Dublin

As some of you may know, I have loved all things Irish for years now, especially U2. Well, this past weekend was my third time going to Dublin. I went into it quite nervous for two reasons. One, I was afraid that as I have grown older, my love of Dublin would be something of the past, especially since I have not welcomed my English stay with open arms. And two, I was going by myself and meeting 3 other girls I had never met before. I am happy to announce I still love Dublin as much as I did the first time I went and I had a great time. The whole weekend was basically a U2 adventure, visiting their old recording studio, finding their houses, dining at the hotel they own, and visiting local places that they frequent. Then spending long evenings at the apartment talking for hours.

Thursday, I got there late and all we got to do was eat at Captain America's, where they had plenty of autographed pictures, instruments and what not hanging on the walls.

Friday consisted of heading down to the Liffey and walking around, going to Rhythm Records to see what memorabilia we could find, then having afternoon tea at the Clarence Hotel for one of the girls' birthday. It was very nice and very expensive. We felt like the Beverly Hillbillies because none of us really knew how to act. After our tea, we headed out to do more shopping and go down to Hanover Quay to write on the walls before they are torn down. (Note: Hanover Quay is where the recording studio is that U2 has used since the early 90s. Fans come from all over the world and write messages on the walls and doors. Unfortunately the area is being renovated and the building is about to be torn down for something bigger and better. Since returning home I've read that there is an Irishman who is planning on opening a U2 museum in Dublin and the doors may be part of the museum. I can't help but think that maybe my writing will hopefully still be on the doors.) After that, we headed back for our apartment and stopped and ate at Nude, Bono's brother's restaurant. I never understood why it was called Nude until visiting, when I found out that everything is totally organic. Now the name makes sense. The name is also the reverse of the clothing line that Bono and his wife started, which is fairtrade clothing and called Edun. It was good, but I liked his previous restaurant, Tosca, better.

Saturday, we continued on our U2 adverture to Howth, home of drummer Larry Mullen Jr. One of the girls and I couldn’t go to Dublin without finding Larry’s house. So we take the train out and start our adventure. We get off the train and start walking, knowing we need to get to the beach, but don’t know how. Finally, as we are wandering aimlessly, we see this guy and his 2 kids. I tell everyone that I’m just going to ask him how to get there (the beach, not Larry’s house. You don't ask anyone in Dublin how to get to anything U2 related because they are not going to tell you and if they do tell you, you can bet it's the opposite of what you need.). He tells me that we should have gone behind the train station to get to the beach and then pauses and says, “Or you can get to the end of this road and take this path. It’s kinda dark, but it will get you there.” So, we opt for the path. The path runs next to a double fence and we joke about what if that’s Larry’s house on the other side. Well, we get to the road, with the gates to his house. We were behind his house! You can’t see the house from the gates, so we move on to the beach, only to find that most of the beach is not there because it’s high tide. As one of the girls said, we looked like beached U2 fans. I was soooo sad, couldn’t believe that I was that close, but so far. We play on the beach for a while. One of the girls got her exercise with this cute dog that kept trying to get her to play in the water. We picked up shells, orange shells, mind you. Then we head back to the path. Not wanting to feel completely defeated, I decide that I’m going to hop up on the concrete fence to see if I can see over the tall wooden one. And behold, Larry’s yard. I hop down and because there is already graffiti on the fence, I decide that I'm just going to add my name too. One of the other girls does the same. We head back to the train station to see if we can get to the beach that way, but no, still high tide. No getting to Larry’s house. (Smart man to be in the biggest band in the world and have a house you can only get to part of the time because of the tide.) We decide to have lunch. After lunch, one of the other girls has had enough and decides to go back to the apartment, tells us that we don’t have to go if we don’t want to. One girl and I decide that we can’t give up yet. So, the other girl heads back to the train station and we head up the road to check out the town. Then we get a call from her that tide has gone out. We head straight for the beach. And there it is….Larry’s house. Beautiful house, beautiful yard. We are standing in the middle of the beach, totally in the moment, discussing some things we are seeing and the icky worms that are on the beach and decide to walk out closer to the water to see if we can get a better look at the yard. I turn around and there is his dog just sitting there looking at us. Almost screaming, I say, “Oh my gosh!” and the other girl swings around, thinking that I have seen the man himself. As soon as we see the dog, we head back closer to his house. As we get closer to the fence, the dog walks closer to the fence. We stare at each other and then I say, “Hey doggy.” Next thing I know the dog is barking at me! (Larry-please note from your cameras, I was not harassing your dog, I just said hey.) So we move away, quickly. We move further out onto the beach and continue talking about how the dog wants to come out and take a walk, just kidding around. And then 2 women with several dogs come up and one of them goes up to Larry’s gate and lets the dog out. Unbelievable! The women talk for a little bit and then they go in another gate with all the dogs. They must have been dog walkers, because it was not his wife from what we could tell. It was pretty funny to have Larry Mullen Jr.’s dog bark at me. And that was my great U2 moment for the day. It was getting late, so we went back to the train station and headed back to our apartment.

Sunday was my last day there and I only had half a day to do something and we wanted to make a quick trip to Killiney, where Bono and the Edge live. We knew the two of them were in New York, so we knew we didn't have to linger in hopes of meeting them, but personally I had to find Bono's house. I had to finish what J. and I couldn't when we went in 1999 (so I thought). We made it and again played on the beach and had no trouble getting to his house. It was kind of funny because we had a man who was walking on the beach with his dogs ask us if we were looking for Bono. The other girls laughed at me because I answered him, very matter-of-fact, "no." Of course we were looking for Bono's house! Why else would four American girls be wandering around the beach in Killiney. We walked up the path next to his house and saw his beautiful brass gates and tried to read them. Unfortunately, they were hard to read because of where people have scratched into them. We then went back to the beach for one more look at Bono's house and a look at Edge's house and then back to the train station to head back to Dublin. I was happy because I finally finished what I started 8 years ago, but the whole time feeling like I had been there before. And, unfortunately, I can't check here, but J. and I have decided that I did actually take a picture of his gates, while they were open, when we were there in 1999.
Unfortunately, we couldn't make it to Adam Clayton's house. After looking at maps, we decided you really needed a car to get there. But I'm happy. Three out of four is not bad.

I ended my stay in Dublin by eating at Beshoff's Fish and Chips, a place that I have gone to every time I've been there. I can't wait to take the kids there and do more "tourist" things like the Open Bus Tour, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and stuff. I did have a good time and I hope the four of us can meet again someday. And I'm proud of myself because I did it all on my own, which is not something I would normally do.