Day 9. 23rd June. Wales to Dublin

Today again was mostly a transit day, but this time by Ferry. We caught the ferry from Hollyhead in Wales to Dublin Ireland. But first we made a stop off in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Yes, that is right the town is called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. There was absolutely no reason to go here except that the town is called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Wicked.

Into Dublin we go. Now I really don’t quiet know how to put this. And I will still reserve judgment, because maybe it was just bad luck or a bad moment or something. But Dublin, was not great. This is completely shattering to me who loves the idea of Ireland so much. Honestly though, it was just not a great city. It lacks a certain atmosphere and the people were not all that friendly. It is a also a little bit dirty and not so safe feeling as some other big cities like Edinburgh, Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Seattle, Chicago, Bangalore, Tokyo etc that I have been to. So fingers crossed that it was just a bad day and when we come back in a few days time it will be amazing. I hope. ☹

We rode a HoHo (Hop on Hop off) bus again and the best thing out of that was the places that famous people lived, worked, studied etc that we passed and the fact that smack in the middle of this major Irish city is both a Guinness factory and a loony bin. Perhaps there is more justification for the stereotype of the mad or the drunken Irish. :P

Dublin is incredibly different to the rest of Great Britain, they have a “Wide Streets Commission” and so the streets are - you guessed it – wide. Everywhere else we have been has had teeny tiny streets that you have to scrape by the other cars, mirrors literally millimeters from touching in some parts. In Dublin however the streets are wide, multiple lanes, parking space and breathing space. Space, space everywhere.

After that we went to a game of Hurling. Now hurling is a Gallic sport played up here. Take rugby, field hockey, ice hocky, European hand ball and a at-whatever-costs mentality and there you have hurling. Oh and don’t forget the cricket ball with lead inside it (they add lead to make the ball bounce slower) or the mildly encouraged violence.

Now I don’t really like sports, I find it all a bit boring. This is a sport I could get into. It is incredible; you have to see it to believe it. We were watching an under 21’s national semi final and it was scary. The crowd also was something worth watching, they get so into it. The field is also used for soccer games and is ringed with a concrete fence with razor wire at the top.

They use something like a field hockey stick with the end pounded flat to hit the ball like you do in hockey, but also to balance it on the flat part (like a violent egg and spoon race) to bounce the ball with (like before serving in tennis – but fast) to hit the ball far like a cricket bat (but served like tennis or hit on the full. There is a lot of variation in any case. It really seemed to be “do whatever you can to get the ball into the goal”.

One thing that amazed me was their ability to catch a ball in their bare hand that had been whacked like furry all the way at the other end of the field. It must have hurt. Speaking of hurt, three guys went down in the first half, it was really quiet distressing, I was sure they were going to be badly hurt, but they all got up. Tough lads. Oh because you also get about six guys pilling on around the ball all gunning for it, people fall over, get hit by another player or get hit in the balls by the ball – as happened to one unfortunate player.

One of the highlights though, was the two players that got into a bit of a scuffle. One was barging into the other who would in turn elbow him in the ribs. You could clearly see how pissed off they were at each other. They got a warning for that. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a fight later that evening or week.

The game was sensational and I wouldn’t have missed it. If you ever get a chance to catch a game of hurling, do.