kopia lustrzana https://github.com/thinkst/zippy
120 wiersze
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
120 wiersze
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
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Dublin and the Dubliners
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As capital of Europe’s most explosive economy, Dublin seems
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to be changing before your very eyes. New construction is everywhere,
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the streets buzz, traffic is increasingly congested, and in the
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frenetic pace of rush hour everyone in Dublin seems intent on changing
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places with everyone else. At night the streets are crowded with people
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bent on having a good time. Prosperity is in the air; the roar of the
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“Celtic Tiger” can clearly be heard.
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But this is not the whole picture. The proverbial
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hospitality and warm welcome are still here. This busy, modern European
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city sits on a thousand years of history — history is present
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everywhere, from elegant Merrion Square to the bullet holes on the
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General Post Office. It’s also a city of the imagination, reinvented
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and reappraised in the literature of its exiles. And the old Dublin is
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with us, too — the irreverent city of wit and charm and that peculiar
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magic possessed by Ireland and the Irish.
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Prosperity has brought with it a new emphasis on historic
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preservation. Dublin excels in packaging its past for the visitor. You
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can view artifacts from the Bronze Age, trace the history of the Easter
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Rising, or revisit Leopold Bloom’s odyssey in Ulysses. Old buildings
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are being recycled; for example, the 17th-century Royal Hospital now
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holds the Museum of Modern Art. And Dublin, a city large in
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expectations, is still small enough for the visitor to see most of its
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sights on foot.
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City on the Liffey
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The River Liffey flows from west to east through the center
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of the city to Dublin Bay. The river forms a natural line between the
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north and south sections of the city. This geography is important in
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understanding Dublin. Historically and culturally this north-south
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distinction has always been significant, and it still is today, with a
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dose of good-humored rivalry between the two areas. “ I never go north
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of the Liffey,” one man remarked.
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Farther out, both north and south, are the sweeping curves
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of the Royal and Grand Canals. The occasional cry of gulls and
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unexpected distant vistas will remind you that Dublin is by the sea,
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and the Wicklow mountains, which hold Dublin closely to the coast, are
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visible from everywhere.
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Dublin is an intimate city, physically small but tightly
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packed, a perfect place for walking. College Green, the home of Trinity
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College, provides a natural focus just south of the O’Connell Street
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bridge. O’Connell Street, the city’s grand boulevard, leads north to
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Parnell Square. To the south and east is St. Stephen’s Green and
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Georgian Dublin where the national museums are located. Along the
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Liffey to the west is Temple Bar, center of nightlife and home to many
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of Dublin’s cutting-edge artists and artistic endeavors. Up the hill
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from Temple Bar are Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral.
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It won’t rain on you in Dublin all the time. The climate
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here can best be described as “changeable” and yet the sudden shifts
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from light to dark, sunshine to shower, are part of the city’s magic.
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Buildings seem to transform themselves depending on the light; Dublin
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under a lowering sky is a different place from Dublin in sunshine.
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Enjoying Dublin
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Literature has always flourished in Dublin, the only city
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to have produced three Nobel Prize winners for literature — Yeats,
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Shaw, and Beckett. Joyce, the high priest of literary Modernism,
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imagined and interpreted Dublin for the world in Ulysses (you’ll see
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references to it all over). However, sometimes it seems that the city
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produced artists of this stature by accident, even against its will.
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Beckett and Joyce, among others, had to leave their homeland to
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understand it — and to be understood.
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Dublin theater is legendary, and no visitor should miss
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seeing a performance at the Abbey Theatre or Gate Theatre. The city’s
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impact on the rock and pop music scene with the likes of U2 and Bob
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Geldof is well known — there’s even a self-guided tour of their haunts.
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Traditional Irish music is also alive and well, especially in the pubs,
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and there has been a revival of storytelling, poetry reading, and
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traditional dancing. And in this city, where literature and theater
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have historically dominated the scene, visual arts are finally coming
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into their own with the new Museum of Modern Art and the many galleries
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that display the work of modern Irish artists.
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The constantly crowded and busy Grafton street is the most
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visible center for shopping, but there are shops all over that carry an
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international array of goods as well as the Irish crafts and souvenirs
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you expect. And while multinational chains have made inroads, they seem
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less blatant here than elsewhere. Many shops, and also hotels and guest
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houses, have been owned and managed by the same families for years, and
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theirs is the welcome of traditional Dublin hospitality.
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Dublin’s food has undergone a metamorphosis. There was a
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time when you might have apologized for it, but no longer. Dublin has
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international restaurants galore, and the New Irish Cuisine is built
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upon fresh products of Ireland’s seas, rivers, and farms. Coffee has
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replaced the ubiquitous tea — Dublin is now almost as much a coffee
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city as Vienna or Seattle.
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City and Countryside
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In a city of such human proportions it is not surprising
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that parks and gardens abound for recreation and relaxation. Phoenix
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Park in the northwest is the largest open space, but squares like St.
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Stephen’s Green are the garden oases of the city.
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On the coast, Sandymount, Dollymount, and Killiney strands
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are the places to go. The beautiful Wicklow Mountains, and the Wicklow
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Mountains National Park provide a more rugged countryside, and the area
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has breathtaking houses and gardens such as Castletown, Mount Usher,
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and Powerscourt. To the north and west are the ancient sites of
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Ireland: Malahide Castle, the evocative hill of Tara, and the long
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barrows of Knowth and Newgrange.
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The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) runs north and south
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along the coast. It’s an ideal way for the visitor to reach outlying
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sights and villages. There are many guided bus tours to sights outside
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the city, and some are accessible by city bus.
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Young at Heart?
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Dublin is a young city. Almost half of Ireland’s population
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is under twenty-five, and with its universities and professional
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schools, Dublin also has a large student population. The universities
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attract students from all over the world, and this influx helps to make
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Dublin a busy, buzzing international city. However, young and old,
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stranger and Dubliner rub shoulders quite happily. Religion and respect
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for parents has not yet gone out of fashion. And young graduates are
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not leaving now — multinational corporations and European Union
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investment mean there are plenty of opportunities for them at home.
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Unemployment is at an all-time low. The Irish are actually beginning to
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come home.
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