with some fun Christmas card ideas that might incorporate interesting lettering. I don’t know.” He hunches back over his work so I know we’re finished discussing this. “Anything you want, Evie. I’m giving you full creative control, as long as it has a vibe.”

Full creative control is as terrifying as a blank page. I give him an almost inaudible “Okay” and go over to an empty table with a stack of paper to start trying to figure something out. What does that mean, anyway? A ‘vibe’? I sigh and start scribbling something down. 

I work through the morning and halfway into lunch, only realising it is when I surface from the haze of my creative flow to find everybody else gone. I fish around in my bag for the sad sandwich I prepared that morning and then get right back to work. I like it. I have no idea what I’m doing but I like doing it anyway. Sometimes when I get like this I wish that I didn’t have to eat or sleep or use the bathroom, like, I wish my body was a machine that could keep on drawing infinitely, churning out more and more work without the interruptions of my body’s needs.

Eventually the others come back and the sounds of press cranking and plate carving resume, and I am engrossed in what I’m doing. Gabriel passes behind me at some point and gives a little ‘hm’ of approval. “I like your lettering.” He says. “Thanks.” I say. 

I only realise the whole day has passed me by when a soft voice from the corner of the room pipes up. “Pub?” Simon cranes his neck like a submarine periscope and glances around the room at us. Without looking up, Gabriel says “Pub.”

“Pub.” Izzy agrees. 

I glance at the clock. It’s five already, and I feel like I’ve only just got into the swing of my card design. It kind of pains me that I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get stuck back into it again. I haven’t even started thinking about colours yet. 

Izzy tosses a balled up piece of scrap paper onto my table. “Hey, Evie.” She says. “Tools down. Pub?”

“Oh.” I say. “I don’t know.”

“Come on. We’re just heading across into Smithfield for a pint or two. Look outside. The sun is absolutely belting down.”

“We won’t get many more evenings like this.” Simon adds. “It’d be a waste not to come.”

“I suppose I’m not doing anything anyway.” I’m never doing anything, ever. “I can come for a while.”

“Unreal.” Izzy says, and I reluctantly relinquish my coloured pencils and then within five minutes the studio is closed down and the lights are off. 

“I’ll join you in a while.” Petra says as we lock up the studio door. “I’ll just do the cash register and then pop down.” We tell her that we’ll see her there and head out onto the street.

Beginning // Prev // Next

[autumnmylife]

St Stephen's Green  is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by Lord Ardilaun.

The square is adjacent to one of Dublin's main shopping streets, Grafton Street, and to a shopping centre named after it, while on its surrounding streets are the offices of a number of public bodies as well as a stop on one of Dublin's Luas tram lines. It is often informally called Stephen's Green. At 22 acres (8.9 ha), it is the largest of the parks in Dublin's main Georgian garden squares. Others include nearby Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square.

The park is rectangular, surrounded by streets that once formed major traffic arteries through Dublin city centre, although traffic management changes implemented in 2004 during the course of the Luas works have greatly reduced the volume of traffic. These four bordering streets are called, respectively, St Stephen's Green North, St Stephen's Green South, St Stephen's Green East and St Stephen's Green West.

Source and more in Wikipedia

[azvolrien]

Ireland - Day 5

Another sunny day, and a little quieter than the last few. I didn’t bother setting an alarm this time as I wasn’t in any particular hurry, but the curtains aren’t lightproof enough to keep the sun out altogether so I still woke up at about 8.30.

I got back on the Luas and took it a little further today out towards St James’s Hospital, where I disembarked for the Guinness Storehouse. I’m finding the Dublin trams to be frequent and efficient; no idea if their installation was as much of a clusterfuck as Edinburgh’s was.

Anyway, Guinness. I don’t drink, but I do find the process interesting and they’ve set up a great exhibition across multiple floors of the old brewery building. It starts out with the raw ingredients of barley, water, hops and yeast and moves on through the whole system of roasting the barley, fermentation with yeast, the art of coopering and even a brief section on transportation before you get to the Tasting Rooms halfway through, where they hand out small samples to try in cute little glasses and a tasting expert talks through things like the various notes and aromas before advising you to glug it rather than sip. The Storehouse ticket included a free pint at the end and I wouldn’t have wanted it to go to waste if I ended up not liking it, so in the spirit of the occasion I decided to give the little tasting sample a try.

I didn’t like it.

From there the tour moves on to look at different marketing Guinness has used over the years, including different ad campaigns – with a surprising number of toucans for some reason – and the subtle evolution of the famous harp logo. There was also a display of concept art from a local animation college for a potential film about the history of Guinness, though as there wasn’t any actual animation I don’t know if it ever got past the concept art stage. Things then finished up at the Gravity Bar on the top floor of the building where they serve the aforementioned free pint. I didn’t bother to claim mine, but the bar has fantastic 360° views out over Dublin so it was still worth seeing.

I left the Storehouse and rode the Luas back in the other direction, past the hotel to George’s Dock where I got off the tram to visit EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum. Really, I would term it more of an exhibition centre than a museum; it doesn’t have many actual artefacts on show, instead taking visitors through twenty small galleries of short films and interactive panels that look at both the numerous reasons people have had for leaving Ireland over the centuries and what they got up to when they got to wherever they went. It was interesting to see and the displays were neatly laid out, but I feel a museum should have things to look at rather than just screens. Among other reasons, there would still be something to see if the power unexpectedly went out.

I stepped back out onto the riverside walkway for a quick look at the elegant harp-shaped Samuel Beckett Bridge, the Jeanie Johnston ship replica, and the haunting Famine Memorial, then – after pausing at the Custom House to check my bus stop for tomorrow – ambled back along the river to the hotel for a quiet while in my room. I’ve had a pretty full-on time in Dublin and was starting to feel a little burnt out with tourism.

In the evening, I decided to treat myself to something a little fancier for my last night in Dublin and went out for a steak dinner in the restaurant of a nearby considerably posher hotel.

Tomorrow: onwards to Belfast.

[greenbagjosh]

Days 5 - 7: Belfast - Dublin, the start of a tram system, Grafton Street and an excellent bacon sandwich to go with my Guinness pint.

Hi everyone, Welcome to Day 5 of my visit to Europe in Summer 2004. It is now Thursday 29th July 2004, and I had stayed two nights in Belfast, and had gone up and down that part of the UK. It is time now to go to Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland. I have breakfast at the rail station, called "Ulster fry", take the international train to Dublin, stopping only at Portadown, and arriving about 10:30 AM in Dublin Connolly. I went on a walking tour from the central post office on to Grafton Street, also viewing the Book of Kells at Trinity College. I took a ride on the LUAS from St. Stephen's Green down to Sandyford and back. The next day I went on a clockwise bus tour of Dublin, walked to Drumcondra, rode the train to Dublin Connolly, took the train to Howth and back, ate supper in Howth, then took a bus back to the hostel to sleep for my next journey on 31st July. Hope you will join me.

Dia daoibh, Fáilte go Lá 5 de mo chuairt ar an Eoraip i Samhradh 2004. Is é Déardaoin an 29 Iúil 2004 anois, agus d'fhan mé dhá oíche i mBéal Feirste, agus chuaigh mé suas agus síos an chuid sin den RA. Tá sé in am anois dul go Baile Átha Cliath, i bPoblacht na hÉireann. Tá bricfeasta agam ag an stáisiún traenach, ar a dtugtar “Ulster fry”, tóg an traein idirnáisiúnta go Baile Átha Cliath, ag stopadh ag Port an Dúnáin amháin, agus ag teacht timpeall 10:30 AM go Baile Átha Cliath Uí Chonghaile. Chuaigh mé ar thuras siúlóide ón oifig phoist lárnach go Sráid Grafton, ag féachaint ar Leabhar Cheanannais i gColáiste na Tríonóide freisin. Thug mé turas ar an LUAS ó Fhaiche Stiabhna síos go Áth an Ghainimh agus ar ais. An lá dár gcionn chuaigh mé ar thuras bus deiseal go Baile Átha Cliath, shiúil mé go Droim Conrach, mharcaigh mé ar an traein go Baile Átha Cliath Connolly, thóg mé an traein go Binn Éadair agus ar ais, d'ith mé suipéar i mBinn Éadair, ansin thóg mé bus ar ais go dtí an brú chun codladh do mo chéad lá eile. turas ar 31 Iúil. Tá súil agam go mbeidh tú páirteach liom.

Ciao a tutti, Benvenuti al 5o. giorno della mia visita in Europa nell'estate del 2004. È giovedì 29 luglio 2004, e sono rimasto due notti a Belfast, e ho viaggiato su e giù per quella parte del Regno Unito. Ora è il momento di andare a Dublino, nella Repubblica d'Irlanda. Faccio colazione alla stazione ferroviaria, chiamata "Ulster fry", prendo il treno internazionale per Dublino, fermandomi solo a Portadown, e arrivo verso le 10:30 a Dublino Connolly. Ho fatto un giro a piedi dall'ufficio postale centrale a Grafton Street, visitando anche il Book of Kells al Trinity College. Ho fatto un giro sulla LUAS da St. Stephen's Green fino a Sandyford e ritorno. Il giorno dopo ho fatto un giro in autobus in senso orario di Dublino, ho camminato fino a Drumcondra, ho preso il treno per Dublino Connolly, ho preso il treno per Howth e ritorno, ho cenato a Howth, poi ho preso un autobus per tornare all'ostello per dormire per il mio prossimo viaggio il 31 luglio. Spero che vi unirete a me.

Bonjour à tous, Bienvenue au cinquième jour de ma visite en Europe cet été 2004. Nous sommes le jeudi 29 juillet 2004 et j'ai passé deux nuits à Belfast et j'ai parcouru cette partie du Royaume-Uni de long en large. Il est temps maintenant d'aller à Dublin, en République d'Irlande. Je prends mon petit-déjeuner à la gare ferroviaire, appelée "Ulster fry", je prends le train international pour Dublin, je m'arrête seulement à Portadown et j'arrive vers 10h30 à Dublin Connolly. J'ai fait une visite à pied depuis la poste centrale jusqu'à Grafton Street, et j'ai également visité le Livre de Kells au Trinity College. J'ai fait un tour en LUAS de St. Stephen's Green jusqu'à Sandyford et retour. Le lendemain, j'ai fait un tour en bus dans le sens des aiguilles d'une montre à travers Dublin, j'ai marché jusqu'à Drumcondra, j'ai pris le train jusqu'à Dublin Connolly, j'ai pris le train jusqu'à Howth et retour, j'ai dîné à Howth, puis j'ai pris un bus pour retourner à l'auberge pour dormir avant mon prochain voyage le 31 juillet. J'espère que vous vous joindrez à moi.

Hallo zusammen, Willkommen zu Tag 5 meiner Europareise im Sommer 2004. Es ist jetzt Donnerstag, der 29. Juli 2004, und ich habe zwei Nächte in Belfast verbracht und bin durch diesen Teil des Vereinigten Königreichs gereist. Jetzt ist es Zeit, nach Dublin in der Republik Irland zu fahren. Ich frühstücke am Bahnhof, das „Ulster Fry“ heißt, nehme den internationalen Zug nach Dublin, halte nur in Portadown und komme gegen 10:30 Uhr in Dublin Connolly an. Ich habe einen Spaziergang vom Hauptpostamt zur Grafton Street gemacht und mir dabei auch das Book of Kells im Trinity College angesehen. Ich bin mit der LUAS von St. Stephen’s Green nach Sandyford und zurück gefahren. Am nächsten Tag machte ich eine Bustour im Uhrzeigersinn durch Dublin, ging zu Fuß nach Drumcondra, fuhr mit dem Zug nach Dublin Connolly, nahm den Zug nach Howth und zurück, aß in Howth zu Abend und nahm dann einen Bus zurück zum Hostel, um dort für meine nächste Reise am 31. Juli zu schlafen. Ich hoffe, Sie begleiten mich.

On Thursday 29 July 2004, I had been staying at the Belfast YHA hostel. It was time to check out, and go south to Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland. I would take the international train from Belfast Lanyon Place, then called Belfast Central, and ride in first class to Dublin Connolly. The train would stop only in Portadown, just north of the border. I checked out, with my luggage, walked to the Botanic rail station, took a 80 class train to Lanyon Place station, and went upstairs to the cafe for "Ulster Fry". Ulster Fry is not much different from Full English breakfast, except that it has a few more fried items. I had egg, bacon, sausage, a "potato farl", kind of like a hash brown patty, and a fried mushroom. I had one cup of tea, and another of coffee. About 7:50 AM, I went downstairs to the platform where the train to Dublin would depart from. I found my seat in First Class. Somehow I ended up in the dining car, but did not order anything.

The train left about 8 AM. I had my radio with me, on one of the local FM stations, they played "Ninety Miles from Dublin" by Christy Moore. The train made a prerecorded announcement of the train arrival in Dublin Connolly in the middle of the song. Later on, I heard "Lola's Theme" by the Shapeshifters as well as "Inner Smile" by Texas (a Scottish band that started in the late 1980s but did not achieve fame until at least their "White on Blonde" LP in 1997 / 1998). It seemed, from Belfast to Dublin, that it would be impossible to notice the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic. It was only after the train passed through Drogheda (pronounced "Draw-dah"), that I would notice that I was in the Republic of Ireland. The train did not make any stops between Portadown and Dublin Connolly. The weather was a bit on-and-off rainy.

Most of the Irish railway system is unelectrified. Only from Howth to Bray was there any electrification on the main line, when I last read an article about the Irish railway system. I was surprised, already at Malahide there was electrification. The train was not very far from Connolly station. The train arrived about 10:30 AM on its own track. The exit was gated, so I had to go through the gates to exit the station for the bus to the hostel. I did not see any left luggage area in that station, though I have been told that there is one at the Heuston station due west of Connolly.

Leaving Connolly station, the statin building itself looks like something I might have seen in Northern Italy, kind of like from the Sforza family of Milan. Across the street from Connolly Station is the Busaras, or the central bus station. I asked about how to get to the hostel, but I was told to go to O'Connell Street by Abbey Street Lower and get a city bus from there. Although the LUAS red line tracks were being tested, that line would not go into operation until at least September or October that same year (2004). I had to walk along the sidewalk following the tracks to O'Connell Street. I saw a few light rail vehicles pass by. I knew of the green line, but it would not go farther north than St. Stephen's Green for many years (in 2024 it goes as far as Broombridge).

The Central Post office is at 47 O'Connell Street Lower. In at least one of the six Ionian columns, bulletts were shot into them in the 1920's struggle for independence from Great Britain. Nearby is an obelisque and on the opposite side of the road, towards Connolly Rail Station, is a statue of the writer James Joyce, who wrote "Ulysses". Incidentally, James Joyce was buried in Zurich, Switzerland, which I would visit on 7th August that same year. Only in the early 2020's, did the LUAS green line start operating along O'Connell Street Lower.

