Howth, environs

I've been composing this as I pedal.

After waking up and finally getting out of bed around two today, I had a quick lunch and decided I had better do something that I can write about. Yes, I structure my life around you. So, now I am sitting on the rock-shore at Howth watching two masts rock back and forth while surreptitiously picking my nose, hoping nobody notices. I would take a picture, but my camera ran out of batteries at the cemetery.

Howth is really a pretty fishing village. Even the new suburban condos and hipster fish bars can be overlooked in light of the view of the water and the salty smell of the sound. Technically, this is probably a bay, or a cape, but it seems so much like the Puget Sound that I forget what ocean it is.

But I didn't know any of this before I got here. According to Google Maps, this would be a simple eight-mile each way trip along the shore. However, due to the Irish philosophy of not posting street signs, I was surprised by a roundabout--with, of course, no signs. Oh, there were signs for directions to schools, shopping centres, just not streets. So, I asked for directions: "Oh, go down there, take a right--no, left, right, straight, you'll be on the main road." At least, I assume those were her directions. They were really a combination of left, right, and straight, with no landmarks or streets. To be polite, I went the general direction she was pointing and got lost. Eventually, after many lefts and right, I found a bus stop map that showed me where to go. I believe the reason Joyce is so hard to understand is that he wanted his writing to be authentically Dublin.

The sun is setting; I will write more at home.

That was a blog entry, direct from Howth shore, via my notebook. Edited for clarity, but nothing else really. I could continue this narrative through the rest of the entry, but why bother. I went back, got lost again, asked a Garda (Irish police) for directions, got lost again, made it back eventually. But pictures, now for some pictures.

First, the view from the bike ride there. This looks a bit dirty, and it was, but it was not what Howth's shore itself looked like. The shore itself was rock, but the water was far cleaner. The only downside was that you had to circle around past the yachts and hip bars, as this fishing village is now a wealthy suburb.

Second, the cemetery at Howth. This was just as the sun was about to begin setting, and the light was quite pretty. The building in the middle is the shell of an old church.

I'm tired after a 25-mile round trip, but it was nice to get out and not go into a city. I'm sick of seeing the same street musicians every day. Although this man played violin behind his back: