Yesterday was amazing. I didn't have the opportunity to write last night (the 4th) because I had no time in the evening.
I started off the day with a great little sandwich for only 3 Euro and a phone call back home. From there I got ready to head out to tour Trinity College (tour and book of Kells), Grafton st/shopping district, lunch at Havana, and the Guinness brewery tour. When I arrived at Trinity I bought my ticket for the tour, which included a ticket into the museum of the Book of Kells. Then tour was short, although gave me good little overview of the college. Unfortunately, the whole tour group went under the bell. I was a little nervous, but when I asked the guide if I will get my degree, he told me that the bell has to be ringing, but almost every undergrad avoids it if at all possible. lol. When the tour was over I headed into the Book of Kells exhibit. It was simply AMAZING! Just unfathomable. It was really hard to put into perspective what 12,000 years ago really is. This manuscript is suspected to be written in 800 A.D. by the Catholic monks of Ireland. From the exhibit I went on to "the long room" of the old library. It too was amazing and a spectacular site. It is some 400 meters in length and all the old books are arranged not by alphabetic order, but size of the book. All the big books on the bottom of the shelves, and all the small ones on top, only accessible by skinny ladders. At the end of the tour I got some post cards, which some of you may be getting :) and a Trinity Rugby ball.
From Trinity I headed south on Grafton st., window shopping and people watching. I took some photos but didn't buy anything. I heard that Dublin just got their first Starbucks. It was very cool to see it. Cool to know that Starbucks started in my home town. At the end of my walk and closer to the Hostel, I had a couple tapas at Havana. Had a great cup of tomato soup and a ham quesadilla. I made it back to the Hostel with little time to make a few phone calls. I was exhausted after being on my feet all day. I really wanted to take a nap, but I had already paid for the Guinness brewery tour. i am glad I had, because it was totally worth the 2 Euro Redbull to keep me awake through it. The view from the top of the warehouse at Gravity Bar was so spectacular! It is one of the tallest buildings in Dublin. -there are a bunch of Spanish kids cooking lunch right now and it smells sooooooo good!!- I bought a souvenir Guinness t-shirt and we were on our way back. So I thought. After we got off the bus, the person that took us on the trip, who works at the hostel, took us across the Liffy River to some bar that was connected to a hotel. This bar is known for their free Irish dance and music show. We had two tables waiting for the group when we got there. We just needed to buy a pint if we wanted to watch the show . .. . . . .NO problem, serve me up a Guinness! haha. The dancing was great and the women were beautiful ;) Not one of them had red hair though. Well one guy did. Reminded me of a tall David. haha.
I met 2 Italian couples who loved that I am from Seattle because they love live music and know Seattle's great music scene. I told them to come visit any time. They live on the eastern coast of the Heel of the boot of Italy. I forget what the region is called. They were telling me all about the beautiful views and refreshing ocean. I was talked to one of the couples and the guy told me that his family owns a corporation of Hotels in Italy and that if I come to their home town I can stay for free of charge. All this time he was telling me this the guy from the other couple was not paying attention and later in conversation, he started telling me about his friends hotel. He told me (thick Italian accent), "This guy owns the most Beautiful hotel in my entire region in Italy!! It is soooo Beautiful!" When he was done telling me this he exchanged a look with his friend, looking for affirmation to tell me I could stay there. lol. Little did he know. I looked at him and told him, "That's what I heard. He told me I could stay there for free."
his response while throwing his hands into the air was, "OOHHHH MYYY, Are you serious!? . . . it is the best hotel in all of my region...you are sooooo lucky!! It is so beautiful."
This got me really excited and I told them I will try and make it down there. Maybe skip Florence and hit Rome then over there, instead.
After the show I headed back to the hostel quick to change and then meet up with my new Italian friends at 12:30am at Temple Bar in Temple Bar district. Kaycee and I headed out there to meet up with them, but were a little late getting there and could not find them. After walking around for a bit and checking out different spots and getting stuck in a bunch of random different conversations, we stumbled into a loud and crowded pub. The majority of the population was retired old men. lol But these guys loved the music that was playing. Old American Music with some Irish tunes as well. It was so cool to see the whole pub with glasses in the air chanting the words to a familiar song. I had a few beers, but was too busy enjoying the crowd and talking to some Brits that were over from Manchester to watch their football team slaughter the local Irish team. Kaycee all the while is making conversation with all the old men. lol. When she was tired of getting hit on and violated by all the old men, we headed home.
Today I have loaded my pictures and I need to figure out my itinerary for tomorrow so I can make it over to England. I plan on taking a foot tour around town or maybe finding something else to do. Head into a pub for lunch and a beer before hitting it hard tonight. Thursday night is the night the Hostel takes whoever wants to go on a Pub Crawl. It only costs 10Euro and from 7:30-8 at the first pub, it is all you can drink. Then crawl to 3 other pubs and end at a night club surrounded by people who are all heading home to the same place, which apparently is a good thing at the end of this night. lol. I am looking forward to it. I am loving Ireland and Dublin thus far. I am having a great time. All the people and staff here are so friendly! Talk to you all soon.
Check out my Dublin Photos here at http://picasaweb.google.com/kurthaisch
Cheers
No comments:
Post a Comment