Travelogue: Ireland, part 1

Portland to Dublin

Friday, September 23rd

It’s 4:30 pm and I’ve just boarded a plane to Dublin via Amsterdam. I’m determined to sleep on this plane and to wake up in Europe tomorrow afternoon refreshed and ready for a week abroad.

I forgot to draw the neck pillow but there was one of those too

Saturday, September 24th

Before I left, I put an app on my phone called Timeshifter. It helps you adjust your circadian rhythm before you travel to avoid debilitating jet lag. It tells you when to sleep and when to get up; when to see light and when to avoid it; when to drink coffee and when to take melatonin. It worked! I got on the plane at 4:00 pm, eschewed screens and booze and, immediately, improbably, went to sleep for 5 or 6 hours. Then I woke up, drank some coffee, and ate some breakfast. It was morning in Europe and it felt like morning in my body. I’m not sponsored by Timeshifter, but I would be.

I had a long layover at the airport in Amsterdam during which time I sampled two different reclining massage chairs for 2€ each and, in between, got a 20 minute chair massage at Xpress Spa.

windmills in the North Sea

Sunday, September 25th

I’m in Dublin for a conference put on by Children’s Books Ireland. I gave a talk there this morning. It was 2:30 am Portland time but I slept normal Dublin hours last night and felt strangely fine, despite getting in yesterday evening. Everyone I met through this conference was lovely. It was fascinating to learn more about the Irish language: who speaks it, who doesn’t, the ways it figures into children’s book publishing and the ways it sadly doesn't. The takeaway was that more books should be written in or translated into Irish.

After my book signing I slipped out of the conference. I would have liked to see more of it, but I also wanted to see more of Dublin. I’m leaving in the morning for Belfast.

swans on the Liffey

I visited the Book of Kells, which is obligatory when in Dublin for illustration/typography/medieval nerds like me. It’s an intricately illustrated 9th century illuminated manuscript housed in a dimly lit room in the library at Trinity College. People line up to file slowly past it and I don’t know what moves me more: the book or the fact that so many tourists line up to see it. People care about books and illustration! Also, Christ and the Gospels. But also illustration! The Book of Kells sits on a lectern in a glass case and they turn the page every few months. It’s a breathtaking feat of of illustration, calligraphy, and ornamentation.

This isn’t the page I saw; this is the most famous page: the Chi Rho

I took myself out to a nice dinner, and afterwards I made a pilgrimage to the hotel in Temple Bar where my first child was conceived.

TMI?

A few things I saw on my nighttime walk home:

an enigmatic business

an Irish famine memorial

???

Back at my hotel, I met a British rapper named Daniel. His brother got a job in Dublin and he was here to see him off. I talked him into rapping for me and he was great. Daniel, wherever you are, I hope all of your dreams come true.

More later from Belfast,
Carson

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