Old De Lijn at Platform, Berchem (Antwerp)

We see a lot of effort built into the aesthetic design of modern transportation systems. Debate constantly surrounds how the aesthetic design of the system should look. As humans, we demand that places and things be aesthetically pleasing because it is part of our nature. As a result, there are practical reasons why we should attempt to incorporate positive features into the aesthetic design of transportation:

1. Legibility
2. Branding
3. Make pedestrian access easier
4. Positive ambiance
5. Foster safety
6. Attract choice users

In the past year, Washington, D.C. and Dublin, Ireland have been grappling with very specific issues of aesthetic design of their streetcar and light rail lines. The primary concern in both cities is the proliferation of overhead catenary wire systems that the streetcar and light rail lines are planned to use. Both community groups and city councils have fought for alternatives to catenary with ground-based electrification systems. The benefit of providing a ground-based electrification is unobstructed pedestrian realms and clear view corridors; however, the primary drawback is the high cost to provide such an alternative. Of course, we need not look too far from home from the same concerns: Metro recently conducted a study on replacement alternatives for the trolley buses and specifically noted the negative view impact of the trolley bus overhead wires. Indeed, these are legitimate concerns, especially when one considers the rareness of virgin views and historical value of these places.

At the same time, historic archives readily reveal that our cities were not without clutter and perhaps were even aesthetically unpleasing. Arguably, places like Seattle have seen a marked change toward less cluttered streetscapes since the turn of the 20th century. But how do we evaluate what is a good streetscape and what is a bad one?

I recently traveled to Antwerp, Belgium to visit a friend who lives in the ‘suburbs’ of Berchem. What I found particularly interesting about the area was its streetscape and surrounding station development. The neighborhood is a humble mix of 1960s and pre-1920s development, but its main street is timeless. The attempt to aesthetically enhance the public realm with all the bells and whistles is non-existent–arguably, it is none the worse for it. The streetscape has shabby sidewalks, very modest station platforms, dirt-encased tracks, and a small cobble-stoned street with ample on-street parking. The only space that is highly designed is the pedestrian crossings to increase the prominence, visibility, and safety of pedestrians.

Certainly, this Antwerp neighborhood may not be as prominent as The Mall in Washington, D.C., College Green in Dublin, or elsewhere in Antwerp. But, does that mean that more prominent areas necessarily deserve vastly higher standards of aesthetic design measures or that Berchem is not equally deserving of such standards of investment? What should we consider a reasonable point where the need for positive aesthetic design has been satisfied?

[Check out out the Flickr set of Berchem.]

“Crossing That Bridge” from Riverstown, Co. Cork.

I’m in the middle of writing the dissertation for my degree. Generally, the topic is on design codes, particularly those in Ireland. Writing the paper is really about as much work as I had suspected it would be. Right now it’s coming along decently. I had a meeting with my advisor on Tuesday to discuss the direction and ideas of the paper. And, the response I got was fairly positive. I was admittedly a bit unsure what to expect since the paper was still a bit skeletal in content. Most of what I had completed was my case studies. The methodologies and introduction really needed a tweak, so I figured he might not get where I was going. I especially thought this since it was somewhat evident that the direction of my paper had really morphed from what I had initially written.

Right now, I’m hoping that I can get most of this done by Wednesday. I’m heading up to County Clare on that day and it would be nice not to have a dissertation hanging around my neck then and throughout the Easter Triduum.

Corcaigh Abú, Naomh Bréanainn.

To the joy of many, I shall be visiting the States not once, but twice over the next two months. I can now reveal to my family members on the East Coast that I shall be visiting Virginia between the 23rd and 28th of November. I’m really looking forward to Thanksgiving with my brother, step-brother, cousins, aunt, uncle, and Mom and Joe. Should be a cracking time. Also, I am returning to Seattle—no, serious—on the 12th of December for the Christmas holiday. I should be in the Seattle area for about two weeks and then I shall be done for my Stateside jaunts for a while. Can’t get too much of a good thing. Better to be stuck on one big rock on the edge of the Atlantic. Oh, yeah, there’s my patriotism, Hibernia. Okay, fine, kidding. Éirinn go brách. *fist pumping* I can’t say it was much of secret, more that I didn’t know I could until the last week or so. Surprise!

The lads Barley Cove Beach, Co. Cork.

I recently went on a trip throughout West Cork. Yeah, I’ve been there and done that. But, it was really a second look at it. I have a lot of criticisms of it, and yet so many positive things to say at the same time. I’ll spare you on my inner struggle with the state of the place and simply say that it is, overall, a very beautiful bit of this country. I have to, you know, being an adopted Corkonian and all, like.  In any case, we went about the countryside by bus (Jonathan has convinced us that rural Ireland does NOT exist, FYI) looking at the landscapes, towns and villages, and the economics of the communities that we were passing through. Our whole purpose of the trip was to understand these interrelationships and how as planners that we might be able to facilitate the continued existence of rural life, landscapes, and minimise one-off housing. I’m not sure any of us know what the exact answers are to the problems of rabid one-off housing, decentralisation and dwindling of settlements, holiday homes, and protecting landscapes of merit.

