It didn’t rain today!

This week we’ve been really lucky and it hasn’t rained much, last week that was by no means the case.

Today I went down to some of the special markets Dublin has on Saturday mornings. I went to the Food Market on Meeting House Square, and the Designer Mart near Cow’s Lane. They are both on the South Side and were wonderful!

The Food Market has fresh pastries, breads, nuts, cheeses, and produce. I got a fruit pastry there that was absolutely amazing. All the produce is organic- as is most of the produce in Ireland, so it all tastes a lot sweeter than in the US. The only downside is that because all of the food in Ireland uses a lot less preservatives, it also goes bad a lot faster, so you end up making more trips to the grocery store.

They have the markets every Saturday and the different markets are set up in different squares. The Designer Market had a ton of unique designer clothing and homemade jewelry and scarves. The designer market was a little pricey, but that is because it is all handmade. For the work that went into the clothing it was well worth the money.

The Ha’Penny (pronounced hay penny) Flea Market was really small, some nice jewelry, painting and photography. There was live music playing outside, which was really nice. There is actually a ton of live music on the streets when the weather is nice, I absolutely adore it, and a lot of the pubs also have live music- many of the ones I have been to sing the same songs as you’d hear in America, but some also sing really beautiful Irish songs. There is a woman by Trinity College who sometimes sits outside with her harp and it sounds wonderful.

Along Grafton Street, when the weather is nice, all week there are people playing music. They play everything from traditional Irish music with flutes and a lot of accordions to more American music like The Killers.

I was also walking along O’Connel Street and saw an abortion rally. Abortion in Ireland is currently illegal. It was an interesting rally to stumble upon, there were both people rallying for pro choice and pro life with picket signs and posters. One man, who was a little further down the street from the group of pro-choice rallies, was preaching from the bible for pro choice. It was just an interesting thing to see, I can’t say I’ve ever seen an abortion rally before…

We took a group trip down to the Docklands and listened to a presentation from a member of the foundation. The Docklands are located on the south end of the Liffey in what use to be a very run down part of the city. The plan was to revive to Docklands and make it a place to attract tourists and bring in revenue for Dublin. All these plans however, were made at the peak of the Celtic Tiger, which we discussed in class as the unexplained boom in the economy from 1995-2000, when Dublin had a lot of money and the economy was continuing to expand and flourish.

They had lots of banks come and invest in real estate in the Docklands, and law offices all bringing in revenue. They build a nice community of apartments and dinning areas, and really developed the area into a beautiful place. The problem was that it simply didn’t work. The recession hit right in the middle of it all and things weren’t completed on time, etc. But overall I think it is wonderful that they still renovated the area and I’m sure at some point, perhaps when the economy picks up again, the area will become a go to place for future generations.

The only major mistake made through the planning, I think, was that rather than save the money they had, they blew it on the “Glass Bottle Land” after they said they were going to save their money. The land cost them 412 Euro in 2006, and today is only worth 60 million.

Aside from that they seemed to have a perfect plan,, I mean they considered how people coming from work would want to eat and relax and go out and they designed the place so that it was easily accessibly by expanding the Liffey and adding the Harp Bridge. In time I think it will become a major attraction, I think they just need the economy to pick and once it does they need to market the area.

Ireland is well known for it’s beautiful green fields and cliffs. What’s most shocking here is just how environmentally friendly they are. The Irish are incredibly aware of waste, they are careful to conserve energy as much as possible. For instance, if you go to a grocery shop they charge you for plastic bags, which is a very active way of reminding people to bring re-use able bags and save money as well as the environment.

In our dorms we are given little cards that have a set amount of money on them for electricity. Which, once they run out I believe we start paying for additional cards. Which makes us very conscious to turn off lights when we are out of the room and unplug electronics we are not using. It is a really efficient way of making you aware of what you are using. I like it.

The other thing is they have switches next to each outlet and the heaters, which you must flip on before you can start the appliance, this was the power is not running when the appliance is not being used. It was a little confusing when we first got here, but I am getting used to it.

We live along the main river in Dublin, the River Liffey. The river splits up the city into the South Side and the North Side. We live on the North Side, but our classes are on the South Side, which is nice because we get a full view of the city. It also means we walk a lot, it’s about a 20 minute walk to class, which isn’t bad, and I feel like I’ve been a lot more active since I got here. We have also noticed you don’t see a lot of overweight people here, and when you do they are most likely visitors, because the people here walk so much!

They have very easy to use public transportation, the one we’re used to most so far is the Luas, which is like the subway- only above ground. Interestingly it is run on the honors system, but they do random checks and if you are caught you are fined some massive fee.

Overall I like how you are forced to really think about how much you are using and it’s not like at home where we can be ignorant, it actually costs you to be careless here. I think the system works, and may work in the U.S. The energy cards I think are just for the dorms, I imagine that most people in Dublin pay bills, but I would have to look into it, but I think it is really good to get people that are not used to being concious about energy to make the adjustment.