From Siena With Love: Dublin and Siena (via London)

Arrived back to Siena Tuesday night from London, (yes, yes, I know I have been flitting about, rather...) into a city which is limbering up for the Palio-there is palpable excitement in the air, and the countdown has started- 8 Days left! The Campo is changing shape hour by hour as the coveted seating is erected around the course- a seat here or on the balconies costs between 200- 350E and they are all sold out! So I will be taking up my free spot next to the Red Cross (just to be on the safe side) in the corner of the Campo, like last time- three years ago.

But I need to mention the exciting trip to Dublin too...whither I flew from Amsterdam to take part in birthday celebrations for my old friend David- below with his partner, dear Jeremiah, right, who has exchanged London for Dublin since he works for the European Commission, which has now usefully posted him in this splendid city.

I knew I was going to love Dublin- and I was right.

It turned out to be one of those rare cities that behaves just the way it should; a mythical place which lives up to its reputation. There are just a few cities that have done that for me and they have all been in the States: New Orleans; New York and Los Angeles have all behaved admirably according to expectation. Dublin was also just the way it is billed; a fun loving. eccentric, passionate, poetic city where much alcohol is consumed, and where anything can happen.

The truth of that preconceived idea became immediately obvious as we stumbled across Sweny's pharmacy/bar, where the owner PJ serenaded me with songs in Gaelic and we were offered glasses of wine and no one expected any payment. Sweny's is mentioned in Ulysses, and has therefore been saved intact by fans of James Joyce as an important and original location worthy of preservation. I found myself catapulted into this Joycean Dublin because it was BLOOMSDAY, which is celebrated every June the 16th, representing the 24 hours during which the action of the novel takes place. It was doubly special this year because it was a hundred years since the controversial novel was finally published.

There were readings all over town of the strange, wondrous and delirious text, none more extraordinary than the Circe dream sequence, beautifully read in the Abbey Theatre by Barry Mc Govern. I thought I must have eaten magic mushrooms for breakfast as I tumbled around on the precipitous and vertiginous wordscape that was so beautifully enunciated by McGovern...

The whole of Dublin was out in force, joined by a plentiful supply of enthusiastic American tourist Joyce fans, dressed up like these below, trying -and often succeeding quite beautifully- to look as if they were Edwardian. All in all a strange and rather unforgettable experience...