What we did learn is a way to speak about landscapes; understand whether landscapes have value intrinsically, objectively, or otherwise. We learnt that people are set in their ways to live “rural lives” (what that means is fairly ambiguous), but that these are in jeopardy from many different spectres—even some that people in the countryside have brought on themselves. I learnt (and maybe others already knew this) that there is a big difference from one-off housing and holiday homes. I suppose I conflated them. Although, they are often the same thing. I think understanding these themes were more important that proposing real solutions to problems. We can always debate those later.

Disused farmhouse and barn in Baltimore, Co. Cork.

But, Brendan did offer the idea of focusing rural development on existing crossroads where services or community facilities are present. For example, GAA pitches, churches, or schools. Lots of these dot the countryside and, naturally, development of modest amounts are usually present. Perhaps, he thought, these areas could accommodate housing where one might otherwise opt for one-off housing. This is with full knowledge that development is going to happen one way or the other and that these people will refuse to live in a real urban place. I had a very hard to grappling with this sort of idea. Brendan took this further and offered the “country lane” alternative just on the outskirts of Baltimore (we had made this our home base whilst in West Cork). This alternative would be more dense, I suppose. But, it was something that I really struggled with being a very urban/village urban kind of person.

I suppose I have a lot to take away from the trip that got me thinking about some serious things. In addition to housing and industrial siting, I became very concerned about wind farms. I’m still one of their biggest proponents. But, more than ever, I am convinced that there must be a national plan for progressive development to ensure that landscapes are protected and that areas are equitably targeted for this sort of development. It would be a tragedy to see so many hills go the way of wind farms in a bad way. So, yes, targets and planning for that sort of resource is very important.

As for Baltimore, it was some craic. We stayed at the Top of the Hill Hostel. 25+ MPlanners is a force to be reckoned. I’ll skip the finer details, but I do want to say thanks to the gang. Good week!

[Flickr sets mentioned in this post: MPlanners Gallavanting Around West Cork.]

Exit 14 on M1 near Castlebellingham, Co. Louth.

I may not do it here, but in conversation with others I often berate the small-country mentality that Ireland has. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of wonderful things about this great nation. But, when it comes to planning, it is a country of many contradictions that are good and bad. Coming from a non-political point of view and purely pro-contemporary planning position, Ireland seems to be moving generally in the right direction on some periphery planning and environmental-related issues. These include water charges, property taxes, and expanding tolls to motorways across the island. However, there are some critically mistaken methods and rationale for doing so and I will discuss them below. [In an effort for full disclosure, there was discussion on these topics in our MPlan class today, but the issues have been on my mind for sometime. So, this is not entirely in response to today’s events.]

Water Charges

Most countries, including my home country, have water charges. Almost universally these are based upon usage of water. Ireland, however, is proposing a flat rate for water usage. I originally thought it would be based upon actual usage, but the government merely want to recoup cost of providing the service rather than targeting how much of a service that they wish or must provide. In essence, the rationale is entirely budgetary and not remotely based upon the fact that it is a limited resource that may not be able to be provided at current rates of usage. In Dublin there has been serious discussion about accessing water all the way from County Roscommon (over halfway across the country). If that reminds you of New York City or Los Angeles, then you know how much of a problem that this is. Already, Dublin has water loss of three-quarters in piping before it even makes it to the door. The environmental ramifications are huge and the burden placed on the infrastructural system is huge. It’s no wonder that the Dáil Éireann wish to charge for water. But, they going about it completely the wrong way because it is likely not to induce conservation of water efforts since there is zero interest once you’ve paid the universal nominal rate to have access to water.

Some people on the topic in Ireland come from the perspective that water is in an inherent human right. Thinking about it in these terms is an interesting exercise. I’ve even sort of come around to the perspective that maybe each household should be allotted a certain “water right” or monthly usage free of charge. After this determined allotment of water, a charge is placed on a per litre rate for usage. Mainly, the rationale is a compromise between a human right to water, the environmental concern of water usage, and the public burden of infrastructure. Surly this is unlikely to fly in the United States, but I wonder if it could be successfully implemented in Ireland and if it would be as effective if not more. Nevertheless, the Dáil is likely not to do either my proposed compromise on water usage or the metered usage rates. The only problem that the government will solve is the high costs of providing water services, not the more pressing factors that I have outlined.

Property Tax

The Dáil is also to look at introducing a property tax. In the 1970s, Ireland repealed a property tax, which has been largely recognised as a disaster. Nevertheless, people have become accustomed to not paying tax on a property aside from the Stamp Duty upon purchase of it. A student in class referred tl the idea of introducing a property tax as “highway robbery”. I don’t think I’ve ever thought of it that way before. In fact, I don’t even know any conservatives in the United States that have called it that. I’ve certainly heard calls for rejecting new or increased property taxes, but never the full abolition of it or that it is a con-job. From a planning perspective, property taxes are very important. Not only do they help sustain and provide public services, they encourage people with developable properties to develop rather than lay fallow. It also helps to lock-in value on a property and discourages speculative accumulation of property. Call it social engineering if you like.

