Green, Green, Green – 13.5.2010

I am in Dublin, Ireland once again at Paddy’s Palace. 8 a.m. we set off on the Paddy Wagon for our tour of the Wicklow Mountains and town of Kilkenny. This country side is more lively than what I saw the last time I was here. Our driver knew a lot about Dublin and the surrounding areas, fun facts and serious history. There is one interesting sculpture we notice upon our arrival on Wednesday evening. An aluminum spire extending high into the sky, surpassing the roofs of the surrounding buildings piqued our interest. Why was it there? What is the meaning behind it? Today he had the answers. It costs somewhere around 8 billion euros to build this structure with no meaning behind it. He also told us of a few nicknames for the spire; Stiffy in the Liffey, Stiletto in the Ghetto, and Erection at the Intersection. The Vibrant green country side with yellow stalk plants adding another layer of texture and color as the bright blue sky extended down touching them ever so softly as the big fluffy white clouds traveled through it calmly. I could not get over how different the land was. Some areas had forests, lambs or cows grazing, shale, cottage ruins, and/or babbling brooks. This is where lots of films have been filmed such as Braveheart, Harry Potter, Excalibur and PS I Love You to name a few. The bridal scene in Braveheart was filmed at a monastic City we visited on our hike around the Wicklow Mountains. Our last stop was Kilkenny where we grabbed lunch at an old bank now a bar, Left Bar. It was gorgeous and unique. The designer did a fabulous job with the interior. The one detail I was fascinated with was the fans. The four fans were on a conveyor belt pulley system connected to each other. We then walked down High Street, which is the main drag before we bought some decadent chocolate fudge at a farmers market. Then we toured the grounds of the Kilkenny Castle. The castle was shorter and stouter than what I would have imagined. To use up the remaining time we left before our bus left we checked out the design district across the street. It was an old estate now housing shops and galleries for Irish artists. In one exhibit space there was an interesting are piece where the artist had layered up ¼” thick glass pie shaped pieces and then melted them so they looked like waves almost. Another one was where the artist layered glass again air spaces in between and a photo of an empty dandelion in the back. The intriguing part was the layers of glass hand etchings on them of a quote giving the picture completeness by being the furry seeds of the dandelion. The feeling I had in these exhibition spaces was familiar. It was the same as when I was at Milan except with an Irish flair. Then we were all lulled to sleep as we rode the bus back to Dublin in rush hour traffic. We finished our night at Thunder Road House Restaurant with loud rock music playing to match the surrounding environment of rock memorabilia.