...y despues, Dublin!

So Dublin was a blast, BUT my camera died and for some reason didn’t like the Irish batteries so I have about 7 pictures total and they're not even very interesting. I will steal Jackie and Christine’s but for now, a recap of the weekend:

I arrived Thursday early afternoon, but Jackie, Christine and Christine’s friend Ricky weren’t due in until late Thursday night. I felt pretty proud of myself for finding the hostel on my own and I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening roaming around the city. I ate dinner at a cute university pub in Trinity College park and met some Irish students. Made it back to the hostel around 9 or 10 and watched a little TV and met some other travelers. I thought I’d be bored and lonely all day but it actually was kind of relaxing and fun—although I was relieved and excited when my friends walked in!

We spent Friday morning doing the main sightseeing things in Dublin: St. Patrick’s Cathedral (which charged an entry fee so we didn’t go in—how lame for a church to make you pay just to walk inside!), Christ Church Cathedral and we took a tour of Dublin Castle which was helpful because it gave us quite a bit of Irish history as well. We went to the Guinness Storehouse for a self-guided tour. Really cool place, but I absolutely hate beer so after our little sample I used my voucher for a Diet Coke instead of a free pint.

Then we had lunch and did a lot of walking around. Maybe I just didn’t do enough research before the trip but it kind of felt like there wasn’t a whole lot in terms of must-do sightseeing (especially compared to Paris!) Still, it was a great city to walk in—very compact—and I really liked the atmosphere. Also, this is really cool: my Let’s Go tour book said the Irish government recently spent 40 million Euro on a big arts endowment so there were really talented street musicians and performers and painters scattered around the city. We ate dinner in the Temple Bar neighborhood—the trendy, artsy (and kinda touristy) area of Dublin and went to a pub afterwards. I had kind of hoped to hear some live Irish music as advertised…but I think we walked into what seemed to be some kind of American disco hits night. Still fun.

Saturday we hit up Grafton Street—Dublin’s prime shopping area—went back to Trinity for a bit and ended up having a picnic lunch in St. Stephen’s Green. We did a lot of wandering and souvenir shopping (I got the Irish good luck ring I’d wanted for a while) and made it into the National Museum of History for about an hour before it closed. After a delicious Japanese meal it was too early to go back to the hostel but we didn’t want to go out (I had to wake up at 4:30am to leave for the airport!) so we decided to see The Heartbreak Kid. It was…definitely no There’s Something About Mary but it had a few laughs and I miss going to the movies all the time. Dublin was actually a nice break in general—it was great to be able to order food and ask for directions in English. The Irish people in general were also very nice and friendly. When I go back to Ireland someday I’d really like to see more of the country. I’m told there are some great day trips from Dublin in both directions to smaller towns with a lot of character, I’d also love to see where my relatives live!

During my trip I definitely felt like I was still in Europe but Dublin felt more like Chicago than Spain. That being said, walking into my building here in Sevilla after the trip really felt like coming home. Traveling has been great, but I’m excited to stay here this weekend. I’ll definitely have a more productive week when I’m not cramming everything in Monday-Wednesday! Other than my camera and iPod difficulties, life is great. The weather here is still amazing, classes are interesting (but don’t require much work outside the classroom…), the kids I work with on Mondays are crazy but fun, cooking classes start Wednesday and Gloria is probably the best señora ever.

I’ll update sooner next time so it’s not a crazy long post like these two. Congrats if you made it through.