In any case, the method that Ireland is likely to choose is a simple land value tax, which excludes the assessed value of a house or the actual property. Instead, the Dáil may opt for a flat-rate tax on the size of a property. This is indeed a very easy method of introducing a property tax, but it completely neglects the real value of the property and the necessary services that should be provided in a local area. Does it make sense to charge the same rate for a rural area as it does to tax in an urban area? From my point of view, it doesn’t make much sense at all. Under this scenario, rural areas will be disproportionately taxed for the services that they receive whilst urban areas will be taxed effectively less and receive more benefits on the backs of rural areas. In other words, it’s inequitable. Clearly, pure equity is impossible, but this is highly inequitable. I suppose someone could make an argument for the above scheme. However, I’m am not of the mind that rural areas or farmland should be taxed at the same rate as towns, cities, and urban-like areas. Or, that even all urban areas should be equally taxed. It may very well be the case that two property tax rates will be created to give rural areas a break since they require far fewer services than urban areas, but I’m not privy to this knowledge if it is the case.

Nevertheless, to labour my point, I would like to illustrate using a theoretical example of a town equal in size to the surrounding rural area: under a normal and perfect property tax scheme, the town of 5,000 should have 5 Gardaí and the surrounding rural area of 1,000 people should have 1 Garda. Under a flat rate property size tax scheme, the town should 2.5 Gardaí and the surrounding rural area should also have 2.5 Gardaí. Of course, the Dáil is not likely to provide services in either of the illustrated ways. Instead, either a higher burden will be placed on rural areas with lower services and disproportionately provide the services in urban areas, or there will be some sort of reduction on farmland.

I am also not yet privy on the details of where the taxes will go. But, I can only hope that they go with the local authorities instead of the state. I’m not sure that it makes rational sense to plug deficits and state services with monies that should be going directly back to the areas where they came from. That is why there are already an income tax and value added tax. In any case, the proposal will achieve a few positive planning points. It will reduce property speculation, encourage economical use of property, and bolster public services (or in the interim plug the hole in them). But, this proposal will not be targeted in a holistic way as it is entirely focused on quick money. So, I feel that this is sort of a halfway stepping stone to achieving a truly rational property taxing system.

Just to add note, there is already a nominal tax on second homes. That’s a good start, but it’s so minimal that it is hardly encouraging people to have one residence, time-share, holiday home rent, or more efficiently use the second home.

Tolling

Just out today on the Irish Independent is news that the National Roads Authority (NRA or An tÚdarás um Bóithre Náisiúnta) are to toll motorways across the country, including Galway, Kildare, Wicklow, Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork, lesser areas in the country, as well as additional tolls on Dublin’s M50 outer ring road. Coming from a contemporary planner’s perspective, this can only be hailed as good. Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t grumbling amongst many others that will be affected by new tolls. There are already tolls on motorways throughout the country. But, these tolls have been limited to newer projects and stretches of motorway built by private companies on behalf of the state. The latter group has contractual rights to receive user fees (tolls) for 30 years on their stretch of the roads. Those are known generally as public private partnerships (PPPs). For those companies, they reap huge profits off of the roads that they hold these rights and none of benefits, except use, are provided to the public who authorised the construction of these roads. The state owns a few of the toll roads. Historically, the state subsidised construction of motorways through the NRA. Roads built under those schemes are, in essence, freeways (or, for the Irish reader, free motorways).

The issue of motorways being free is surly a huge contention because with this NRA statement it means road building subsidised by the state is now going to be retroactively tolled. I can’t say that the controversy that it will create is surprising as it is nearly as controversial in Washington State, but it is gradually becoming more acceptable to the public. It is hard to turn the tables and say what has been right in the past is now only a privilege by fee. In one sense, it is an earth-shattering change, but at the same time, the public roads are held by the public and there is a continuous maintenance cost there so charging for the service isn’t really different than other services for which the state charges. Arguing this point does temper the discussion, but there are also a series of other issues here. The rationale for tolls has mainly come about because of the government’s significant deficit. Do you see a theme here? Good in the planning context, but implemented for completely the wrong reasoning. Certainly it makes people feel ripped off and so maybe “highway robbery” is an appropriate phrase given the context. But, under normal circumstances, the rationale would be markedly different. Mainly, these would be social engineering exercises.

Tolling has a series of possible benefits if utilised properly: it prices the cost of using the public rights-of-way, can be variable to control demand for the service at a given time, reduces congestion, makes alternative modes of transport more viable, subsidise more efficient modes of transport, eliminates the need to expand motorways, reduces suburbanisation and leapfrog development, lower emissions, protection of rural areas and way of life, and/or eliminates trips altogether. What most people fail to recognise is that motorways actually induce demand (known unsurprisingly as ‘induced demand‘) for roadway usage. While adding a lane of traffic to a two-lane limited access roadway may increase capacity by 25% (not the 33% you’d expect and markedly proportionally less for each additional lane), it is only a temporary congestion measure. Transport planners know that the fully capacity will surly be met within 20 years, but far more often this is met in 7 years after construction. Expansion becomes prohibitively expensive, particularly in urban areas, and maintenance outlays increase. Add to this the fact that it encourages suburbanisation, leapfrog and ribbon development, and kills villages and towns make it a terrible concoction. There is indeed a rationale for motorways, but excessive construction and density of them renders them effectively useless where equal monies can be spent on better solutions for transport and infrastructure. It is for this reason why most planners ravenously support the implementation of tolls.

