Howth (Rhymes with Both)

howth_seal2
Originally uploaded by di_juice.

Hi All,

Took a trip up to Howth which is about a half hour north of Dublin city on an outcropping of land which separates Dublin Bay from the open ocean. It's a strange mix of affluent township, summer resort and fishing village all rolled into one.

I took a long cliffside hike along Howth head, very picturesque, high cliffs, rocky coast and beautiful deep blue water. The hike takes you to Howth Summit where you can see Dublin Bay and the mountains of Wicklow to the south. Unfortunately it wasn't a very clear day - kind of blustery with sun coming and going as it does here - so my view was mountainless but still not bad. There's also a big island to the north of Howth called Ireland's Eye which you can motorboat over to in the summer and from there I'm told, you can see Wales. Good stuff. After my hike, I met back up with the main road and walked through the kinds of neighborhoods where people give names to their houses the way we give names to our pets - the old lodge, green ivies, pine hill etc... Serious old skool money. I saw a couple of beautiful horses, no doubt the playthings of some wellbred family.

There are two long piers in Howth harbor - East Pier is all yachts and pleasure boats and west pier is all varieties of cool, old fishing boats in all sizes and colors. There are also a ton of shack-type places along west pier where you can buy fresh fish from the fishermen bringing in their catch. Apparently this is the center of the fishing industry in Dublin. In among the fishing boats were three seals. They seemed curious about the people watching them and came in for a closer look - which is when I snapped the above photo. If you click on the photo, you can see a bunch more pics of the fishing boats and things otherwise Howth related.

I also took a quick walk to Howth Castle which was strangely enough surrounded by a golf course...haha. There are almost as many castles as sheep in Ireland - I'm telling you they are everywhere. Must have been a lot of kings back in the day.

Now am back in town, getting ready to head to Belfast for the weekend. Went out last night with Tom and couple of the peeps he works with to The Market Bar. Huge place which is a renovated sausage (or shoes, I can't remember) factory with high ceilings and a pitched glass roof. We plunked ourselves on the upper level which looks down over the main bar and had a few not too exhorbitantly priced scotch and sodas. Actually it was whiskey and soda which I'm told is an entirely different thing and not to be confused...haha. Dominick, Tom's coworker was semi-horrified by my choice of drink so I made him taste it. I don't know if he's a convert but he didn't seem to hate it too much. The bar serves Tapas untill late which looked pretty tasty and might be fun to try out at some point. See all the exciting things you can do when you all come for a visit ;)

Well, I'm off to pack up a few things and sort out dinner. Found some absolutely kick-ass Italian specialty stores yesterday and made mass amounts of eye-tye lentil soup and other tasty Italian like treats last night. Gotta love leftovers like that. On the bean front, I found out that there's a mexican specialty grocer in a neighborhood on the northside so I may find my black beans yet...will keep you all posted as I know you're waiting with baited breath for black bean resolution.

Hope you're all well.