Day Two: Dublin

Sum up (until I get warmed up with details):

Took the red eye flight from New York City (watched someone shoot off some big fireworks off the docks as we flew away).

Landed in Dublin almost an hour ahead of schedule. 

Had breakfast (the rest of my muffin and banana I bought for dinner the night before) in the Dublin airport. 

Got all of my remaining cash converted into euros, since I still had quite a bit in my pockets. 

Successfully found the correct bus that would take us to the right street. 

Went on the craziest drive of my whole life! I've been trying to imagine for months now how things would look and feel when everyone was driving on the opposite side of the street, but I was still very much weirded out. Our bus driver was a little ornery, but he had a lead foot like nothing ive ever seen, so our first right turn in a busy intersection felt wrong on about four different levels (maybe because I think he ran the red). 

I learned very quickly that the Irish really like I spy games, as all the street name signs were muted and hidden under scattered windowsills, at the base of drainpipes, and yes, even under plants and flowers. Needless to say, I started to get worried about getting off at the correct street. Fortunately, a girl sitting just in front of us was awesome. When we asked her if she knew where O'Connell street was, she said that she did, as that was the stop she was also getting off at. 

We all got off about twenty minutes later onto the darling cobblestone sidewalks that connect all of Dublin. It had started raining agin, but this was not as warm as the rain was in New York, and now we were hauling all our stuff. We walked about a half mile in the rain, a little less enthusiastically than the day before, until we reached our hostel. 

As soon as we set foot inside Abigail's hostel, we were warmly greeted by three of our fellow group members: Josie, Abby, and Theresa, who had arrived no more than five minutes before us. This was a very welcome, very comforting sight indeed. 

We stayed there long enough to put our things in a locker, change our clothes, and grab new jackets before we left the hostel to go walk around beautiful Dublin. 

My two favorite parts of the town are the cute tiny cobblestone roads, sidewalks, and gutters, as well as the darling buildings (most of them pubs, obviously). There was just so much intricate architecture; brightly painted exteriors, flags, streamers, fancy lettering, and stone cravings. 

We went to Temple Bar for a lunch of fish and chips, tomato carrot soup, and delicious WATER. Despite being too overpriced, the fish and chips were pretty dang good, but the mint mashed peas they served with it were super nasty, and that's coming from a very non-picky person. 

After lunch we walked over to the trinity college, a gorgeous campus that houses the original book of Kells, though for a massive fee we were unwilling to pay. But we took plenty of pictures while we walked around the beautiful old buildings and statues. After stopping at a few gift and book shops, we headed home to the hostel. I didn't want to go inside, but I wanted to organize my things more,now that I had my suitcase in my possession again for the first time in a few days. 

After I got things organized and in their proper places, we all accidentally fell asleep for about an hour and a half. I didn't realize how tired I really was until I laid down, and then I was out cold. This was kind of a bummer actually, because I hate wasting time sleeping when there are more fun things I could be doing. Plus I was excited that the major time difference changes seemed to not affect me like it was for my companions. 

After we woke up, we talked and goofed around for a while, then got suited back up to walk in the rain again. We walked down the lane to the nearest shopping mart, where I picked up some delicious looking bagels for a few pounds that I intend to eat for breakfast the next few days. Much to my great delight, i also found a whole section of Digestibles!!! (English tea cookies that I discovered about a year back, thanks to some friends who have lived in England who have exquisite taste in munchies.) I also saw that they had shelves of cartons of QUAIL EGGS! They were these beautiful tan and black speckled tiny eggs that I guess people prepare and eat like we would with chicken eggs, but these were so little! I thought they were so darling! 

We also picked up some cheap frozen pizzas to split for our dinner back at the hostel, as well as some never-before-tried candy bars. 

I got looking at the movies that they were selling there, hoping I could find some fun movie to watch from Ireland, but I was horrified to find that they wanted 8 euros for a copy of Bambi! Thats almost $15! Crazy Irish. 

We went back to Abigails and I made our three-pizza dinner (mostly to get out of dishes duty). While we were eating, I posted the typed entries that I had written so far into my blog and invited Mom, Dad, and Greg. 

At this time, Theresa and Abby ran over to our table as they came down from our room. They excitedly told me that the last spot in our six-girl room had been filled! The new girls name was Stephanie, she was from Australia, had been traveling the world over, and...she was a pro Celtic fiddler....and she had her violin with her. 

......

Seriously?!??!

How perfect is that?! As I started packing up my things to go up and say hello, they told me that she was taking a bath now. So I decided to finish writing and chat with Lydia and Josie some more. 

We swapped some of our munchies, my personal favorite being a chocolate bar Josie picked up called an Aero bar (its pieces of chocolate, but its been filled with hundreds of tight bubbles, so the consistency is crazy, because its not crunchy at all). Lydia and Abby really liked a bar they picked up called a Cruncho. To me it tasted like a cross between a butterfinger and a chocolate covered cruncy toffee thing. 

When we finished up and went to the room, our new roommate was gone, so I took a very much looked-forward-to shower. After traveling for two solid days in the rain, it felt lovely to get cleaned up and wash my hair. The hair dryer was a little on the weak side of the spectrum, so I mostly dried my hair, but then put it up to dry in a bun so it would be wavy the following morning. 

When I got out, I hopped back up on my bed which had such an absolutely adorable view of Dublin and the river that lead to the port.  While I was blissfully soaking up the sights of Dublin, a knock on the door announced the return of our final roommate. 

We excitedly opened the door and let Abby, Theresa, and Stephanie into the room. I hopped down from my bed as I was introduced and, because Abs and Theresa had told her about my music background, the two of us had our instruments out with a book of Irish violin reels on a suitcase that doubled as a midgets music stand. We swapped techniques, songs, places to play, and places we should go. It was awesome! I learned so many tricks and tips to ornamenting the raw sheetmusic  so that it actually sounds Celtic. Basically, the big message was to make it messy. :) 

After we played for a few hours, which I am happy to say the people upstairs reminded me to record, she jotted down a few Celtic fiddle festivals happening in Scotland during the time that I would be here, and then we all got ready for bed. After we chatted for about another half hour about the crazy stuff girls who get along usually do, we fell asleep to the sound of busy, bustling, crazy Dublin.