The plan to toll the M50 is somewhat reminiscent of the Puget Sound Regional Council’s plan to toll Interstate 5 in Seattle and the major limited access roads throughout the Puget Sound region. I particularly applaud this move, but I wonder why the NRA left out the M1 to Fingal, Meath, and Louth since it is a commuter corridor to Dublin whilst the NRA explicitly is targeting Wicklow and  Kildare. What would be a particularly interesting move in the future would be to toll high-quality dual carriages such as the ones that exist in Cork. But, what the Dublin tolling plan seems to be trying to achieve is preventing people from not paying the €3 toll at the Westlink Bridge by parsing it out at three tolling areas. Not bad, but the move should be more ambitious to more adequate target usage by increasing the total fare should someone enter toward Swords on the M50 and exit near Shankill to the M11 (N11). If it’s up to $1.50 for the High Occupancy Toll lanes on SR-167 in Washington State for 4 miles, why not something more commensurate to that in Dublin? Both are urban limited access roads, only the Dublin one has higher volumes and is surrounded by greater density. Surly it makes sense to be at least comparable.

I suppose the purpose of this post is to say that I’m sceptical about both the motive of these initiatives and the residual, desired planning benefits that would be an outcome from implementation of them. I can only hope that these are stepping stones. I’m also not deluded enough to believe that every planner or layman will agree with me on these points, but I do hope that they will stir discussion and thoughts on the topics.

Stephen Bahl in Kinsale.

Well, my first couple of weeks have been nice. I really love my house despite its inadequacies. It’s a terraced house on a very quite street and has a wonderful view of the city. I also have the benefit of having a room on the front side. I’m settled in now. My classes are generally good and I have been good about not staying up too late as to make all them so far. I suppose that’s not saying much considering it has only been two weeks. It looks like we should be having a lot of trips throughout the year, which is definitely good because it means less lectures and more practical applications of planning. I think so far my favourite course is the urban design. I suppose that is mainly because we get to spend time in groups developing ideas and plans for various sites that our instructor has given us.

Stephen Bahl came to visit last week. It was good, I’d say. I felt a bit of a poor host only because I was unable to accompany him on more excursions around Cork as I had classes. But, we did get the opportunity to go to Kinsale and Dublin.

James Fort in Kinsale.

I had been to Kinsale (Cionn tSáile) before, but only for a very limited amount of time. My father and I couldn’t really find adequate parking for the car and bed and breakfasts were very overpriced. This time, Bahl and I took the bus. Much better decision if you’re going to Kinsale. We had lunch in the Kingsale (yes, very clever) which oozed with Englishness (I suppose  the name should have been a hint), but the pub was very good service and food wise. We also explored the town centre which was extremely tidy and colourful. After a bit of walking around, we headed toward the James Fort (Dún Rí Shéamuis) which meant walking out of town to the south across the New Bridge over the River Bandon (Abhainn na Bandan) and then back north. It took about a half hour each way. But, the fort was worth visit and view. While it wasn’t possible to go in the fort as it is ruined, it was possible to walk around it and admire its history. Since it was at the top of a hill, we could see back across to Kinsale, to Charles Fort (yeah, crazy, Kinsale has two forts, Charles being the newest!), and to the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly afterwards, we head back to Kinsale to walk around a bit more and catch the bus back to Cork.

Stephen spent most of the week exploring Cork City and its environs. He even kissed the Blarney Stone!

Dublin Georgian door.

On early Saturday morning, we caught the train up to Dublin (Baile Átha Cliath). We checked into our hostel, chilled out for a bit, and then hit the streets of Dublin for the day. I took him around to O’Connell Street, Temple Bar, Grafton Street, St Stephen’s Green, and the Georgian Quarter. We picked up lunch from O’Briens on Grafton Street and watched some street performances. A Scotsman was doing a ridiculous act of laying on broken glass and having patrons from the audience stand on him. There was also a man ranting, huge bubble blower, and musicians. I guess the best acts of Ireland line up on Grafton Street on a nice day. Walking around St Stephen’s Green was nice. And taking an intricate looking into the Georgian Quarter was definitely worth while. We even found the embassy of Greece. If ever Ireland feels like it should be concerned about being the butt of an EU joke, it need not worry as Greece has forever taken that place.

