Tag: parks

JFK, Horseride and Heaven

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This morning started with blue sky and even the weather app on my Iphoe didn’t warn me that it could change. So we planned to drive to John F. Kennedy Memorial park to enjoy the sunny day, summer feeling and the last day at the seaside home. But the weather was not our friend today, so just a bit after getting started, the big grey clouds turned up and hid the sun and very soon it started to pour rain. We didn’t turn around but hoped that it will pass and so we reached to the park with totally heavy rain and wetness all around. As it seemed to clear up a little, we left the car and went to look for the tickets and then Sean’s sister came to a genial plan – we took the horse and carriage and got a horseman who was a real hobby botanist and gave us a good overview of all the trees that we passed.

Ireland is rich of US presidents who in some odd ways seem to descend from here or are connected through some relatives. JFK is not an exception. His roots go back to Dunganstown and his great-grandfather left Ireland in 1848. Probably for the same reason as all the others, to escape from poverty and look for a better life. JFK visited Ireland in 1963 when he visited his family farm and went to see his relatives. the John F Kennedy’s Memorial Park is dedicated to his memory. It’s a huge area with a collection of over 4500 trees and shrubs. The rain stopped when we were driving in the carriage and everything was so green and fresh and smelled so well. All the photos are taken from the carriage when it was driving 🙂

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When our horse ride was over the rain was over too and we enjoyed some tea and cakes and watched the local children’s’ party on the playground and just wandered around.

Before going back I was taken to Heaven. We drove up and up and again up and reached almost to the top of the world where you could see almost the whole Ireland. Ok, I am exaggerating a bit but it was very high and the view was unbelievably beautiful and I guess it was possible to see almost the whole County around you. If there’s a real Heaven somewhere, I’d really want to imagine that I could sit there on the edge of the cloud and look at the whole Ireland for ages 🙂 I am not going to write that it started to rain again, and the wind went quite wild, and my summer dress, which could have been a right thing to wear on the photos of such an amazing place, wanted to fly away and I had to run back to the car, taking the photos on my run and staring around to catch a bit more of that beauty.

Lunch at Powerscourt Hotel

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It’s amazing how many nice places you can find just at a stone’s throw of Dublin. It took about half an hour by car and we were in a different world which was beautiful and surrounded by stunning nature. The hotel itself was also nice and so was the restaurant and the food. And we were lucky that the shower passed just when we were sitting inside and enjoying our lunch looking at the Sugarloaf Mountain behind the window.

After the lunch when the rain had stopped we walked around and explored the hotel and the surroundings. Unfortunately, it was too late to go into the gardens but we will definitely do it the next time. At least I got a glimpse how beautiful it was and we spent a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Another park on my list

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This summer is a bit different. But every summer has its warm days, nice days and days when you just want to step out of reality, even if it lasts only for a little while. Have been staying near a big green and probably nice park but still haven’t had a chance to walk around there. Today I had a chance and even if it wasn’t the warmest day of this summer I tried to forget it and made it a summer day. And it was again a time to test my new camera. I hope that I will start to love it. At the moment I am still quite confused how to use it properly but so far it has been a great fun anyway.

 

 

Malahide Castle and Gardens

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It was my first time to visit Malahide Castle which is actually quite near to Dublin but you definitely need a car to get there. To light up the day, we made this trip on Sunday and it was a beautiful place to walk around and enjoy the nice weather. When the sisters are involved, we usually take a guided tour and we did the same this time as well.

It was the first time for me to use my brand new camera and I am not too experienced to do any magic with it yet but I hope that I can improve.

Spring is somewhere near Dublin

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I was happy to get some warm days in France but that was exactly what I was expecting. But I wasn’t expecting to feel such a spring feeling in Dublin and that’s why it made me really very happy, especially that I knew that in Estonia I would be facing quite a winter when I get back again. So one day before I had to go we went to the St Stephens Green and to Iveagh Gardens, one of my favourite places, and enjoyed a real sunny spring day and tried to get everything out of it.

Maybe because my first day in Dublin was a long walk through all these parks or maybe that I just like to walk in the parks but every time when I go to some of the parks in Dublin I feel so happy and worry less and eager to start to put all my dreams into practice. Maybe I just have to spend some more time in the parks or in Dublin.

And here are some nice moments from Iveagh Gardens, the hidden gem among Dublin parks. One day I would like to come to listen to some concert here.

We ended the day in an Indian restaurant and enjoyed some delicious food and celebrated our birthdays again. Two years ago we did it in the same restaurant.

The Blessington street Basin

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Just a day before I had to fly back we visited another nice hidden park, just beside our home. Funny, that I had never been there because it was so close. The Blessington Street Basin had been a water reservoir in the past and after that made into a public park.

It was such an old small place, with a pond with the water birds in the middle and narrow walking path around it. Sean said it’s a place where the parents bring their children to feed ducks and because of that, there was a big board where you could read what the water birds eat and what they don’t eat and what can you find from the park to give them. That’s a good idea and helps you to explain to your children that the birds don’t eat the same things that you fancy and very often it could be very dangerous to feed them with a wrong stuff.

