SATURDAY MORNING STROLL

To day I planned to use my bus card to travel randomly on Dublin Buses and see more of the city. Fate, or more the state of my internal regions decreed otherwise. Dublin certainly is a lively place, especially when one can't sleep and lives on the edge of the club belt, full of less than sober revelers hailing taxis, talking politics in incomprehensible languages, saying good night to girlfriends in the next county, and the girls shrieking responses. I finally got to sleep about five and re-surfaced at 10.30. Too late for breakfast at the hostel, so I set off to O'Brien's cafe where Laszlo and Kristina (thanks to their friend who sent me their names) filled a sesame sprinkled bagel with bacon, egg. tomato and relish, and served it with their strongest coffee. Fortified, and feeling much better I continued my walk. Harcourt Road connects Harcourt Street with Camden Street. It is now a one way double lane with double yellow lines down both sides sod there is absolutely no where to park. The the little shops that once flourished there are now boarded up or are clinging on to existence. I find that sad, because little shops are part of Dublin's appeal.This morning I walked a left handed circuit from the hostel, turned into Harcourst road and again turned left before I reached the junction at the top of Camden Street. There I found a real fruit and veg shop, and a lovely little curio (not old enough to be antiques) store with a model phrenologists head in white china, a set of Astrologer's character reading charts hand painted on vellum, and a beautiful little sextant in a case with the basic knots surrounding it. Next left turn brought me to the housing estate in Charlemont Street but I turned right this time and reached a row of pretty houses facing the grand canal.
The photograph at the top is looking down Charlemont Street from the hostel. There is one house that might be a relic of Georgian days, but is, I suspect, a 20th century copy, and the rest of the street is definitely Functional Modern. I wonder, in 200 years time will students lead a protest to prevent their demolition?