In any case, we looked for the museums and ran into the National Gallery of Art off of Marrion Square. There was definitely some worthwhile art to see there since a good bit was dedicated unsurprisingly to Irish artists. Afterwards, we headed over to Dublin Castle and picked up tickets to receive a tour. To kill time, we walked around the area to Christ Church Cathedral, John Dillon Street, and St Patrick’s Cathedral. We skipped actually going all the way into the cathedrals as apparently they were charging exorbitant fees to see their churches. I can’t say I’m surprised with their virtually non-existent parishioners. But, all the same, they are definitely beautiful landmark buildings. And the back alleys in the area were very nice. I was trying to show Bahl the An Taisce headquarters, but as it turns out, I was one block off.

Dublin Castle.

We got back to the castle with time to spare and then toured the various floors and rooms. It was pretty cool that they decided to keep the British Crown’s seat in the castle. According to the tour guide, when Queen Elizabeth II visits the castle, it will have been 100 years since a monarch has sat in the seat. Of course, she will not be allowed to take her family’s former throne. The castle also houses the Revenue Commissioners in one the newly rebuilt wings (rebuilt as it was collapsing and unrepairable). Below the structure, they found the early remains of the castle going all the way back to Vikings settling in Dublin. So, we saw the original walls, landing for ships, and the River Poddle (An Poitéal). The river interestingly is completely underground for most of its course through urban Dublin, except where it has been retroactively daylighted, or as in the case at the castle revealed. It is also naturally murky and is where Dublin gets its Anglicised name: Dubh Linn meaning ‘Blackpool’. We headed back to the hostel and got some kebabs in the neighbourhood.

The following day, we got a late start as most things are closed until the afternoon in Dublin. I went to Mass at St Mary’s Pro Cathedral. There was an priest with a very pronounced American accent, but I hesitate to call him American as he seemed to be very Irish in his homily and apparent permanence at the cathedral. There was a visiting parochial choir from Norway that sang throughout the Mass in tradition Catholic Latin hymns. It was definitely a treat in my eyes. Bahl and I later had lunch in an Italian restaurant in Temple Bar and then we headed toward the Luas station near O’Connell Street where we parted ways. I would say that it was nice to have Bahl for the week and I hope he enjoyed Ireland. But it’s also nice to get back to focusing on my college work.

[Flickr sets mentioned in this post: Kinsale and Dublin.]

Onboard Aer Lingus

So, if I had to give this a very brief synopsis, the return trip was indeed my worst fears realised and then some. Yeah, I knew I was going to be highly tired, but I’m writing this even before I have landed in Dub. I literally got 2 hours of sleep Tuesday night, had to wake up at 3am, drive myself to the airport, and drag myself onto a fully crowded United Airlines flight for a 6am boarding. One thing I thought was odd was that United did not print out my third ticket when I left Seattle. I even asked and the woman at the counter assured me that I must get it from Aer Lingus in Boston. On top of that, I was charged for one piece of luggage in spite of not being charged when I departed from Dublin on my flight out to Seattle.

Fast forward to Chicago. It was already very late morning by the time I got there and was early afternoon by my departure. I skipped lunch because I still was not hungry yet, but when I got on the Boston-bound flight, all they had were small snacks to purchase which I didn’t want. So, I waited until I got to Boston. Bad idea. Once I disembarked the flight, I went straight to a United check-in/change desk on the concourse. I asked the woman if I was supposed to get my Aer Lingus tickets from her and she said that I had to go to Terminal E to Aer Lingus in order to get that. Hah. This gets really good!

Well, I hurried over to Terminal E and fiddled around in the queue and then made it to the check-in desk. The Aer Lingus ticketing agent repeatedly swiped my passport but was unable to print out the ticket and then mentioned something about my baggage ticket claim check. So I handed that over to him too. He walked away from the desk and went to another agent for about 15 minutes whilst I stood at the counter and tried to connect to wifi. Unfortunately, no luck on the wifi in spite of Boston Logan’s claim of free internet. So, I eventually went over the ticketing agent and asked what was going on. He couldn’t exactly explain, but finally his cohort tried to ring United and find out why they couldn’t print my boarding pass. But, guess what! United did not answer. They told me to run over to United for a “paper ticket”. I walked at first, but realising the time I ran.

When I got back to Terminal C, I immediately found an agent helping the queues, explained my story in brief and she escorted me to the front desk as she realised that my flight left in less than an hour. They printed out the “paper ticket” and told me to head back to Terminal E. So, I assumed I was supposed to use that ticket as my entrance into the concourse. When I got through security, the TSA agent looked at it funny. But, me assuring my name was on it and showing him, he let me through. I ran for the toilets, and then rang my parents to try and book my Iarnród Éireann ticket, which with no internets, I needed someone who could. Our flight began boarding by row sections and I looked at my “paper ticket” only to realise there was not seat assignment on it. So, I walked to the front desk and the woman blatantly asked me how I had gotten through security with that and how I should have had a regular boarding pass. Well, I explained my story again. She was perplexed, but printed off the boarding pass.

That, my friends, is my story so far. But, we’re just getting into Dublin now and its 5.04am Irish Time, which means I’ve basically been up 33 hours straight if you discount the two hours of sleep. I’m pretty sure that I won’t be going to bed for at least another 16 to 18 hours!