When I arrived at the post office bus stop, I found the bus route that went right to the hostel. It was about the corner of Dorset and Wellington Streets. Some time in the 2010s the actual building had been torn down, and has been replaced by university housing. I bought a day pass for the bus, which I think was 4 Euro back then. The bus went past Parnell Square before it made its stop on Dorset Street. I checked into a room with six beds. At the time, I did not see that an actual bed assignment would make any difference. Most of the time, no one minds if the wrong one might be accidentally taken. I would find out very early Saturday morning, that people would make a fuss. But for now, I would charge up my phone and my video camera, and in about an hour's time, walk to the bus stop at Blessington and Dorset, to go into downtown.

After I alighted from the bus at the post office, I walked along O'Connell Street. I made sure I had a good photo of the James Joyce statue. Then I walked past Middle Abbey Street, then along the Liffey to The Famine Memorial, at the Talbot Memorial Bridge. Many of the statues of the Famine Memorial looked lifelike. Then I went back to the O'Connell bridge, crossed the Liffey and stopped by the Mr. Screen cinema. There was nothing playing that I wanted to particularly see, so I walked farther south to College Street and on to Grafton Street. I entered the university at Nassau Street and went north to the library past Fellow's Square. The Book of Kells did not allow any photography. I was able to notice the pages of the bible, written on calfskin using various pigmentations.

Leaving the library, I went along Grafton Street to the St. Stephen's Green rail station. In general, Grafton Street is a pedestrian only passage. I passed by the Bewley's Cafe. They make good toffee sweets. At the time, the LUAS green line did not operate anywhere north of St. Stephen's Green. I walked to FitzWilliam Street Lower, along to Merrion Square. At the northwest end of the park, there was the Oscar Wilde statue. He was sitting, more like lying, on a rock, as if it were a bean bag. I walked by the Leinster House, the current seat of government for the Republic of Ireland, and also one of the ministries, probably for health and human services or similar.

At St. Stephen's Green, I bought a two ride ticket for LUAS. LUAS at the time, did not accept the bus pass, so I had to pay about 5 Euro for a day pass. I validated it, and boarded the next green line LUAS to Sandyford. The train went straight down Harcourt Street, before turning left on Adelaide Road, and turning right onto its own right of way. The LUAS went past Beechwood but somehow I had drifted off to sleep. I think it was still the jet lag. I was inspected by a fare inspector, and they said my ticket was fine. I alighted at Sandyford, the current southern terminus of the LUAS green line, and waited for the next one back to St. Stephen's Green. Once the LUAS arrived at St Stephens Green, I walked up Grafton Street, past the O'Connell Bridge to the post office, took the bus to Dorset Street, then went to the hostel. I think I went to sleep after that. I don't remember doing much else, other than listen to the radio and record local station broadcasts, some in English, some in Irish Gaelic.

On Friday 30th July 2004, it was a much nicer day than Thursday the 29th. I woke up, took a shower, and went downstairs to eat breakfast. The "Full Irish Breakfast" was at an extra charge, where the continental one was included in my stay. I went for the Full Irish breakfast, but it did not contain any black and white pudding, which is like a blood sausage, or a morcillo for those who know about Spanish sausages. I would hope to go into town and maybe have some black and white pudding, but I eventually waited for the next day.

I took the bus to the post office on O'Connell Street Upper, buying a day pass. There was a hop on hop off bus stop, where I could buy a ticket, good for all day transit on the hop on hop off bus. I had to wait until 10:20 AM until the bus departed. The bus went along the route past Parnell Square, the Obelisque, and back again south of the Liffey. The bus went past Trinity College, the house that Bram Stoker of "Dracula" fame once lived, the Molly Malone statue, St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. James Hospital, the Guinness Brewery, Magazine Fort, Heuston Station, and Ha'Penny Bridge. I alighted at Ha'Penny Bridge, and looked for some place to eat. On Anglesea Street just off Fleet Street, I found the Oliver St. John Gogarty pub. It also operated a hostel next door. I ordered a pint of Guinness and a bacon sandwich with fries. It was very good.

I went down the Grafton Street walkway before turning back and taking a bus to the post office. I bought some stamps for postcards at the office. Somehow there after I ended up walking east on Cathal Brugha Street past the Five Lamps to Clonliffe Road. I walked past the GAA Museum at Croke Park. Eventually I would end up at Drumcondra rail station. I could use my Eurail pass to gain access to the train platform for Connolly Station. The section between Drumcondra and Connolly was not electrified in 2004. I was feeling tired after walking so much. I think it was about 4 PM when I caught the train from Drumcondra to Connolly. Instead of the 80 class NIR DMU unit, I was riding on a nice commuter rail train. About where the train crossed Newcomen Bridge, the train came onto the electrified section to Bray/Greystones. At Connolly I transferred to the DART, which also recognized the Eurail Pass. It would be about 4:30 PM when I would board the train for Howth, called Binn Eadair in Irish.

The train to Howth arrived about 4:30 PM. It made about 9 stops before arriving at Howth. Howth is on a peninsula, and on the north side there is a harbor. There is also a shopping area and park close by. I had supper at the Fish Market. I think I had cod and chips along with a salad, and a pint of Guinness. It was really good, cost maybe 15 Euro. About 7 PM I went back to the Howth station to wait for the train back to downtown Dublin. Entering the station, I asked the guard if they would like to see my Eurail Pass, but he said "not particularly" instead of "No". He let me on to the platform. The train did not arrive until 7:30 PM. It departed about 7:40 PM. I stayed on the train until I arrived at Pearse Street. Pearse Street is an elevated commuter rail station. If you look eastward on Westland Row, you might think that you would be seeing a scene of "Glengarry Glenn Ross", where they say "Coffee is for closers". I took the bus back to the post office, and another one of the hostel. Then I went to sleep, at least for a while. Then I was woken up about 5 AM or so. But that's a story for another day.

I hope you will join me in my next journey, from Dublin to Milan. Question: at what airport do I get my passport checked? If you know Ireland's customs union with the UK, it may likely not be at Heathrow, but please stay tuned anyway. See you then!

[marculees]

I missed some tea on the bus today oof my friend just sent me a video of these lads just beating the shit out of each other on the middle of the road and then chasing after each other in their cars. Meanwhile my bus driver just kept beeping, he literally would deck any of them if they tried to do anything to the bus or us inside. I’m glad I wasn’t there. I don’t think I’d be able to keep calm; I’m very sensitive when it comes to stuff like that and violence in general ;-;

[pollonegro666]

2022/06/18 Cruzamos otra vez el rio para coger el tranvía. La parada está literalmente en la zona fronteriza y no tuvimos que pasar ningún tipo de control para regresar a Suiza.

We cross the river again to catch the tram. The stop is literally in the border area and we did not have to go through any kind of control to return to Switzerland.

Google Translation into Portuguese: Atravessamos o rio novamente para pegar o bonde. A parada fica literalmente na área de fronteira e não tivemos que passar por nenhum tipo de controle para voltar à Suíça.

Google translation into Italian: Attraversiamo di nuovo il fiume per prendere il tram. La fermata è letteralmente in zona di confine e non abbiamo dovuto passare alcun tipo di controllo per tornare in Svizzera.

Google Translation into French: Nous traversons à nouveau la rivière pour attraper le tram. L'arrêt est littéralement dans la zone frontalière et nous n'avons eu aucun contrôle à faire pour rentrer en Suisse.

Google Translation into Arabic: نعبر النهر مرة أخرى للحاق بالترام. كانت المحطة في المنطقة الحدودية فعليًا ولم يكن لدينا أي فحوصات للعودة إلى سويسرا.

Google Translation into German: Wir überqueren erneut den Fluss, um die Straßenbahn zu erreichen. Die Haltestelle liegt buchstäblich im Grenzgebiet und wir mussten keine Kontrollen durchführen, um zurück in die Schweiz zu gelangen.

