Dublin

"Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age."
--James Joyce

This past weekend I finally made it across the Irish Sea to Dublin. Although my air travel experiences could fill an entire blog, I will simply mention that I was very close to pulling a Ben Stiller at several points--I'm not raising my voice. THIS WOULD BE RAISING MY VOICE TO YOU, okay? I don't want to check my bag, okay? And, by the way, your airline? You SUCK at checking bags, okay, because I already did that once and you lost it, and then I had everything screwed up very badly for me, okay?

I was picked up from the airport by my Hopkins counterpart, Chris, who is paralleling my overseas experience at the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. It was great to finally have a chance to reflect on my experiences abroad so far with the one person in the world who understands exactly what I've been going through. We exchanged horror stories from our first nights on take, and I was reminded of how lucky I am to have a classmate at Hopkins who is such a "brick" (or solid guy in American terms). If I stay at Hopkins for cardiothoracic, Chris and I will share the distinction of spending the 2008-2009 season as the "1109." (When you become a fellow, they strip you of your identity. Since "24601" was already taken, they had to come up with a new number for the paging system.)

I was delighted to learn that Chris's twin 3-year-old boys have the same favorite movie as me, and so I spent most of Saturday morning under the alias of "Darth Maul." After being chopped in half about 743 times by the two young Jedi, Chris and I took off for a tour of the city. We started out at the James Joyce Centre, where we arrived just in time to catch the walking tour. I have to digress for a minute and tell you that one of my goals has been to read all 100 of the top literary works of the 20th century during my lifetime. Since Laura challenged me with the list in 1999, I've made pretty good progress, but have always been intimidated by the book at the #1 spot: Ulysses. I always figured that until I could master Faulkner, I didn't have any business delving into the work of my distant relative. After this weekend, though, I can tell you that it is next on my list. The book was set in 1904 and was an attempt to paint a portrait that would allow the city to be reconstructed from the ground up just from the words in the text. The walking tour essentially followed the path of this odyssey, and despite my ignorance on the subject matter it was a fascinating stroll.

Our next stop was the Guiness factory--site of the best aerial view of the city. Of course to get to the top of the building you have to take the company tour. Even though I've tasted horse urine that was more appetizing than beer, I enjoyed learning about the business model that had propelled this company forward from a family run business to a multinational enterprise. Overlooking the city with Joyce quotes scrawled on the window glass to point out the major landmarks, people drinking Guiness all around me, and "With or Without You" playing in the background, I realized that you just can't get any more Irish than this.

We had dinner at the Johnnie Fox Pub, which is probably the most authentic joint in the UK. After a delicious 4 course meal, we were entertained by Hooley dancing, card tricks, and of course Celtic music. Although I don't have enough time to elaborate on all the details of the performance, I will say this: Probably the reason the Devil went down to Georgia is that he knew he couldn't cut it in Ireland.

Sunday I visited the Powerscourt estate in the Wicklow mountains. The land surrounding this monument rivals anything I have seen from Versailles to Busch Gardens in Florida. We also had the opportunity to hike around the waterfall, which is just a short car ride from the estate. Since I didn't have time to drive the ring of Kerry or peer over the cliffs of Mohr, I was thankful for this opportunity to see some of the beautiful scenery the country has to offer.