Onboard Iarnród Éireann

Now that I’m onboard the Dublin-Cork train, I’m back at blogging. And, things have managed to take yet another interesting turn. Yeah, I had reservations about this return flight. Like, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. It’s truly a beautiful clusterfuck. Apparently, one of my bags did not make it to Dublin. I had to register my bag with Aer Lingus. I really hope that I get a call off them today saying that they found it. It would be a massive blessing. As a result of waiting around for the bag that never came, I missed the Airlink bus by Dublin Bus to Heuston Station. That also meant I missed my Dublin-Cork train. By the goodness of the Saints, the Iarnród Éireann station agents allowed me to use my ticket that still printed out. It also seemed to work just fine in the card validator at Heuston Station. I’m really glad that worked out because despite all the mishaps and annoyances I’ve had to bear for the past day, I’m whisking through the Irish countryside in Kildare at present and barrelling toward Laois.

Last time I rode the train was a year ago and it was on a day much like this one: largely cloudy with the threat of rain. I also noted the vast suburbanisation along the initial part of the route. It is incredible to see the number of the precise same semi-detached houses. As in, same colour, same trimming, same roof pitch, same placement of windows and doors, same everything. I recalled being fairly disappointed in that sort of development because of its suburban nature even though I’m okay with that sort of thing generally for rowhouses. However, in Dublin or Cork or London, one sees that rowhouses may have the same general building layout, but the detailing features are what set them apart. Not so in outer Dublin. Now, all of that monotony is growing on me. I guess mainly because I just got back from some of the worst of the worst development patterns in human history: American suburbanism. It’s pretty hard to compete against that and I spent the whole summer decrying it day in and day out.

All of that aside, the rural countryside is a real gem. Lots of trees, pastures, hedges, country homes, livestock, and general serenity. That really makes for a nice view. And, more importantly, it makes all the hassles of the day seem so far behind me—if only for a while.

Update: According to the conductor, the 7am Dublin-Cork train broke down on the tracks in Portlaoise, so we are actually stuck at the station (not even scheduled stop). It doesn’t seem to make sense that they didn’t change tracks to get around the other Dublin-Cork train in advance if they had known. I also had Aer Lingus ring me up moments later and notify me that they had found my other bag and that it would be on its way this after and to me by this evening. Guess the baggage agent was right to have more faith. Heck, maybe they’ll get this train moving soon.

In Cork City

Well, the train might have been delayed a half hour, but it was definitely the preferable way of getting back. Ciaran was waiting for me there. Things got better. I received my bags within two hours of getting into Cork. So, that was super cool. Had lunch with other flatmates down at Crawford. Bought food and such. I eventually went home and just complete crashed in spite of planning to have a pseudo-return-home party.

Anyway, I’ll update soon about the past few days. Must go to the railway station shortly for the second time today and meet Stephen Bahl there (completely unrelated visits). Just have to say, Cork are victors of the 2010 All-Ireland Senior Football Final for the first time in 25 years!

Sunset on the Atlantic.

Well, I’m nearly about to trade the glorious Stars and Stripes for the venerable Tricolour again. That means saying “goodbye” and it’s not something that I’m very fond of because it’s a hard thing to do. I don’t get visibly emotional or emotively sad; I’m more likely to say “goodbye” with a sincere smile from cheek to cheek. Largely, I do this because I want people to know that I am happy about what is indeed imminent and validate their good wishes for me. But, the honest truth underneath it all is that there is deep sadness too. I am mildly bothered by the thought “am I really going to see them again?” Anything could happen between now and when I should see them next—God willing, we shall meet again. But, more than anything, I know that I shall miss them dearly. I always do. Leaving Ireland wasn’t an easy thing either. There was sort of a cognitive dissonance of depression with knowing I was going to leave to come home for the summer, in spite of the fact that I really wanted to see my friends and, in particular, my family. That probably seems crazy, but it’s the truth.

Today, I have really only one primary task: organising. I’m left with cleaning the house and collecting my things into my luggage. You sort of have to do that when you’re packing without the knowledge of a defined return. I probably wouldn’t have to do as much of a cleaning had I actually attempted to organise my room and other spaces over the summer. Oops. I suppose, on the plus side, my father will be glad that he won’t have to try and clean all the messes in my absence.

In the early morning tomorrow, I have a really awful travel itinerary. I have to get up around 2.30am and go to the airport by 4.00am. My flight then departs about two hours later and heads to Chicago (an airport that I certainly don’t fancy in the least) for a decent layover. Afterwards, I fly onward to Boston for a much more significant layover only to catch another flight to Dublin. I guess that last flight leg with Aer Lingus might be the best part of the journey. You might be thinking that there can’t be much more, right? Wrong. Add a bus trip from the airport to the train station in Dublin with a not-very-long layover and another three hour trip on the train to Cork. Average of four hour flights and two-and-a-half hour layovers by planes, trains, automobiles, and feet. I see now that I really hadn’t thought my return leg to Ireland through when I booked it. I still don’t even really know the estimated time of arrival and total travel time. I’ll let you know when I do. And, I think there’s only one real remedy to this sort of thing (I’ve learnt the hard way, see my Manchester trip) and that’s copious amounts of ethanol. Yes, my friends, that is how you do it. And, that’s also how you book one of the most multi-parted and insane trips. I don’t recommend it.