Google Translation into Albanisch: Kalojmë sërish lumin për të kapur tramvajin. Ndalesa është fjalë për fjalë në zonën kufitare dhe nuk na është dashur të bëjmë asnjë kontroll për t'u kthyer në Zvicër.

Google Translation into Bulgarian: Отново пресичаме реката, за да хванем трамвая. Спирката е буквално в граничната зона и не се наложи да правим никакви проверки, за да се върнем в Швейцария.

Google Translation into Czech: Znovu přecházíme řeku, abychom stihli tramvaj. Zastávka je doslova v pohraniční oblasti a nemuseli jsme dělat žádné kontroly, abychom se dostali zpět do Švýcarska.

Google Translation into Slovak: Opäť prechádzame cez rieku, aby sme stihli električku. Zastávka je doslova v pohraničnej oblasti a nemuseli sme robiť žiadne kontroly, aby sme sa dostali späť do Švajčiarska.

Google Translation into Greek: Διασχίζουμε ξανά το ποτάμι για να προλάβουμε το τραμ. Η στάση είναι κυριολεκτικά στη συνοριακή περιοχή και δεν χρειάστηκε να κάνουμε κανέναν έλεγχο για να επιστρέψουμε στην Ελβετία.

Google Translation into Suomi: Ylitämme taas joen päästäksemme raitiovaunuun. Pysäkki on kirjaimellisesti raja-alueella, eikä meidän tarvinnut tehdä mitään tarkastuksia päästäksemme takaisin Sveitsiin.

Google Translation into Polish: Znowu przekraczamy rzekę, żeby złapać tramwaj. Przystanek znajduje się dosłownie w strefie przygranicznej i nie musieliśmy przeprowadzać żadnych kontroli, aby wrócić do Szwajcarii.

Google Translation into Romanian: Trecem din nou râul pentru a lua tramvaiul. Oprirea este literalmente în zona de frontieră și nu a trebuit să facem nicio verificare pentru a ne întoarce în Elveția.

Google Translation into Turkish: Tramvaya yetişmek için yine nehri geçiyoruz. Durak tam anlamıyla sınır bölgesinde ve İsviçre'ye geri dönmek için herhangi bir kontrol yapmamız gerekmedi.

Google Translation into Hebrew: אנחנו חוצים שוב את הנהר כדי לתפוס את החשמלית. העצירה היא ממש באזור הגבול ולא היינו צריכים לעשות שום בדיקות כדי לחזור לשוויץ.

Google Translation into Hindi: हम ट्राम पकड़ने के लिए फिर से नदी पार करते हैं। स्टॉप सचमुच सीमा क्षेत्र में है और हमें स्विटज़रलैंड वापस जाने के लिए कोई जाँच नहीं करनी पड़ी।

Google Translation into Indonesian: Kami menyeberangi sungai lagi untuk mengejar trem. Perhentian secara harfiah di daerah perbatasan dan kami tidak perlu melakukan pemeriksaan untuk kembali ke Swiss.

Google Translation into Malay: Kami menyeberangi sungai lagi untuk menaiki trem. Perhentian itu betul-betul di kawasan sempadan dan kami tidak perlu melakukan sebarang pemeriksaan untuk kembali ke Switzerland.

Google Translation into Russian: Мы снова пересекаем реку, чтобы сесть на трамвай. Остановка находится буквально в приграничной зоне, и нам не пришлось делать никаких проверок, чтобы вернуться в Швейцарию.

Google Translation into Japanese: 路面電車に乗るために再び川を渡ります。 停留所は文字通り国境地帯にあり、スイスに戻るためにチェックをする必要はありませんでした。

Google Translation into Korean: 우리는 트램을 타기 위해 다시 강을 건넜다. 중지는 말 그대로 국경 지역에 있으며 우리는 스위스로 돌아가기 위해 어떤 수표도 할 필요가 없었습니다.

Google Translation into Chinese: 我们再次过河搭电车。 站点实际上是在边境地区，我们不必做任何检查就可以返回瑞士。

Google Translation into Persian: دوباره از رودخانه عبور می کنیم تا تراموا بگیریم. توقف به معنای واقعی کلمه در منطقه مرزی است و ما برای بازگشت به سوئیس نیازی به بررسی نداشتیم.

Google Translation into Thai: เราข้ามแม่น้ำอีกครั้งเพื่อขึ้นรถราง จุดแวะพักอยู่ที่เขตชายแดนอย่างแท้จริง และเราไม่ต้องตรวจสอบใดๆ เพื่อเดินทางกลับสวิตเซอร์แลนด์

Google Translation into Bengali: আমরা আবার নদী পার হলাম ট্রাম ধরতে। স্টপটি আক্ষরিক অর্থেই সীমান্ত এলাকায় এবং সুইজারল্যান্ডে ফিরে যাওয়ার জন্য আমাদের কোন চেক করতে হবে না।

Google Translation into Ukrainian: Ми знову переходимо річку, щоб сісти на трамвай. Зупинка знаходиться буквально в прикордонній зоні, і нам не потрібно було робити жодних перевірок, щоб повернутися до Швейцарії.

[briansolomonauthor]

LUAS at Museum

Seven Years ago: on the evening of September 14, 2014, an inbound LUAS Red Line tram makes a stop at Museum on its way to the Dublin City center. I made this photo by placing my Lumix LX7 on the footpath to steady the camera for a comparatively long-exposure, while proping up the lens with the lens cap to obtain the desired level. Tracking the Light Posts Every Day!

[jayblanc]

dreamwidth update:

77th Worldcon Day 0 My flight to Dublin taught me several things. BHX uses terrible uncomfortable wheelchairs for disabled passenger assistance. The bus from Dublin Airport only notationally has a bus stop at The Point Campus, leaving you on the wrong side of a main road with no nearby crossing. (The return bus to the airport was worse, with it not stopping at the alleged bust stop at all.) The Point Campus is, at time of writing, still a large building site, and was used as the over-flow event space for Worldcon precisely because there were large unused warehouse spaces for yet to open retail they could occupy. (Coincidentally, part of the construction is a large newer convention centre. Maybe if the Worldcon returns, it'll be held entirely on the Point Campus) After check in at the hotel, I acquainted myself with the Luas tram that stopped just outside. (Pro tip for visitors to Dublin, get a Visit transit card, and use the trams.) Getting off at the next stop was just a very short walk into the Convention centre in order to pick up my badge. Which was mildly derailed when spotting an immediate problem that needed to be fixed got me volunteered into Ops before I could get back to the safety of my hotel. Day 1 With nothing in particular I wanted to go to on the opening day, I put in a shift as Ops troubleshooter and cat herder. Once my shift ended, I went for a short sight seeing and shopping trip in Dublin city centre, before deciding to grab cheap foods and watch the opening ceremonies from my hotel room via video. Day 2 Crowd control happened, access points set up, many people directed to the toilets. Writers were guided to their Signings. Issues with queues came up and were handled for various values of handled. In between ops stuff, I took in a couple of panels, and saw a little more of Dublin. But mainly tried to not over-work myself. Day 3 An Ops shift started with helping set up and operate Green Room in the Point Campus, which happened to be the cafe of an Odeon. The convention had rented the entire cinema out as extra presentation and panel space. Occasional jaunts around the rest of the building occurred as Ops issues happened and were addressed. And then my shift was over, and lunch happened before heading over to see the Business of Webcomics panel. After which I got a chance to hang out with Ursula and Kevin, who got me back onto playing Pokemon Go. Later that day there was a bit of an issue in the Ops office. Someone decided to dispose of some kind of very smelly fermented fish product in waste paper basket. This would be obnoxious in its self, but our head of Ops is allergic to fish, and had to be evacuated and taken to medical. The big problem was that removing the waste paper basket did not remove the smell. I tried to get the wall panel controls to ventilate the room, and find someone from site to help us. We ended up needing to convince site to allow us to run the air conditioner at full blast so we could have our head of Ops back. Thankfully, we were able to do so head of Ops made a full recovery after treatment and was back on the job pretty quickly. Day 4 Alas, I ended up getting hit with a migraine due to over-working myself the prior day. This led to a day in my hotel room, and watching the Hugos (and that Astounding moment) remotely via video. Day 5 I put in my final shift as daring and ruthless Ops trouble-shooter, redeemed my Groats, and got my T-Shirt. Brief meet-ups occurred with Peter Moorwood and Diane Duane, as well as a lot of people from the Alt.Fan.Pratchett days. I managed to catch a very interesting panel on Writing Humour in Fantasy, and ended up being their microphone tech so people could ask questions. And my Worldcon came to an end. Day 6 Or Did It... Due to the Ryan Air strike, Mary Robinette Kowal was delayed in Dublin an extra day and announced a pub-writers-con at the Central Hotel's Library Bar. I got there after a short period of getting lost in Temple Bar, and experiencing the maximum Oirishness of the Tourist district. We chatted, we charged our laptops and devices, we wrote, there were nice scones. And then Worldcon really was over, and I made my way back to my hotel to pack up and be ready for my flight home in the morning. (With a detour to get Churros.) comments Comment? https://ift.tt/2ZMPJ19

