Day 11. Wow, so last night I got
lucky enough to be in a room with someone alternating between moaning and
coughing in her sleep last night (moaning myrtle status), and then at 4 am had
3 drunk Irish guys come in, loud as all can be, talking for a couple hours and giggling
like 12 year olds about each other’s farts. Cool story bro. Not the best night
of sleep, but that’s alright. Today I explored Dublin and Don Laughaire
(pronounced Dun Leary, I know…). Dublin is a cool city, and today was my first
day it has been overcast; the traditional Ireland weather. Luckily I didn’t
have any rain quite yet, and the sun even peaked through the clouds a couple of
times. Tom and I met up in the morning and wandered the streets of Dublin. I
got to see Dublin Castle, and several cathedrals and art galleries. I had such
a fantastic day. The National Ireland Museum was so amazing!!! It had so many
animals stuffed and preserved on display for the public to see. It was really
cool seeing some of my favorite birds up close and I could have spent hours in
there. Mimi recommended I pop down to try a delicious restaurant in Don
Laughaire, so Tom and I jumped on a train and went 20 minutes south of Dublin
to the coastal city. It was a nice quaint town with a beautiful view of the harbor.
We found some beach glass, cool shells, and I even got an ice cream. Poppies
food was excellent just as Mimi promised and we ate lunch in the park watching
Irish kids running around, hiding eggs, and reminisced to when we had not a
care in the world. We got back to Dublin
and wandered a bit more and then made plans to meet up for dinner. Tom prepared
a fantastic salad and we had amazing wine with quiche at some of Tom’s friends’
house here in Dublin. It was a fun evening and we went out to the Temple Bar
area after dinner for a quick drink (literally quick, the bar closed just after
we got our drink. Apparently the bars
have to close early here or the Irish will drink all night, I’d believe it). The
Temple bar area was packed with people, so I was right about the lively and
crazy night life. We downed our pints and decided to go for an evening stroll
in the unseasonably warm night. It was great chatting and talking about life, and its great having such a great friend like Tom. All in all a lovely evening!
Day 12. After trying to sleep through moaning
myrtle again, she finally got up to use the restroom around 7ish. Not but 2 minutes
after she left the room and I thought I could maybe finally fall asleep, I was
awoken by 2 girls stumbling into the
room in a panic to find her. From what I gathered they lost her during a bar
crawl last night, so they literally went to every bed in the room and stooped
over you, or in some cases turned you over to check your face. Are you kidding
me!? Haha, so another lovely night’s sleep for me! I got up and checked out of
my hostel around 10 am, used the internet for a bit, and then made my way to a
corner store to try some Irish black pudding (don’t ask). I EXPLICITLY asked
the guy how you were supposed to eat it as I didn’t have access to any sort of
kitchen, and he assured me you eat it as is, or raw - which is NOT in fact the
case. But I didn’t know that at the time and believed him, so I ate a little
over a quarter of it, not wanting to waste my money or the “raw” protein. It
was weirdly sweet, but I didn’t quite like it (again, probably because it was
raw). I hope I don’t die or start contagion or something. Today I wanted to see
the Guinness storehouse so I made my way over there and got to see how the
delicious beverage was made and its history. I could tell the storehouse was
made for tourists and wished I got to see more of an actual brewery or behind
the scenes like the Tilamook cheese factory or something. But they gave me a
free pint out of it at the end, and I got to learn how to perfectly craft my
own Guinness, so I am not complaining. Plus at the top of the storehouse was a
360 view of the city, and that was pretty sweet. Next I met up with Tom again and
we went to the Modern Art Museum (put on from the collection of Bank of
America). Then we walked around a 17th century gardens and ate a
late lunch in Phoenix Park underneath a giant monolith. We relaxed for a bit
and the sun even came out for us. I have been so lucky in Ireland! In the
evening we checked out a gay bar called ‘The Dragon’ (Shut-up, I know I’m a
nerd, it was cool). No drinks or anything for me as I had to head to the
airport very soon and catch a super early flight again. Hurray for sleeping at
the airport again… false. We hugged goodbye and hope to see each other again in
Germany, Amsterdam, or maybe even the states! I will miss you Holger (Tom)!!
And just like that I was off to the airport, ready to catch a flight to
Paris!!! “Yippee”!
No comments:
Post a Comment