I will say this: getting to Cork will make it all worth it, despite how I will surly miss many of you. So, I say to you now with tears that I pray the best for each of you that I am leaving and offer rhapsodic greetings to all those that I will soon be seeing.

Also, don’t worry, I’ll be posting again soon when I arrive in Cork. I’ll leave you with a great song and video. Grá agus Beannachtaí. 

The Capitol Building.

Recently, I went to the District of Columbia and Virginia to be both with family and act as tourist. I flew out to D.C. in mid-August and met my mother, brother, and cousin at the airport. I can’t really say that Reagan National Airport is much to talk about, but staying in Arlington, Virginia was totally worth it. Our hotel, whilst not lavish, was pretty tops: we had two bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, a kitchen with dining table, and a living space. The Arlington Courthouse Residence Inn is definitely one of the best hotels I’ve ever been in, save for maybe The Davenport Hotel in Spokane. One of the best things about the hotel was in fact its location. I liked how close it was to both the Metrorail station and the shopping centre down the street. Those all came in handy.

The first day, we didn’t do much other than pick some food up from the store since it was so late. My mother had one of her old friends, Laura, come visit us at the hotel for the evening. We began to plan what we might do over the next two days.

On the second day in D.C., my brother, cousin, and I headed to the city centre While my mother did some work. We got off at the Federal Triangle Metrorail station to walk toward the Washington Monument and the National Mall. It was incredibly hot as we walked along the National Mall viewed the wonderful vistas of all the monuments, galleries, and the Capitol. So, we did what any rational, sweating person would do, changed our intended destination for the nearest museum. We popped into the National Museum of Natural History to see this human origins exhibition. Patrick seemed genuinely interested in it. One of the cool exhibits was a computer that generated one’s face in different views depending upon which evolutionary era should he or she had existed as (i.e. as a Neanderthal).

After the exhibition, we headed over to National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum. The two wings had a really eclectic mix of all sorts of American art. I found the Presidential and American landscape art to be some of the coolest. The museum also hosted art of Norman Rockwell. I’d heard the name in the past, but seeing his art first hand really puts Americana into definition. I loved his worked a lot. Loren, my cousin, did too, but Patrick didn’t fancy it as much. My mother eventually found her way to the museum by lunch time and we walked a bit of the gallery with her. Afterward, we stopped by a sports bar for some grub. There was some interesting people-watching to be had, especially with this guy who was on the bench nearby. He went through waves of mute-singing and dancing on the bench whilst not getting up. Patrick was totally enthralled with watching this guy and his odd behaviours. I suppose I wasn’t completely taken aback with this since it’s sort of typical to anyone who is a city dweller.

Our last main event for the day was spent at  the National Gallery of Art in its two wings. I would say that the gallery really challenged the grandiose of many major European equivalents. All the major eras were covered and then some. Patrick wasn’t so fond of the non-Modern Art and I’m not sure that my mother or cousin did either, but I did. I think they might have been tired. I really liked some of the Flemish stuff. But, to save them the pain of waiting around needlessly, we went next door to the Modern Art section. Patrick really liked it. But, I think the rest of us were really just exhausted at that point. We let him do his thing and then caught the subway back to the hotel in Arlington.

We finished up our day by meeting up with Laura for dinner and going to the monuments at night. We saw the Vietnam Wall (sort of), Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and the FDR Memorial on foot. We saw the others like the WWII and Jefferson Memorial via the car. It was really inspiring to be at the Lincoln Memorial and see all its grandeur and look across the water, up to the Washington Monument, and the Capitol. To see them lit up is really something. My brother and cousin were making sketches of Lincoln for a bit. I told them they could take the time to do it if they wanted. So, they did. Patrick came away saying that his drawing didn’t “look like Tom.” My cousin was quick to quip that he was “right because it’s Abe.” Brilliant. The Korean War Memorial was also something really worth looking at. But, I think the other real highlight of the night was to see the FDR Memorial which traced his legacy as president from start to finish through the metaphor of water and quotes etched into stone. He, his wife, and the working poor American were idolised into cast-bronze statues and scenes.

On the third day, we only spent a short bit in D.C. We paired off: my mother and I, and Patrick and Loren. My mother and I spent our time back near the White House and enjoying the green spaces nearby. Meanwhile, my brother and cousin went over to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment. Afterward, we headed back for the car and began our trip down to Williamsburg for the remainder of the week. Traffic was a complete nightmare half the way meaning we didn’t get in until about 6pm. Joe, my step-father, was waiting for us and so we had a barbecue the first night followed by a visit to the neighbourhood pool. The pool was certainly the highlight for us during the rest of the week.