[architectnews]

New homes in Cherrywood, Dublin urban village

New Cherrywood homes, Dublin urban village property, Quintain Ireland Buildings, Irish Housing, Architecture

New homes in Cherrywood, Dublin

10 May 2022

Design: Fletcher Priest Architects

Location: Cherrywood, Dublin, Ireland

Fletcher Priest’s scheme for 488 homes in Cherrywood, Dublin, receives planning permission

New homes in Cherrywood – Dublin Housing

Fletcher Priest’s design for 488 new homes in Cherrywood, an urban village to the south of Dublin, received planning permission earlier this month.

Fletcher Priest also led the masterplan for the wider site, which will create a community of 1,300 homes for Quintain Ireland. The project has been developed in collaboration with Dublin-based architects Urban Agency and O’Mahony Pike with landscape by Grant Associates.

The new homes comprise a mix of apartments and duplexes, a few moments’ walk from two Luas Line tram stops, and arranged around a greenway, village green, pocket park and an ecology-rich historic country lane. The homes are arranged in five storey residential buildings around generous landscaped podium gardens together with a series of three-storey buildings. At the heart of the scheme are flexible community spaces supporting a variety of amenities for residents.

All homes are designed to the highest standards standards with high levels of natural light, and Passivhaus design principles ensure low energy use and a healthy indoor climate. Flexible layouts incorporate home working space, and each dwelling has access to a private balcony and generous shared outdoor space. A distinctive duplex typology offers each resident their own front door with direct street access. The variety of typologies will attract a wide range of residents, including families.

The wider masterplan seeks to create a place that is a hybrid of city and landscape, providing the best of both worlds while respecting and strengthening existing ecological corridors. These connected open spaces are a key element of the new masterplan’s DNA, promoting healthy and sustainable daily lifestyles with nature at the doorstep.

Key infrastructure is already in place. The Luas, Dublin’s tramway, already reaches Cherrywood in 20 minutes, allowing the area to operate as a sustainable extension of the city. The nearby M50 highway provides road connections to central Dublin and there are extensive cycling corridors encouraging active travel. Workplaces can be accessed in the neighbouring Sandyford, home to multinational technology companies including Google, Microsoft and Accenture.

Dipa Joshi, Partner and Residential Lead at Fletcher Priest Architects, said: “The team is so proud of this design- creating quality new homes near Dublin in a new healthy neighbourhood where residents will enjoy the excellent indoor and outdoor amenities. From the masterplan to the detail, we have enjoyed designing this sustainable community between the mountains and the sea. It has been a pleasure working with Quintain Ireland to realise this vision.”

Eddie Byrne, Joint Managing Partner Quintain Ireland, said: “Demand is strong for all types of housing in the Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown area, which this additional supply will help meet. Cherrywood Village is going to be a vibrant community with over 27 acres of public space and amenities and facilities on residents’ doorsteps. We plan to start construction in the coming months, with the first homes being ready for residents in mid-2024. I would like to thank Fletcher Priest Architects for working with us on what is an excellent design for the development.”

Fletcher Priest Architects

Fletcher Priest is a 120-strong practice formed of a highly collaborative group of people and led by a partnership group with wide ranging internal and external interests. The practice has studios in London, Cologne and Riga with the majority of the teams based in the UK.

Since Fletcher Priest was founded over 40 years ago, we have consistently earned our reputation as trusted advisors to numerous organisations, who return to us because of the strong relationships built on projects and the insightful solutions we deliver.

We concentrate on four highly integrated scales of practice: urban design, architecture, interior design and design research. We are known for the quality of our thinking and our open-minded approach, delivering thoughtful, considered design strategies and innovative solutions, regardless of project scale.

Quintain Ireland

Quintain Ireland is focussed on the development of residential and commercial property in the Greater Dublin area. The company is seeking to build more than 9,000 new homes on 460 acres of prime development land in Adamstown, Clonburris, Portmarnock, and Cherrywood. It also has plans to develop 600,000 sq. ft. of commercial space.

The senior management team have extensive experience in the Irish market having been responsible for the development of over 1,000 residential units in Adamstown and Portmarnock, with a further 2,000 units at various stages of the pre-planning and planning processes. For more information, please visit www.quintain.ie

Cherrywood Village details

• 1,300 new homes planned: mixture of houses, apartments and duplexes proposed. • 65-acre site, including 27 acres of parks and green spaces, and proximity to the 47 acres of Ticknick Park • 4,300m² mixed-use village centre, including a supermarket, retail, offices and community facilities • Laughanstown LUAS stop is within walking distance from any home in the Village • Dublin City Centre 25 minutes by car, Sandyford 10 minutes, Dublin Airport 35 minutes

New homes in Cherrywood Dublin – Housing Information

Project data

Start of planning: (First pre app) May 2020 Expected start on site: June 2022 Expected completion: Starting Summer 2024 Gross internal floor area: 60,000sqm approx

Architect: Fletcher Priest Architects Client: Quintain Ireland Structural engineer: CS Consulting M&E consultant: OCSC Quantity surveyor: Linesight Principal designer: Linesight Landscape consultant: Grants Associates /Murray Associates (QI to confirm)

Project team FPA

Dipa Joshi Jonathan Kendall Stina Hokby Iulia Fratila Ignacio Gamper Lora Dimova Vsevolod Kondratiev-Popov Matteo Andreotti Zhivka Ivanova James O’Toole Lucy Priest Rianna Reid Danya Bali Ayshah Begum Benjamin Koslowski David Venables Dave Hughes

Fletcher Priest

New homes in Cherrywood, Dublin urban village images / information received 140122 from Fletcher Priest Architects

Location: Cherrywood, Dublin, Ireland

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[streetsofdublin]

LUAS TRAM STOP AT BROADSTONE AND THE ENTRANCE TO GRANGEGORMAN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

Broadstone railway station was the Dublin terminus of the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR), located in the Dublin suburb of Broadstone. The site also contained the MGWR railway works and a steam locomotive motive power depot.

