My weekday routine is becoming old hat — get up, have breakfast, read/watch the news, update my career to-do list, cover some lessons in my CMA study programme. The hard-copy of my CMA study materials is supposed to arrive via FedEx, but I receive an email saying they attempted delivery this morning even though I was awake and in the apartment the whole time. I call into FedEx customer support, and after holding for awhile, speak with a polite woman (British?) who adds my Irish phone number to the delivery notes in case that might help. They should attempt delivery again tomorrow.
It’s a clear and relatively warm day today, with highs in mid 50s F / low 10s C, so I’m itching to get out for a walk this afternoon before the rain returns as forecast over the next couple of days. I text my walking buddy CJ to see if he’s available to join, but he has other obligations, so I head out on my own. Last week I did some northside walks, so today I decide to head southward to check out more of the neighbourhoods in that direction.
View looking southwards down Camden Street towards the Wicklow mountains with Dublin’s ubiquitous cranes in the background:
Urban art on the side of a building in the Portobello neighbourhood:
Before I reach the Grand Canal, I decide to head into the more residential parts of this area since I haven’t explored them much.
Some larger townhouses:
A stand-out home on a corner with an odd upper room?
Griffith College, which is located in the old Griffith Barracks dating back to the early 1800s:
Spring is still a little ways off. The trees remain leafless sticks. I try to imagine how the streets will be transformed in the next month or so with green.
Along the South Circular Road, there are rows of red brick Victorian era homes with bay windows:
I notice many people of colour in the neighborhood, including several people of African origin and some Asian families. The Dublin Mosque (presumably the largest, but not the only one) is located in this area:
The architecture changes dramatically in the neighborhoods of Dolphin Barn and The Coombe, with newer higher rise construction with some old derelict and industrial buildings mixed in.
I turn northeast, walking back towards city centre on Cork Street into The Liberties. I come across a complex of buildings. Outside of the large gated complex of Coombe Womens Hospital, there are cars waiting in queue to get in, as well as many cars parked on the sidewalk — there are not parking spaces on the street, and I assume these are hospital visitors. Dating back to the early 1800s, Cork Street Fever Hospital was opened to prevent the spread of infection in the homes of the poor during the many outbreaks of cholera, typhus, and Scarlet fever. The hospital was closed in the 1950s and converted into a nursing home. Its current Irish name is Brú Chaoimhín, which translates as “Kevin’s Hostel,” and I’m not sure if it still operates as a nursing home or just houses offices for the Health Service Executive (i.e., Ireland’s Department of Health).
I walk along I follow the main road back towards the general direction of the city centre, but I haven’t been checking a map, so I’m somewhat disorientated… then I see a large church tower popping up above the newer buildings. What church is this?! Oh it’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral! I had never approached it from this direction, so it catches me off guard for a second.
