As with most of my dawdling walkabouts I literally had to drag myself out of Irish Town because (such is my personality) I could well have wallowed around in there for hours trying to answer questions from years ago and still come out without any answers. 

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Maybe I’ll never know precisely which restaurant I had my first swordfish in, or where the little shop was that I bought my daughters first frock; and maybe in the scale of things those things aren’t really that important. Perhaps part of Gibraltar’s charm (for me) is that she doesn’t let me know all of the answers to all of the questions I want answering when I ask them, but tantalisingly promises to answers a few every time I return? It didn’t take me long to decide I would be quite happy to make regular trips back to have my questions answered if that’s what ‘she’ wanted 🙂

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Somehow, after leaving Irish Town at the lower end (and wandering around an area I was quite unfamiliar with) I eventually ended up walking though a tunnel which brought me out into Casemates Square. 

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Casemates isn’t somewhere I have any particular recollection of since (as mentioned) in my day the social hub was the Piazza which is really the place I have an affinity with. However as I strolled through the square it didn’t take me long to realise it was very much a vibrant communal area supported by a variety of eateries and watering holes along with very interesting places to visit such as the Glassblowers workshop. 

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Cool goings-on such as buskers and street artists performing for the gathered were also very much in evidence and so I decided the place most definitely got my vote; as a musician myself I always enjoy watching others doing their thing and (knowing how tough the respectable profession of busking can be) I ‘always pay the artiste’. Handsomely. After leaving my tip the look on their faces was priceless.

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As I left the square (to the wonderful sounds of a pots-and-pans junk band) I decided to suggest to my travelling companions that we try one of the restaurants there for dinner this evening; I knew they were keen to try as many different places as possible during their stay and I was sure they’d also love to know more about the glass-blowing and when they could go to watch. Leaving the square I decided not to walk up Main Street because I had a feeling I’d be walking back down it this evening; I turned left up the back streets and headed for the Old Town. 

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