My flight to Ireland left Liverpool at stupid o’clock… Compounding that with the taxi driver struggling to find the office I would be based in for the week, by the time I arrived I was knackered! However, I started off with a laugh as I’d phoned my contact at the office for some last minute directions to help the taxi driver find the location. Phew. But when I did eventually arrive I was given the one piece of beta that would have been helpful from the start, beta that transpires to be key to navigating anywhere in Ireland, always reference your destination from a well know location, a pub!
I took a little walk around the Temple Bar area one evening. Very touristy, with loads of pubs, all of which had extremely enticing and lively Irish music flooding out of their doors on to the cobbled streets. However, it isn’t that much fun sitting in a pub on your own, so I continued along my walk. A little further on a steely eyed chap, looking and sounding a lot like a Hollywood style pirate (with an Irish accent in lieu of a mock-Caribean one laced with a little Californian!), asked me, “Do you want some coke?” Well I’ve never been offered that before! I wonder if he was just offering me some Coke?
My hotel is near the northern end of O’Connell Street. Apparently this isn’t the best part of town. One guy in the office even suggested that I watch where I go after dark! Luckily it isn’t dark until well after 10pm at this time of year.
Interestingly the Monument of Light is the second replacement monument on this site. The first replacement, the Anna Liva monument, was moved in 2001 to make way for the Spire. The original monument in this location, Nelson’s Pillar, was destroyed after the IRA blew it up in 1966.
Near to the Temple Bar area is the famous Molly Malone statue…