National Botanic Gardens

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My last summer day in Dublin ended up in the National Botanic Gardens which I had only glanced when we drove past of it in July. The Botanic Gardens are like a big park with nice old greenhouses and totally free to enter, so again, a perfect place for families to spend a lovely day outside and teach their kids something new when enjoying and having fun together.

We are a small family without young kids but always able to enjoy new things together and have a lot of fun every single time. This time, I didn’t forget to bring my selfie-stick, so we tried to use it as much as we could and now I have such a collection of flowers and us among all this beauty.

The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland are old, they were founded in 1750 by the Dublin Society. for example, our first Mud Cure resort of Haapsalu was founded 75 years later (1825) and our Promenade and the park around it even after that. Nowadays it inhabits more than 20 000 living species and I think the best part are all these big old trees with labels and stories besides them so every time you feel that you want to get to know a bit more, you just have to walk to the tree and read about it.

The old glasshouses,  the Palm House and the Curvilinear Range are amazing too, especially because of their architecture, both build in the 19-th century. The whole park is divided into different gardens and it is easy to follow the signs and walk around. I am sure we have to come back in May or June when everything is really blooming because this place is worth to visit more than once.

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Shakespeare in the park

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I haven’t seen a lot of Shakespeare’s plays and recently I haven’t seen one for a while. So the idea, that they are playing Shakespeare in the open air seemed very attractive and as the weather had been nice and sunny too, we decided to go to see it.

The play was performed in Casino Marino park. Casino Marino was built at the end of the 18-th century as a home of Charlemont Earl James Caulfield. So the name Casino comes from Italian word “casa”, which means home and there has never been a real casino in this house. From all the four sides the Casino is guarded by stone lions and the view to the Wicklow mountains of the background is breathtaking.

Unfortunately, they haven’t paid too much attention to the windows, which are really very small but probably the view from the balcony is picturesque.  The house is an example of neo-classical architecture, it seems very small outside but has 16 rooms inside but we didn’t come here to enjoy the pearls of architecture because we have come to see the Irish Shakespeare and so we move on to the small meadow at the end of the park.

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The .audience is well prepared – some of them had even taken picnic baskets with food and wine with them and everyone, even the small children, were enjoying themselves and “Measure to Measure” by William Shakespeare with a small Irish twist began.

 

The first Irish twist brings all the story to Dublin where the biggest problems are immorality and cheating. So during the play, we must get to know who is the father of the child of the poor pregnant girl who has been sent to do the laundry for the nuns and if he would be hung for that sin at once or would there be some other way to save his soul. Thank god, they don’t hang him and they all live happily ever after 🙂

 

I enjoyed the play in spite of some language problems with Shakespeare’s text, local accent, and jokes I didn’t get so perfectly but it didn’t matter at all. It was a nice evening, a new experience and good actors that made it up for me. Now I really want to go to the real theatre in Dublin.

Laya City Spectacular – the biggest free summer festival in Ireland

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The Street performers festival Laya City Spectacular has been taking place in Dublin and Cork for 11 times already and I have been visiting the last three of them. As I always come at the beginning of July, I have spent my first weekend visiting that festival, taking place at Merrion Square park. It is mostly meant for families and children, except my very first time in 2014, when they had also two days full of music – different young musicians from Dublin – who performed inside the park. Now it is mostly for different street performers like acrobats, magicians, jugglers and painters all over the world.

Stomptown Brass
Streetfood from the red bus
MaSamba
Performer from Australia
Paul Morocco and Ole
Huge tractor for jumping
Nice Statue 🙂
Muumipapa’s Lighthouse

This year there was also a big street food festival JustEat going on beside the park. The whole street was covered with a grass carpet and different kind of food was sold from the stalls. There was also a small stage for the musicians, but as it was straight on the street, where people were passing by, it was a bit too loud and the musicians were also not so good as they were at the 2014 festival.

As the weather was really nice, we spent a lot of time there, walking around, watching the performers and listening to the music and got even caught by a photographer who asked if he can take photos of us for the JustEat webpage. So now we have the proof that we really took part at the festival 🙂

Click HERE and see all the pictures taken by the photograph Allen Kiely from Akdigital – Digital Agency photo.video.design.

Just one nice Sunday

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It was the first time when somebody came to visit me in Dublin and I could feel a bit more local, and I really did, in spite that my son has also lived in Dublin years ago. So it came out that the straightest (or cheapest, or the most exciting) way from Canada to Estonia goes through Dublin, with a 10 hour stop on Newfoundland Island and so my son landed in Dublin airport early on Sunday morning. As his visit was just 2 days short, we had planned the both of the days quite well. Soon after the breakfast we went to walk around in town, to find out who of us knows Dublin the  best. And I have to say that I was the winner because he hadn’t been to parks and to churches and even not in some well-known pubs. Probably he knows more about McDonalds and night clubs.

We started from the Temple Bar area and the band was already playing at 12 at noon, but we didn’t stay, just had a quick look at the Unknown Whiskey Drinker and headed to St Stephen’s Park, then to Iveagh Gardens, to Dublin Castle and Christ Church and St Patrick’s Church, then to totally different Church where he met his friends and I left him to have drinks with them. We finished the day at the Thai restaurant.

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