When we first got to Howth I was amazed at the sheer beauty of the place. Maybe it was because we have been in the city for a while, but it was very refreshing to see the open ocean and green landscape. It was a definite side of Ireland that has not been depicted in Dubliners, which I really appreciated. I think this is such complex and layered city, so I appreciated seeing more of that complexity. I also really just enjoyed the hike. It was very different from walking around the city, and everywhere you looked you saw pure beauty. This happens in downtown Dublin as well, but as stated before, it is a different form of beauty. In the city, the architecture is beautiful and striking, and in Howth this beauty is water and rocks and flowers. I also enjoyed Howth because it felt like a break from the hustle of the city life. This is similar to how I felt about the readings, too. Dubliners can become so dark and gloomy, and though Yeats was also gloomy, it felt different. I believe that Yeats is gloomy because many of the poems centered around the events of 1916, including the deaths of many young men. Joyce’s Dubliners is dark for many different reasons, but they all seem to center around the place, Dublin. This characterization of Dublin is very hard for me to grasp because I am experiencing such a different Dublin than the one Joyce describes. I am glad, though, that Dublin has changed, but I wonder what Joyce’s thoughts on Dublin would be today.