I USED A SIGMA DP1 QUATTRO I am still experimenting with my old Sigma DP1 Quattro and today, 24 April 2023, I photographed in manual mode and underexposed as the camera was inclined to over expose despite any settings that I make. In the “Lotus-Eaters” episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses Bloom imagines that the couple leaving the Grosvenor Hotel are “Off to the country: Broadstone probably,” and…

[meiedwards]

Love, life, and a bit of the absurd collide and intertwine on the Luas, the tram system around Dublin. Everyone has a story and we dip one by one into the lives of its passengers, from the Other Woman to a single mother with a secret, a put-upon wife to the good boyfriend with a past. Each of the thirteen chapters follows different characters as they face relationship woes and the pains of life. I particularly enjoyed Fauve's and Maroon's chapters, though Mick's chapter made me tear up and a few of the relationships had me, a confirmed romantic, hoping for a breakup!

Each end on a cliffhanger but I liked how these were (mostly) tied up in the next chapter. I also found it fun to try and work out who would be the next point of view. There was a nice cyclicity about the whole thing, though I was definitely left with a few questions, especially the ones that were mainly composed of flashbacks. It definitely felt like a tasting portion, leaving you wanting just a little bit more.

Touching, heartbreaking, and sometimes naughty (especially the first chapter, which I wasn't expecting!), this is a clever set of vignettes from an interesting new (to me) author.

Thirteen Stops is available now

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Rachel's Random Resources; all opinions are my own.

[azvolrien]

Ireland - Day 3

The day started out cloudier and cooler than the previous one, so as I set out for the zoo as planned I took my slightly heavier jacket rather than the sun-shirt I’d been wearing the previous day. This did not, in fact, turn out to be necessary.

There’s a convenient tram stop right outside the hotel, so I took the Luas along to Heuston Station and walked up to the zoo in Phoenix Park from there. The name of the park doesn’t actually have anything to do with the mythical firebird but is a corruption of the Irish fionn uisce, ‘clear water’. And now you know.

Dublin Zoo has a reciprocal arrangement with Edinburgh, so my membership got me in for free without even having to queue. After a quick detour to fill my bottle at one of the many handy water stations scattered around the zoo, I made for the Asian elephant habitat called the Kaziranga Forest Trail, I believe after a park in India where the zoo has been doing some work. There I unexpectedly ran into an old friend: completely unbeknownst to me, Chester Zoo’s bull elephant Aung Bo has been moved to Dublin to replace their old bull Upali. He’s looking well – I gathered that they’re giving him some time to settle in before they introduce him to the Dublin herd, but he seemed to find his new enclosure interesting and his broken tusk had grown back a lot since I last saw him a few years ago at Chester.

I left Aung Bo to his hay net and carried on up the zoo’s eastern path to their relatively recent (late 90s-early 00s) extension called the African Plains, which doesn’t actually limit itself to savannah-dwelling animals but also houses several denizens of the rainforest such as the bongo and the okapi. There is a sizeable savannah enclosure, which houses giraffes, zebras, white rhinos and some of the incredibly rare scimitar-horned oryx in apparent harmony. There are also ostriches, I’m told, but I didn’t spot any of them.

My favourite part of the African Plains was definitely the gorilla habitat. I had to watch for a while to get a good view of them, as their enclosure has a lot of plant cover for them, but I eventually got some great shots of the big silverback. I also got an interesting illustration of their group dynamics: during feeding time, the silverback lost his temper with one of the females and started beating her up, only to be pushed into an immediate retreat when the rest of the troop’s females ganged up on him and chased him back across the enclosure while his victim – apparently none the worse for wear – climbed a tree.

I then circled back down towards the zoo gate via the west path, which took me through the Asia section housing red pandas, snow leopards, Amur tigers and Asiatic lions. The tigers were hiding somewhere, but I saw all of the others and also stopped to listen to a keeper talk about the zoo’s California sea lions. All of the signage headers in the zoo are bilingual, and the Irish for ‘sea lion’ is apparently Mór-rón – literally just ‘big seal’ to my knowledge.

I’m all in favour of the point they’re making with all the bilingual signage, but I can’t help but find it a little ironic when Irish is not actually the first language of the overwhelming majority of people in Dublin.

I got a snack in one of the zoo cafes and went back around a few exhibits like the elephants, as well as checking out the reptile house I’d somehow missed the first time around, before I got a t-shirt in the gift shop and left the zoo at about 5 o’clock. I didn’t go straight back to the hotel and stopped for a while beside the colossal obelisk of the Wellington Monument to watch some of Phoenix Park’s free-roaming fallow deer, two normal-coloured bucks with somewhat wonky, lopsided antlers and a third dark-morph buck with a much more impressive, symmetrical set. I’ve read that the fallow deer is the closest living relative of the Irish elk. Fallows are one of the smaller deer species, but I can sort of see an echo of their huge extinct cousins in their palmate antlers.

After watching for a while, I was reminded anew that some people have no idea how to behave around wild animals. There are signs everywhere in the park telling you not to feed the deer and to give them space, but that didn’t stop a large group of people crowding around the trio trying to touch them to their obvious distress. The park’s deer are quite used to people, but they’re not pets, and I was starting to a) get genuinely worried someone would get gored and b) wonder if I should tell them to leave the deer alone myself when a park ranger showed up in a 4x4 to give them a row, mercifully saving me the trouble. Some things are best dealt with by someone in authoritative hi-vis.

I then followed the tram line back to the hotel for a brief rest before heading back out to an Italian restaurant I’d spotted the day before called Bar Italia, presumably not affiliated with the Edinburgh restaurant of the same name. Between the staff and the menu I gathered the place was run by some very proud Roman immigrants, and they served a delicious carbonara with a bit more of a peppery kick than I usually see, with a caramel-filled chocolate pudding and vanilla ice cream for after. I wonder how much of an Italian community there is in Dublin; the history of migration in Ireland tends to focus more on people leaving than arriving, but the city does seem to have plenty of gelaterias.

[greenbagjosh]

Feb 2006 Days 4 and 5 – cruise up the Bosphoros to Anadolu Kavagi and departure to BG and RO

EN Hi everyone, today we will have some sunlight, take a ferry north from Eminönü to Anadolu Kavagi with many stops along the way, enjoy a lahmacun and soup, get money out of an ATM, get to Sirkeci station for the night train and miss out on a whirling dervish performance and end the day by getting out of the train for an exit passport stamp.

 TR

Herkese merhaba, bugün biraz güneş ışığı alacak, Eminönü'nden kuzeye vapurla Anadolu Kavağı'na gidecek, lahmacun ve çorbanın tadını çıkaracak, ATM'den para alacağız, gece treni için Sirkeci istasyonuna gideceğiz ve kaçıracağız semazen gösterisinde ve çıkış pasaportu pulu için trenden inerek günü sonlandırın.

 BG

Здравейте всички, днес ще имаме малко слънчева светлина, ще вземем ферибот на север от Eminönü до Anadolu Kavagi с много спирки по пътя, насладете се на лахмакун и супа, вземете пари от банкомат, стигнете до гара Sirkeci за нощния влак и пропуснете на въртящо се дервишко представяне и завършете деня, като излезете от влака за печат за изходен паспорт.

 RO

Salut tuturor, astăzi vom avea puțină lumină solară, vom lua un feribot spre nord de la Eminönü la Anadolu Kavagi cu multe opriri de-a lungul drumului, savurăm un lahmacun și o supă, scoatem bani dintr-un bancomat, ajungem la stația Sirkeci pentru trenul de noapte și pierdem la un spectacol de derviș rotitor și încheiați ziua ieșind din tren pentru o ștampilă de pașaport de ieșire.

 SR

Поздрав свима, данас ћемо имати мало сунчеве светлости, трајектом северно од Еминону-а до Анадолу Каваги-а са много успутних стајалишта, уживати у лахмацуну и супи, извући новац из банкомата, доћи до станице Сиркеци за ноћни воз и пропустити на вртлог дервишке представе и завршите дан изласком из воза за излазни печат пасоша.

