We visited a couple of Christmas markets this weekend.
Eli had taken Friday off of work, and we decided to go to the market at Fumbally Stables which is near Dublin City Centre. Per the website: The building is an old 18th century stables that was originally used by John Busby, one of the local distillers in the Blackpitts area. Since then it has been adapted for multiple uses from grain store to meat factory, a bakery and finally a photography studio in the late 1980s. The Fumbally took it on in 2015 as somewhere for us to develop ideas and projects outside of the cafe confines, and since then it has grown into a much more all-encompassing space that is open to many diverse activities but keeps food and community at its core.
The day's weather forecast was not promising. This time of year, the weather trends toward rainy and windy. Heavy rain OR heavy wind is alright - combined, they are not two great tastes that taste great together. As we were leaving, we experienced some light rain and a bit of wind which was fine. Coming home, it was a different story, as you'll read about in a few minutes.
It was a weekday morning, so I thought the tram might be relatively empty - boy, was I wrong! As I've mentioned before, I have claustrophobia and if I feel I don't have a clear exit available, I start to panic. More and more people crammed themselves onto the tram, and my anxiety began to ratchet up. At one point, I made the comment "Why are all you people on this tram on a Friday at 11:30 a.m.???"
We got off the tram at St. Stephen's Green, having to fight our way to the door past the people standing sardine-like in the open gap near the exits. There's a shopping mall next to this stop, and many other riders were also getting off the tram at this platform. We were walking in a direction taking us away from the mall, and I felt like a salmon fighting to get upstream through a packed flow of humans.
We walked a block or two and after about a 10-minute wait, bus F3 scooped us up and deposited us closer to the stables.
The market wasn't extremely busy so it was fairly easy to move around in the smallish vendor rooms. We saw a lot of interesting items: Soaps, stained glass, artwork, jewelry, African-inspired products (placemats, purses), baked goods, wine. One vendor had beautiful woven wool blankets. We chatted with her a bit, learning that the blankets were woven using a few different types of wool. I really loved one done in blue shades. Each blanket was €165. I don't begrudge the price because I know a lot of time goes into handcrafting an item, but I couldn't justify spending that much on a blanket. Another vendor was offering brass goods. There was a spiral pendant that I loved - it was surprisingly heavy, and I was enchanted by the graceful curl of the piece. Fortunately, the vendor was talking with another customer so I couldn't ask about the price. I would've either bought it or been sad that I couldn't buy it because the price was too high.
Eli sampled some honey made by a company called Open Hive Honey, and he bought a jar of the soft-set honey.
This is from the Open Hive website: Soft set, or creamed honey as it used to be known, is made from regular honey in which the natural granulation process is controlled to give a rich and buttery honey texture. There is nothing added to soft set honey except honey that has already granulated naturally over time. We bring our bees down to Newcastle in Co. Wicklow in early spring to gather the nectar from the Oilseed rape.
We stopped at the table for Mangan Studio, which displayed some very pretty pottery pieces - small dishes, bowls, and mugs. Eli has a tea ball strainer that he tends to balance over the sink so it doesn't stain the countertop. I wanted to get a spoon rest or something so he could put the strainer on that (we could've used a mug but that's no fun). We wound up buying this small vessel, which has worked out quite well. It was kinda cool because the vendor asked what use we planned for this piece. I thought it was interesting that she wanted to know how her creations would be of service out in the world.
Just as we were leaving the market, the skies opened up and it started to pour. We ducked into the Fumbally Stables' cafe/store right next door. We had considered eating at the cafe, but it was packed. Instead, we spent a few minutes looking through the shop, which had a mix of items - fresh breads and pastries, vegetables, cheese, books, socks, candy, and other treats.
We made our way back to the bus stop, fighting the wind and the rain. I saw many people with inside-out umbrellas. Eli and I both have long rain slickers with hoods, so it was nice to not have to fight with an umbrella since they're fairly useless when it's windy.
At one stop, a lady got on the bus and was talking with the driver. I wasn't paying attention to the interaction, but Eli later said that she mentioned she had Apple Pay (which isn't accepted on a bus) but no cash. He said the driver just waved her on. Obviously, they're not supposed to let people ride without paying, so it was kind that he let her stay and didn't turn her back out into the yucky weather.
Thankfully, the tram back home was not busy at all. Eli wanted to go to the grocery store, so he left the tram at the Leopardstown Valley stop and I continued toward home. Just as I stepped off the tram onto the platform at Laughanstown, the wind started blasting and the rain came pelting down. It was not a pleasant hurried walk to the house.
When Eli got home, I glanced at his jeans. His rain coat stops about mid-thigh, and his jeans below that area were dark blue because they were soaked.
It was a fairly miserable experience, which was disappointing.
Round 2 of the market adventures was scheduled for Saturday with plans to attend the event at Kilternan Parish. We kept an eye on the weather forecast. It was still supposed to be rainy and windy but indications were that it wouldn't be as awful as Friday had been.
We took the tram one stop to Carrickmines and waited for the L26 bus which arrived after about a 12-minute wait. Usually onboard, there's an electronic sign that shows you the upcoming stop and/or there are announcements before each stop. Neither of these aids were working on this bus. When we drove past the church, we decided to get off at the next stop which was a few blocks down the road.
Of course, it started to rain while we were walking to the market. It wasn't a driving rain, but it was heavier than a light mist so up came the hoods on our jackets.
This market featured a visit with Santa, so there were a lot of children in the building. This made it difficult to navigate the crowded vendor rooms as children usually don't have a sense of their surroundings and tend to stand in the way (granted, a lot of adults do this too).
I didn't spend much time looking at many of the wares on display. My main purpose for wanting to go to this market was to visit the booth of my acquaintance Laura, who makes stuffed animals, among other things.
This cute critter came home with me. S/he doesn't have a name yet (Holly was the first thing to pop into my head, but we'll see if that sticks). So unlike Gayla Peevey, I actually did get a hippopotamus for Christmas. (If you have no idea what that means, give the link a click and listen to the song.)
The church has a small coffee counter with donation-based goods - coffees and cookies and such. There was one table available so I sat down before anyone else could snag it while Eli went to get us some goodies. He brought back two cocoas, a gingerbread cookie, and a chocolate chunk cookie. We enjoyed our treats while listening to the choir singing Christmas carols. Their last number was "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and the crowd was encouraged to join in. It was extremely difficult to sing along without wanting to veer into the Muppets' version (ANIMAL, SIT!).
Eli plunged back into the masses in the vendor room, wanting to check out a couple tables that had various baked goods. He came back with some treats - brown bread (not pictured), jam sponge, and shortbread cookies
I was certain it was going to start raining again as soon as we left the church for the walk to the bus stop. That seems to have been the pattern for us but thankfully, it did not happen. A thing that DID happen was that as we came around a corner of a wall, a big gust of wind slapped us. It caught the collar of my jacket and a coat snap slammed into my front tooth. I was like "Really? I finally have a decent time, only to wind up with a broken tooth?" Fortunately, my tooth remained intact.
During our entire outing, there was a persistent rainbow that was appearing and disappearing as the sun weaved and bobbed around the clouds. I like to think it was the Universe saying "Sorry about what happened on Friday. My bad."