During the weekend, we made a trip to Busch Gardens which was themed on a couple countries in Europe. I particularly liked the rollercoasters at the park. But, after a few, I had to throw in the towel as my nerves couldn’t handle anymore for the day so I stuck to less intense things. We actually got exhausted early, probably due to heat, around 5pm. But, before we left, we walked through “Ireland” and saw a street performance by a leprechaun! Yes, I know my Irish readers are sure to cringe at reading this. And, rightly so. It was entirely cringe-worthy with plenty of Paddywhackery to boot. But, I also laughed.

While I never really got to see Williamsburg properly, I did drive through the town centre on my way back from Jamestown with my mother. It was really idyllic and reminiscent of a more colonial era. And, why not? I mean, that is what the town prides itself on, even though it was entirely rebuilt about a century ago. In any case, my mother and I made the drive along the colonial parkway which led to what was essentially a river road on the James River. It was wonderful to see the beaches, estuaries, and trees. Eventually, we ran into the national park where the original Jamestown was located. We watched a short video and walked the grounds. Not much remains standing, but there is an original church and monument that the Jamestown people left in honour of their vicar. You could see the remains of berms that they built for fences and the foundations of the former statehouse. Otherwise, the palisades and warehouse were reconstructed (with Union Jack included!) A few other statues were present like Pocahontas and Captain Smith, an obelisk, and visitor centre where items recovered from the site were retained. I highly recommend it. Getting a ticket offers one week of access to the site and Yorktown (20 minutes away). We didn’t get to do the latter though. I think we were all just too tired after a couple of days of fun.

So, we took the train back to D.C. later in the week. The trip up was really nice with the views on the way. A bit more interesting than the equivalent drive. I regret not taking pictures at Union Station since it was so beautiful inside. We had lunch in the bowls of the building where there were over thirty stalls of fastfood places. We picked the New York style deli and let me tell you, it was delicious! Upstairs, there other restaurants, grocery store, and many retailers. I was totally reminded of proper railway stations in Europe like that. And, trains departing every 5 minutes all across the country and region. Loren was able to make a smooth connection up to New York once we got into D.C. and the other three of us took the subway to the airport. Later in the week, I had to say goodbye to the my mother as she was to return to Virginia again. That was definitely hard.

[Flickr sets mentioned in this post: DC and Virginia.]

I’m not entirely sure how to sum up one year living in a country abroad. But I think one way to do it is in a photo journal.

Part 1 – North Mall through Saltaire

In all its glory, Seven North Mall’s Georgian accommodations provided me fair shelter from wind, rain, snow, and floods. It also gave me my first friends in Ireland, my beloved flatmates and neighbours. I found it an inspiring place and a fantastic location for basically everything in Cork.

My house on the North Mall.

In late September, I was put into a group from Master’s class and we trekked all throughout the lower north side of Cork City. We found some real gems like the iconic Shandon Bell Tower.

St Anne's Bell Tower in Shandon, Cork City.

As part of that walk on the lower north side, we climbed St Patrick’s Hill and got some great panoramic views north, south, and west of the city. The hill was lined with beautiful row houses like these.

Row houses on St Patrick's Hill.

I never kissed the Blarney Stone, but a few of my friends were crazy enough in spite of the 2009 H1N1 virus going around. The castle and grounds were super-cool though.

Hana about to kiss the Blarney Stone.

The grounds were so cool at the castle that they had to keep the public out too.

Blarney Castle's 'secret garden'.

In November, my class went to the Leeds and Manchester ‘city-regions’. Saltaire was a cool Victorian model town that sprung up as a suburb to supply wool goods to the region. All these streets have this sort of stone architecture. It may be ‘generic’, but I love it. We made a short visit to the area.

A 'generic' street in Saltaire, England.

[Please click below for Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4.]

]]> 813 Safesler My house on the North Mall. St Anne's Bell Tower in Shandon, Cork City. Row houses on St Patrick's Hill. Hana about to kiss the Blarney Stone. Blarney Castle's 'secret garden'. A 'generic' street in Saltaire, England. https://thehibernoproject.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/first-guest/ Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:24:45 +0000 http://thehibernoproject.wordpress.com/?p=798

Stephen Bahl with Camera

Well, I have had some exciting news in the past few days. One of my best friends, and an editor of this blog, will be coming to visit me in Cork. My good friend, Stephen Bahl, shall be joining me for about a week in September. I’m not entirely sure of all the details yet, but I suspect that Dublin and travel to the Irish Midlands are also in the cards if I rent a car. One can only hope for good weather! Since he will be travelling throughout Germany for most of October as well, I’ll probably make a visit there at some point to meet up with him again; possibly Munich and Vienna! I really believe that this will be a fantastic set of experiences for him as he will be staying in youth hostels, engaging with a very different set of people and cultural norms, and that his forced acquisition of the German language will come in handy. Aside from that, you’ll note from the picture that Stephen is clearly ready for taking lots of great pictures. Look at that photographer’s stance! Stephen will also have the special honour of being my first guest to Ireland. I hope this is the beginning of a trend for many others! Anyway, time to get cracking on trip planning!