HU

Üdvözlet mindenkinek, ma napsütésünk lesz, komppal indulunk Eminönütől északra Anadolu Kavagi-ba, sok megállóval az út mentén, élvezzünk egy lahmacun-t és levest, szerezzünk pénzt egy ATM-ből, érjünk el az éjszakai vonatra Sirkeci állomásra és hagyjuk ki örvénylő dervis előadáson, és úgy fejezze be a napot, hogy kiszáll a vonatból egy kilépési útlevél bélyegzőért.

CZ

Ahoj všichni, dnes si dáme trochu slunečního světla, pojedeme trajektem na sever z Eminönü do Anadolu Kavagi s mnoha zastávkami, pochutnáváme si na lahmacunu a polévce, vyděláváme peníze z bankomatu, dostáváme se na stanici Sirkeci na noční vlak a zmeškáme na vířícím dervišském představení a den zakončíte vystoupením z vlaku pro razítko výstupního pasu.

 DE

Hallo allerseits, heute haben wir etwas Sonnenlicht, nehmen eine Fähre nördlich von Eminönü nach Anadolu Kavagi mit vielen Haltestellen auf dem Weg, genießen ein Lahmacun und eine Suppe, holen Geld aus einem Geldautomaten, fahren zum Bahnhof Sirkeci für den Nachtzug und verpassen es auf einer wirbelnden Derwischvorstellung und beenden Sie den Tag, indem Sie aus dem Zug aussteigen, um einen Ausreisestempel zu erhalten.

 Today is Sunday the 12th February 2006.  This would be my last day in Turkey.  I thought the previous day, why not to take a cruise up the Bosphoros?  Hopefully the weather will be nice.  Well at least in the morning it was.

 About 7 AM I had breakfast and then went to Eminönü to catch the ferry to Anadolu Kavagi.  It cost about $ 15.00 round trip.  The ride up would take at least an hour and a half, as it would stop at five different places, either on the European side or the Asian side.  I remember doing something similar with my parents in the 1970s, and back then it was easy to tell the European side from the Asian side.

 The ferry was ready to board about 9 AM.  It was better to be inside for most of the time, than to be on the outside except for the more interesting stops.  The weather at Eminönü was nice, the clouds were not particularly thick, but when the ferry passed Rumeli Hisari, coulds thickened up and it started to snow.  The next half hour it snowed but did not ice up the Bosphoros.  We stopped about four more times before ending up at Anadolu Kavagi.  Anadolu Kavagi is a tourist town on the Asian side, and has a military base.  For lunch I went to a small restaurant on Dolay Ck.  I ordered a lentil soup, lahmacun, and an Ayran, which is a yogurt drink.  I watched the snowfall outside the restaurant.  

 I wanted to get a good view of the Bosphoros, so I walked up Cafer Baba.  I saw the nearby hills covered with snow.  I could not stay much longer.  That was the last time I saw snow in Asia.

 I wanted to buy some provisions for the night's train travel, and I was running out of money. I found an ATM but it was inside the military base.  I asked permission to enter just to use the ATM.  The gentleman was very nice to allow me to enter, and once I withdrew my money, I left and went back into town.

 Once I returned to town, I bought some Efes beers and snacks for the night's train ride.  I also bought a copy of the day's edition of the "Hürriyet" newspaper, even if I could not speak Turkish.  To end, I had a couple of glasses of tea until it was time for the return journey.  The journey took an hour and a half to get back to Eminönü.  I took the tram back to Sultanahmet and walked back to the hotel. I asked for a ride to Sirkeci station, and someone volunteered to take me for 10 Lira, not a bad deal.  I packed up my belongings and about 6:30 PM I was at Sirkeci station.

 There was one last thing I wanted to do, but it would possibly make me miss my train from Sirkeci station to Bucharest.  I had supper, a lahmacun with seasoned onions and ayran, then took my luggage to the car where my compartment was located.  I had the compartment all to myself.  The train did not have a restaurant car of its own.  I had a sink and mirror and electric outlet.  The bathrooms were down the hall.  The train left Sirkeci station about 8:30 PM for the border at Kapikule, close to both the Bulgarian and Greek borders.  It seemed a bit slow, despite being an electrified route.  

 I went to sleep for a while until about 2 AM when the conductor knocked on my door to let me know that we were approaching the border and that everyone had to exit the train, in spite of the cold weather.  Everyone had to leave the train, line up at the customs building, get a "Cikis" stamp for exiting, and board the train again.  It was good to get back on the train.  The train passed Kapikule and crossed into Bulgaria.  

At Kapikule the electrification ended (there is a project to extend electrification to Bulgarian national rail standard) and thus the locomotives were switched from there until Dimitrovgrad where the electrification resumed.  When the train approached Kapitan Andreevo, the Bulgarian custom guards boarded, knocked on the compartment doors, saying "Passport control", and reading aloud passport numbers by walkie talkie.  My passport record was clean and I was given an entry stamp into Bulgaria.  It must have been about 4 AM when the train went on to Svilengrad, Dimitrovgrad, Shumen and Ruse.  About 8 AM I bought a cup of coffee for two euro.  I received a cup of coffee and a CFR (Romanian railways) packet of sugar.  That was the only "food and drink" I received that entire ride.  The train ride was very long, with an electric locomotive from Dimitrovgrad to Ruse, where it was swapped out with a diesel train to go to Giurgiu in Romania.  I also received an exit stamp at Ruse.  The train went along and crossed the Danube into Giurgiu, Romania.

 At Giurgiu, the train stopped for about an hour.  The weather looked fine, sunny with few clouds.  But the weather could change at any moment.  The Romanian customs agents took my passport into an office and I was worried for about half an hour.  I eventually received it back, with an entry stamp.  The train left maybe 6 PM and arrived at Bucharest Gara de Nord around 7:30 PM, and it started snowing.  

 If you come to Bucharest, always be careful of scammers.  Particularly luggage handlers and taxi drivers.  If you can use public transportation, know how to get to and from your hotel and do not ever depend on the luggage handlers or taxi drivers, as they can demand outrageous fees.  For example a taxi ride should cost less than $ 10.00.  Sometimes a person can be charged $ 30.00 or $40.00, maybe more.  I did end up at my hotel, although with $ 30.00 less cash than I expected.

 It was cold and I did not really want to go out that night.  The hotel had a restaurant and I ordered some soup and an Ursus beer.  Ursus is one of the major beer brands in Romania.  Then I went to sleep.

 EN

Next adventure – the Bucharest metrou, Piata Unirii and the Ceausescu presidential building, the infamous O-Zone song on CD, supplement for the sleeper for Sofia BG

 TR

Sıradaki macera - Bükreş metrosu, Piata Unirii ve Ceausescu başkanlık binası, CD'deki rezil O-Zone şarkısı, Sofia BG için uyuyan için ek

 BG

Следващо приключение - метрото в Букурещ, Piata Unirii и президентската сграда на Чаушеску, скандалната песен O-Zone на CD, добавка за спалния за София BG

 RO

Următoarea aventură - metrou bucureștean, Piața Unirii și clădirea prezidențială Ceaușescu, cântecul celebru O-Zone pe CD, supliment pentru dormitor pentru Sofia BG

 SR

Следећа авантура - метро у Букурешту, Пиата Унирии и председничка зграда Чаушескуа, злогласна песма О-Зоне на ЦД-у, додатак за спавање за Софију БГ

 HU

Következő kaland - a bukaresti metrou, a Piata Unirii és a Ceausescu elnöki épülete, a hírhedt O-Zone dal CD-n, kiegészítés Szófia BG alvójához

 CZ

Další dobrodružství - metra v Bukurešti, Piata Unirii a prezidentská budova Ceausescu, nechvalně známá píseň O-Zone na CD, doplněk pro pražce pro Sofii BG

 DE

Nächstes Abenteuer - die U-Bahn von Bukarest, Piata Unirii und das Präsidentengebäude von Ceausescu, das berüchtigte O-Zone-Lied auf CD, Zuschlag für den Schlafwagen von Sofia BG

[my-sea-of-stars]

I think, in my vast opinion, that I can’t even put into words how It feels to almost lose the person who you care most deeply about. The feeling of looking away from someone and when you look back, they’re gone. Nobody can understand the pain that sinks through you when you get the message that your girlfriend isn’t doing well. the feeling where your entire world just falls apart in front of you and the only thing you can do is watch it crumble every time your phone illuminates. The quote “unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth” is the only thing that can come close to how I was feeling. It was the fact that I was literally standing in my own personal hell as I watched everything that I loved just fall apart whilst I couldn’t pick up the pieces. I felt useless. It was the fact that I spent my day watching as my phone buzzed beside me, as another message of bad news appeared on my screen. I didn’t feel like I was alive anymore and I’m pretty sure I didn’t want to be.

