Gastronomy

'Scuse me while I get this out of my system:


Ireland's food's not the finest of ilks.
The butter is great, and so are the milks,
but black and white pudding, so salty and strange
and bacon cooked slightly too long on the range;
the fruit and the veg, soft brown or unripe;
the usual order of kidney-stuffed tripe;
(it's all unidentified sections of meat
cooked over a flame made of freshly-dug peat.)

It's true that old Eire is not known for cuisine
but this is the funniest I've ever seen.
Serve anything, though, with such a warm heart
as I've seen here each day since Wednesday, the start,
and I'll eat it with pleasure yet unseen by man,
and then run to the toilet as fast as I can.


Other than that, all is well. There are some fairly delicious items to be eaten, such as Hazelnut Yogurt and Cadbury Creme eggs (much better than the ones in America); but a girl needs real sustenance, too. Last night and the night before, I stayed on Malcolm's couch and yesterday morning we fried up some fresh fish and ate it with home-fried chips. Very yummy. It was a welcome break from the hostel downtown. I've been staying near O'Connell street, which is the main drag of Dublin, but really it is just a bit too cityish sometimes. Malcolm lives in Cabra, a region of the city that is more realistic, and all the little children go around swearing their little mouths to shreds, and it warms my heart like a good, hot whiskey with lemon and cloves.

I've been hitting the pubs, since they are everywhere, but only played tunes in the Old Time session at the Cobblestone on Saturday. The Irish sessions are more strict; they require that one either knows the tunes (which I don't) or can pick them up and make them sound good right away (which I can't). So, I'm happy listening in the pubs. Malcolm and I played a bit together yesterday, and he taught me a couple tunes. I also went set dancing one night with a Japanese girl from my dorm. There was live music, a guitar and a buttonbox. The dancing is akin to square dancing, but with a constant sort of polka step, though that's not exactly what it is; there's a kick in there somewhere. I also happened to meet a guy there who works with Malcolm (the only person I know in the entire city) at Dublin City University.

Hiking on Howth was beautiful on Friday. Howth is a peninsula just north of Dublin, accessible by DART. The cliffs are high and promote spectacular views of the Irish sea, and supposedly you can see Wales on a clear day, but I don't expect there will be a clear day around here for a while. The climate is very much Pacific Northwest; rainy, gray, but with fairly moderate temperatures. There are, in fact, palm trees, and I even spotted a couple of Monkey Puzzle trees, imported from South America.

I must be off for now. Lots has been happening, and I'm getting used to the slightly smaller and much more efficient scale of things around here. The houses, the cars, the tvs, the sinks, and the people are all tiny; the personalities, however, are mighty, and full of stories and laughter. I will return to Ireland, I am certain of it.