A Tourist in Dublin

Today we got a late start and did a bit of the touristy thing in Dublin.

We had to take TT to Grafton and Maggie was itching to do all things One Direction. Well, at least ONE thing One Direction, that is, to go eat at Nandos. (Apparently no actual member of the band has been seen at this location, but tons of fans show up regularly. Maybe I can get them to mention this blog in a song or two and watch the number of hits rise exponentially).

It was good!


I was teasing Maggie because she'd get all giggly and silly whenever she even considered going to Nandos (apparently Niall enjoys Nandos from time to time). I expected it would be the equivalent of a chipotle--that is to say quick food but not some burger joint.

It was probably a step up from Chipotle, but with a much different (and lovely) twist:

Here's a description from Wikipedia: Nandos specializes in chicken dishes with either lemon and herb, medium, hot, extra hot or extra extra hot Peri-Peri marinades (properly known as Galinha a Africana). 

And then it was Grafton for a bit. We split up (the "cleaning morning" left us all a bit touchy with each other so it was nice to head our different ways for a short while. TT went looking for souvenirs, Sheila went exploring and listened to street music, while Johnny and I went to grab a gift for Abbie. We ended up at a bookstore which was right up Maggie's alley. We finally picked Paddington for Abbie -- hope she doesn't already have it!. 

And then came Murphys -- what Johnny had been waiting for!

We have fond memories of http://www.murphysicecream.ie/Murphys (maybe if I provide enough links on this blog they'll give me a coupon for a free cone???) from two summers ago for my nephew's wedding. Afterward we headed West and South, eventually ending up in Dingle for a few days where we explored the coast, the bay and eventually found ourselves at Inch Beach during some of the hottest days Ireland had ever seen. Maggie and I swam in the ocean until our digits were frozen rushing hand-in-hand against the North Atlantic waves. 

We headed back to the little city famished and nosed our way to the best ice-cream joint in the country. (As an aside, Laura -- the nephew's Irish wife -- claims that the milk, cream and butter here is so good because the cows are happy and graze on green grass year round! I believe it to be true.). At Dingle we vowed to come back to Murphys and taste their seasalt ice cream again. 

 The kids and I headed home (we were out of steam) as TT and Sheila went to find great deals at "Pennys."

Here's an Irish saying* up at Murphys

 

Translation:

May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings,
Slow to make enemies,
Quick to make friends,
But rich or poor, quick or slow,
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.


*Gaelic is all over the place in Ireland: on the trains, on street signs, at the university etc. etc. But no one seems to speak it. Another irony is that it is taught in schools. Maggie gets to avoid official Irish lessons, but in Johnny's class it seems to be sprinkled throughout the curriculum. One of his little books has a bunch of Gaelic words and he says that the teacher uses the language regularly throughout the day. I asked the Murphy's dude to translate for me and he looked at me as though it was a ridiculous thought, then he pulled out a little laminated card with the phrase translated. He (and a coworker) said that since the language was "forced" on them at school, most kids end up hating and resenting it, thus never learning it, but then regretting that later in life. He also said that it is a difficult language to learn with loads of different dialects.