Temple Bar

The last time we were here was about 5 years ago. I’m looking forward to going back and hanging out in smoke free pubs since I have severe asthma. So I’ll be able to listen to music inside!

I stayed at some hostel- cannot recall the name of it now- in Temple Bar, it seemed to be above a night club because I could hear music playing until the early hours of the morning, and then at the crack of dawn, the beer kegs would go “clang” “clang” “clang” on the cobblestones outside of my window. I wandered around in the cold of the city, and did not have a coat, so I found a secondhand shop & bought myself what I used to call my “milkman dan jacket”. One day out wandering, a homeless man offered me some of his leek & potato soup. I caught bronchitis. I wrote alot. It was a good place to walk around alone in the rain, with a journal. A miserable, wet, writerly place.

It was awsome dude!

I was waiting for The Kitchen, U2’s nightclub, to open, talking with the doorman of the club across the way. A couple approached him to ask for directions, and I recognized the guy…it was the actor Robert Carlyle from The Full Monty and Trainspotting.

I asked him if that’s who he was, and when he confirmed I told him how much I loved him in those films. He was very friendly and autographed my guide to Dublin for me.

I’m not, as a rule, easily starstruck, but I couldn’t believe my luck in meeting someone from two of my favorite movies.