Dublin

Dublin is green. I love me some green.


Well, well, it's about time I write a post about Dublin. I didn't get a lot of time to plan this trip. Lots of things were unclear until very near to the day we left, including the person I was going with. I went with Hannah who is also an au pair. I met her at Hillsong at the end of August. We finally got it all figured out so that we were leaving early friday morning and coming back early Monday. This gave us a good amount of time to see the city and do most of the things on the top things to do in Dublin lists.

The first thing we noticed about Dublin(other than the windy drizzle-rain that is sort of strange and the biting cold that was about 5 degrees celsius which feels freezing to us but its really something like 40 degrees fahrenheit. Yeah, we're tough) was that everyone spoke English. We really didn't predict just how awesome this was. I'm not really that bold around strangers most of hte time but when you have to approach people who are rude AND don't really speak English it totally changes your scale of difficult social interactions. Suddenly every transaction was completely straight forward. We were lost, just ask; we needed ketchup, just ask; we wanted to joke around with the person behind the counter, just talk. It was so incredible. I found myself saying lots of things in french on accident which was really odd. The second thing we noticed was that these stange people who spoke English also were unbelievably helpful and friendly. I'm not just talking creepers(but believe me, Dublin has it's share, they just take different tactics), everyone. It was so cool to have people be chatty and sweet with their little Irish terms of endearment and profuse profanity.

So on Friday we got to our hostel and dropped off our stuff with the lovely girl at reception who gave us several good lunch recommendations. After that we pretty much wandered over the entire city that is south of the Liffey. People ride the bus there but the bus is a double decker and the drivers are friendly and helpful and when people exit they say thank you or 'cheers' which would appear to be some sort of substitute.

When we got back to our hostel we met some American girls who were exchange students from Barcelona traveling. We went to dinner with them and then met some of their friends at Dublins famous pub O'Neils. I'd already had both a pint of Bulmers Cider(yummy) and Guinness(kind of an aquired taste, but I think I aquired it after visiting the brewery) so I went with the yummy cider again. I'm not really a beer person but thats everything in Dublin, and the bars are so packed you can't really even move. It wasn't really my kind of thing unless we were siting and chatting, other than that it was sort of like this game of holding your pint without spilling it and warding off the drunk.

On Saturday we went with the Barcelona girls all over the southwestern part of Dublin in a meandering path that eventually lead to the Guinness Brewery. It was kind of cool but I think I know more than I need to about how beer is made. I still kind of think of Guinness the way I used to think of coffee, it's okay the way it is but I'd enjoy it more with some sweetened creamer. Thats why I stuck with cider. When it comes to alcohol I want it sweet. But I got a green hoodie that says guinness on the front from the gift shop. Boy am I ever a sucker.

After a late lunch we parted ways and Hannah and I went to Phoenix Park, the largest enclosed park in Europe. It was beautiful but it started to get dark and we were really chilly. Just as we were about to leave the park to find a place to get cofffee(another plus to Dublin is that they know how to make real coffee) there was this little round building in the middle of this clearing in the woods. It was a little cafe in the park. It was totally adorable and made me wish again that we had good parks here.....

That evening we went to the Temple Bar area because you kind of can't not go there when in Dublin. It was semi traumatic because there were crazy people everywhere and kids getting busted(they sort of have a heroin problem there) and the bars were totally claustrophobic. We went into Temple bar and were conned into taking seven euro shots that were basically liquid candy and half mine ended up on Hannahs coat because of some creep trying to show us his tattoo. So pretty much we left there after about thirty minutes and went someplace else where they carded us and the guy didn't believe that my license was real and I had to keep explaining where the birthdate was and then he thought it would be funny to address us with a "how" because we were American and thats where Indians come from. It took me forever to get it.

So anyway, bars in Dublin aren't really my thing but Dublin Dublin is. On Sunday the weather was incredible and sunny for once. We got up early because we wanted to get to Howth Harbor which is north of Dublin a little. So we went and got Christmassy drinks from Starbucks and headed out in the Double Decker. The harbor and our cliff walk was incredible. It made me seriously consider an extended stay in Ireland in the future. We ate a very Irish dinner and headed back prepping for our three a.m. wake up call to find our alcoholic German roommate guys having a party in our room. We felt bad but we kicked them out because we wanted to go to bed. We were annoyed they were partying it up in our room but they were so nice about leaving that I'm still beating myself up about kicking them out.

I'll spare you tales of the return home because it was one long and uncomfortable wait after another with lots of additional costs and annoyances. I was SO HAPPY to get back to my home away from home that I took a bath in celebration. It was amazing.

So Dublin is small and lovely and they wear color and are friendly, things I wish were true of Paris but aren't. Except the lovely part, Paris can be lovely even if the people are cold and wear funeral clothing everyday. But I know and love Paris now too.