Dublin

It's an 'Ard Decision...

17th August, Dublin Hostel.

.... my pen ran out so that entry didn't happen...

19th August, Aer Lingus flight.

Right now I'm flying over Spain and it would be easy to mistake it for Australia. Dry (unlike Ireland), brown (unlike Ireland) and it looks pretty warm down there (once again, unlike Ireland). The sun is setting on the other side of the bright green plane and I scored the window seat... again. Even if its on the boring side.

Sooo, Dublin. On our first day in the city we waited in the cold for the NewEurope Dublin free walking tour to begin. The tour began, it rained lightly and we froze the whole time. Fantastic. The tour was rather good though. We saw Dublin castle, a garden, Ha' Penny Bridge, Trinity College and St Stephens square. Along the way to these things we also witnessed The Millennium Spire, River Liffey and O'Connell st

After tipping 5 euro we went to the most magical place in Dublin... The Leprechaun Museum. Twas awesome indeed! Ireland is amazing, truly, they have fairy trees which are brightly decorated and you can't cut them down. Also they have fairy hills which you cant walk over and roads are even built around them. In the museum however, we got to sit on giant furniture so we were the same size as Leprechauns and we listened about them and so on. It really was a 10 Euro tourist trap but it was so fun and I now have a Lucky Leprechaun coin! Beat that, kids, beat that.

After lunch we went to St Patricks Cathedral. It was nice and had lots of Shamrocks about. Actually Dublin is very cute. The street lights all have designs on them which include shamrocks. Another interesting thing is that all the sings in Ireland (not Northern Ireland) have Gaelic on them before English. (Bit of turbulence now).

On our 2nd day in Dublin we caught the Dart (a train with green seat material) to Dun Laoghaire.
Sound familiar? Yes, it's where Gerry from P.s. I Love You came from. And the people here were as crazy as him. On the sunny but sometimes rainy yet always windy day, they were swimming. With the Jellyfish. I was wearing jeans and my infamous Belfast hoodie with kids in swimmers running around me. I've gotton old. We just walked along the coast as it's quite a nice fishing town.
We caught the green train back to Dublin in the arvo then did a quick museum visit to where they were exhibiting parts of the bible from 150AD. Admittedly that was really interesting, especially on how such a tiny fragile piece of papyrus was preserved. Begrudgingly we went back to the hostel. We didn't really like this one as it had an awkward set out and the people in our room were crazy. Besides Ken, a 5th grade teacher with tattoos from New Mexico.

3rd day in Dublin we got back on the Dart and went north to Howth (hoth). Why? Because they said there would be seals. And seals there were. Once in particular I named Benny. He was fat. As in, all you could see of him was his fat rolls (neck) and eyes and nose poking out of the water.
Like it did everyday we were in Ireland it rained and was so cold then warm and sunny within a half hour period. After watching some kids throw Benny some fish we began to walk up the huge hill of Howth. A short while after the 16th Century Abbey ruins we decided to turn into a street which was suppose to lead to the cliff walk.

We got to the end of the Cul De Sac and admired the view with the sad thought that we had walked all the way down the wrong street. A couple of steps to the left and there it was, the pathway to the trail. We walked through what looked like a compost bin but there was a slight pathway. Then so randomly this electrician pops out of the bushes on his phone and walks straight past us as if it was normal to see two people in a compost bin thing. We decided to follow. Soon enough we were back on the road with some proper direction. We applied some pawpaw cream to the odd bumps and itches we developed and continued on.

(Just touched down in Barcelona). So we made it to the top of the hill which in the end was actually very beautiful. We took some weird pictures using the self timer, were attacked by flying ants, then made our way down again for some warm chips.

While Michelle was in the shop before we left on the green train she heard these 2 boys looking at the ice creams and then one said in the thickest Irish accent "Its a hard decision" So funny and that's been our little phrase from then on. That night we went out to the Temple Bar and I had my first Guinness. Was gross but I wanted to try it in Ireland and I did and never again.

Today was a bit dodge. We were recommended to go out to Bray and catch a bus to the Lake District that had a funny name I can't remember. So I cancelled my hair appointment and we went. The bus time ended up colliding with our flight times and that was that. Went back to Dublin, looked in Zara, brought a big winter hat, posted in back to Germany and that was Ireland.