Dublin

From Galway we caught a bus to the Dublin Airport. Another part of our traveling cheaply involved sleeping at the airport when appropriate. We got to the airport around 10, had some food and tried to find a nice place to lay our bodies. This part didn’t work out so well. In most airports there is at least a sitting area, that at night turns into a sleeping area…in Dublin this is not the case. We found a spot where we were led to believe no one would bother us, and fell asleep for maybe an hour. Then we saw a booth at the food court open and dived into that. I fell asleep for about 2 or 3 hours, but Ivana stayed up the whole time. At 3 in morning the airport became full of people flying out and it continued like this until I left at 9. Ivana and I said goodbye and we watched each other as she walked through security…

I made plans to meet with KT and Brenna that day, because they decided to come back to Dublin. I left the airport and went to St. Stephens Green, a major park in Dublin just at the end of Grafton St (a promenade for shopping and street musicians).

I arrived really early, but had all my stuff so I figured I’d just spend my time sitting in the park. And I lucked out because it was one of the nicest days I’d seen in Ireland. Mostly it rains here…all year long. At least back home we have 2 or 3 months of summer, but here in Ireland it feels like it is permanently in November. I sat on the grass and read until KT and Brenna arrived.

We were all going to be couch surfing with an Irish guy named Brian. He told us he had exams on Monday and wouldn’t be able to do much because he had to study, but he wanted to help. Then as we sat and watch some things about the history of Ireland and Irish pop culture. As we watched people kept coming in with 6 packs of beer and then without any of us know how or why, it turned into a small party. There were about 10 people in the house…and I don’t remember most of their names. Two were the house mates of Brian, Pauric and Aiden, and others were Amen and Peter (he being Brian’s brother).

Then we all went out to a pub. It was 12 am by this time…and as I had talked about before, I didn’t sleep much the day before. Luckily by this time I was completely cured of my illness, but I was so drained that I was running on the last amount of energy I had. We went to a bar in the center and danced until closing time (3 am).

When we left the bar we needed to get a taxi back. “We won’t get in one until we find a Mercedes,” said Brian. “Because they will all be the same price so we might as well travel in style.” We found a Mercedes a block or two away and rode home.

I figured when we got back we’d call it a night, but people were still at Brian’s house and there was still beer. I had enough and sat on the couch, passing out for 20 minutes at a time and waking to find people still awake and in the living room (where we were sleeping). Eventually I fell asleep for an hour or two. When I woke up, I was sure it was still 6 or something…I had lost all track of time since I left Ivana at the airport. 1) because I no longer had a cell phone to check the time 2) I was still sad from leaving Ivana. Aiden pulled back the blinds revealing the light and said, “I can’t believe it’s 9 already.” I almost died, but before I could react Peter and Amen came into the room (they had left last night before we even went to the pubs). “Who wants to go to a traditional Latin mass?” asked Peter. Brenna hadn’t got any sleep and was hardly comprehendible at this point, so she stayed while KT and I said we’d go. So Peter, Amen, KT and I went to a Latin Catholic mass.

We got some tea at a place before heading into the church and then we found our seats and waited. It started right away with hymns. All in Latin and all in the old style. The priest did all of the things with his back turned to us and didn’t care if there was an audience at all, he would mumble prayers to himself. We say songs in Latin and prayed in Latin for about 20 minutes, occasionally sitting, kneeling and standing—it was a bit of a work out, but mostly just strange…I could never gauge when we would need to sit or kneel or stand it seemed improvised…but I don’t know by who, we didn’t receive instructions. They had the ball that smoked and wore the typical robes, green being the most popular color for obvious reasons.

After he was done with the preparing rituals he came up to his pulpit and gave a sermon. The sermon was bit preachy, and not as interesting as the rest, but then he stepped down and we did some more singing. The songs were mostly in chant style, though they had a few with counter melodies. Then we did communion. I didn’t go up and take any, but what you would do is go up to the front rows, get on your knees and wait to be hand fed a cracker that was dipped in wine.

After mass we went out to have a bit of grub. We got eggs benedict and it was needed. We had a bit of pasta the night before but mostly I had not eaten the day before. Peter flirted with the waitress and Amen and I talked about random things. KT and I talked about how we thought Brian and his friends to be kind of weird, but how we liked Amen. Peter was bit too perverted, but still mostly nice. Our tastes didn’t go well with Brian’s but it was a free place and we could tell him we wanted to sleep and I think he would let us.

Then the two took us to Trinity College, the most famous university in Ireland and one of the oldest (if not). Inside the college is the Book of Kells, one of the oldest illustrated Irish Bibles. Because both Amen and Peter had been to Trinity they could get us in for free to see the book and the Long Hall, which is the oldest library in college, and quite a sight…but no pictures allowed. The hall has three of four floors all open from the bottom and there are thousands of books on hundreds of shelves. “I hope this is heaven,” said KT.

Then it was already half past two, so we decided to go back to Brian’s. Peter told me if I wanted some books he had a bunch under the stairs and I could take as much as I please…and I did. Then they all left and we just sat around the rest of the day, trying to recover. We walked to the store bought some pizza and continued to relax until we all fell asleep around 10.

The next day we woke around 9 and got into town around noon. We sat for some lunch and then KT and Brenna took me to the sights they remembered. They had been to Dublin three times on this trip now. They had been other places of course, but they flew into Dublin then roamed around, then back to Dublin to get other places in Ireland and then had to fly out of Dublin, and thus the return.

The buildings in Dublin appear to all be Georgian. I’m not sure exactly what separates Georgian from the rest, but most are made of red or light brown brick and have symmetrical windows and a big painted wooden door. It makes the city look attractive on its own.

After eating we went around the town. We stopped at a comic book shop, a record store and a book shop (of course). Then we walked to a few cathedrals, saw the typical tourist junk, then just kind of got lost in the city. We then went for a coffee and to escape from the sudden down pour. We sat in the café for about two hours before realizing the time, and decided to go back home.

We stopped off at the shop before coming to Brian’s with the intention of making dinner. We were going to have spaghetti. We cooked and had some beers, listening to music and cleaning the kitchen (it had to be done and they didn’t look like they would any time soon). We sat and watched some movies drank some beer and then retired for the night.

We woke and got all of our things packed up. Said goodbye and made way for town. We ate a big breakfast for cheap at some place just off center, then caught a taxi to the hotel Brenna and KT had booked. We were so exhausted that when we got to the hotel we just sat and watched movies until we passed out. They left for home early the next morning. I said goodbye to them at the airport went to a hostel in Dublin and decided to write all the well needed updates of my travel blog. I made time to see Oscar Wilde’s statue in the park, but mainly kept to myself. The next day I was finally the one being dropped off at the airport.

I was really looking forward to returning home after such a long, but successful trip.

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Part of trip: Europe Trip 2

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