The thing about her that was so special was that she was my own butterfly effect. She was that simple single occurrence that no matter how small a thing she said or did, it changed the course of the universe forever..and by that, I mean my universe. It was the agitation of waiting to see if the person you loved was going to exist after that day. the most tragic thing that I have ever felt.

I’m usually a mess when it comes to my emotions but for once, I couldn’t feel anything. My brain had tried to save me from my own malicious thoughts as it began to shut down in hopes of me not believing what was happening before my own very eyes. The girl I loved the most was willing to leave me and I think that my own mind was trying to save me from that fact. I was in denial even when her best friend was pleading with me. I didn’t want to hear it and I most certainly didn’t think I could even cope with the news.

I ended up going to school the next day, even as the bad news kept coming. I decided that I’d get off school early. I wasn’t bothered with anything that I actually had to do that day because the only thing I wanted to do was see my girlfriend. that was all. I felt like I couldn’t breathe as I made my way home to grab my wallet before I headed to my Luas stop. I paced up and down on the moving tram as I tried to make sense of everything, sense of anything at all. The Luas couldn’t get there fast enough and I physically, along with mentally, just wanted to die.

Climbing off the Luas almost broke my heart as I felt like all the colour in the world around me was beginning to fade. I moved along the grey pavement as I arrived at the bookstore that I had spent most of my time in before I spotted the familiar face of my girlfriends best friend.

He looked almost devastated in a way that words can’t possibly explain. The sunken-in tired looking emotion that only someone can give you when their entire world is crumbling down, that’s the look I got. I didn’t know what I was going to hear and I was unsure if I even wanted to hear his words hit me. The fact that he spoke in a low voice but clearly was hiding something, bothered me. I didn’t want to meet up with him because I wanted to see the one girl that I loved and I had no time for some boy to tell me about the situation.

The words he used indicated that she was still alive so that eased my relief even though I felt like It wasn’t even real. I felt like everything wasn’t real anymore and I couldn’t believe that life was going to royally fuck me by taking the one person who I care inside and out about away from me made me want to vanish. We stood at the back shelf as he confirmed how he was looking for a book for my girlfriend, I was agitated beyond repair. I watched as the colourful book covers stuck out but I felt like I wasn’t even real for that moment, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be alive in that moment.

I could smell that familiar smell that my girlfriend constantly smelt like, the musky scent that always got me. I assumed that her friend just smelt like her before I finally felt an arm wrap around me as I listened to the brief words that escaped her lips with the humorous tone in her voice. She was truly lucky that her best friend was there because I wanted to yell at her and make sure she knew how I felt but I prevented myself from doing that as I felt the hard touch of silence hit me. I couldn’t get any words out past my lips, I couldn’t voice my thoughts and I just allowed the silence to drown me.

I chatted with her friend as I was trying to keep myself under control as she tried to touch me and I refused to allow her. I could see that her guilt was beginning to hit her like a wave, pulling her under within every second. We made our way to a little tram on the squares of the city I loved as we all sat down in hopes of speaking. Before we sat down, her best friend pleaded with me not to break up with her because he knew how much I mean to her even if I couldn’t see it sometimes. I was frustrated because sometimes I wasn't’ sure if the world around me was real, I was unsure if a lot of things were real but I knew that she was real.

She was the one thing that allowed me to feel real and to feel safe so when it hit me, I couldn’t tell if any of this was real. I listened to the empty pleads even though I had made her best friend promise to take care of her because that thing about her was that she was worth caring for. She was worth a lot of things and especially worth someone being there for her at all times. I was worried sick that I was like a vase that sits on top of a wobbly table, always close to falling. I felt like every time the table wobbled I had a chance of falling and the amount of times I’ve fallen and struggled to put myself back together and one day, I was certain that I wouldn’t be able to put myself back together.

She was worth more than anything and I wish I could be worth it for her, I wish I was worth something. Sitting at the table made me feel like I was suffocating and when I heard her raise her voice at me and I shuttered a little bit inside. She went for a walk and I couldn’t believe she would of just walked off and left. We decided to follow once she got too far and we did before we lost her in the sea of people who stormed Dublin every single day. I messaged her telling her that I was ready to speak which I was because I couldn’t cope with the idea of my girlfriend being pissed at herself.

She knew I was gullible and I couldn’t help myself, I couldn’t. When I seen her once again and finally could bring myself to talk. I just felt myself falling apart as I leaned against her as I told her how I felt and I was hoping that she’d feel some sort of guilt for what she had done. We decided to go back to Chapters because it was the one place where we both always seemed to be lured to. We looked for a book that she was looking for, for such a long time. We both were frustrated but then we decided that I’d end up just writing it for her because she sure as hell deserved a book that she was looking for. We decided to get coffee together so we could sit down for a while and just ease up over everything we have been dealing with.

She sat on the opposite sides of the table as I sipped my coffee whilst my eyes kept on her. Her eyes were this luscious green that made me feel like I was safe and sound. Her eyes made me feel like everything around me could fall apart but she’d keep me safe if things went wrong. The gentle rain filled Dublin as it was soaked in the blanket of cold rain that made us refuse to sit on the benches. We made our way towards a enormous oak tree as we stood underneath it. We laughed and chuckled as she shoved me against the fence as I brushed my lips against hers in nothing but relaxation and ease.

We made our way to the pharmacy as I sang quietly to the song on the radio before we walked to the laneway of Dublin. We chuckled as we shoved each other against the wall with her lips meeting as we allowed the people to stare and gaze at us. We made our way into Argos as we went to pick up something. I loved how her eyebrows frowned as she searched for what she needed. We couldn’t help but enjoy ourselves until a young girl who was only a child began to check her out, multiple times. We both couldn’t believe it was happening but at the same time, we couldn’t help but laugh.

We decided to make our way to her bus stop but we couldn’t help but need one another in more ways than one. We snuggled up against one another as I couldn’t believe that I had the girl of my absolute dreams in front of me and I didn’t want to let her go, ever. I didn’t want her to go anywhere besides being in my arms, safe. Her fingertips tracing between my legs as I couldn’t help but feel at peace with her as I kissed her forehead lightly before I decided to wait outside the train station with her.

I didn’t want her to stray from me and when I seen her dad's car pull up, I knew she’d be safe even if she wasn’t with me. The thing I hated the most about leaving her is that I always began to feel the cold and I finally began to notice all the little things in Dublin that I usually ignored when I was with her. She was the most interesting thing in Dublin and I had to admit that I had began to hate Dublin when she wasn’t in it. She bloomed and glow every time she was here and I felt like Dublin was silenced when she left.