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barnacles
barnaclesm Woke up today at Dylan's (CS) after a great night sleep. They really took good care of us. Had a relaxing morning at their place before heading off to our respective stations for the bus/train ride back to Ole Dublin. To save money, which is pretty difficult in this country, Josh is taking a 10 euro bus back to Dublin and I'll be activating my eurail pass and taking the train home. We'll just rendevous at the hostel around 4:30 if all goes well. Feels damn good to finally activate this eurail pass. It's like having a black card at home or something. Just a lot of power for a silly receipt looking piece of paper. So that's pretty much where we are as of now. Just sitting on my train riding quietly through the countryside as I write this and listen to Bo Diddley. Not a bad place to be at all. Since I have some time here I figure I'll jot down a few observations and pros and cons after being in Ireland for almost a week.
Notes: There are a lot more immigrants here than I expected. I thought the country would be much more homogenously Irish
blow me
blow me but it's like being in NYC. Of course, just like NYC, the majority of these immigrants either operate taxis, work at convenient stores or other undesirable jobs. Quite sad. There are also some quite noticeable generational gaps. If you go back a generation you see the traditional Irish culture you would expect but looking at the teenagers here it's like taking a walk through Williamsburg in Brooklyn or something. Quite a chasm.
Pros: consistent weather (no matter where in the country you are or what day it is it will be 53 degrees and cloudy), pubs with their traditional music, Guinness and the other great brews, hostels haven't been too crowded
Cons: expensive, the weather of course, paying for condiments!, looking the opposite way for cars at intersections and then nearly getting run over (happened wayyyy too many times)
Anyways, to finish off another journal entry Josh and I easily met up at the Barnacles hostel, which is truly a fantastic spot. Good crowd, great facilities and right in the center of the action. Went on a run out to the national rugby/soccer team stadium. This place, which is brand new, appears like an awesome cozy little stadium nestled right in a traditional neighborhood. And when I say that I mean nestled real tightly in there. It's right in these peoples backyards, probably no more than 15 feet from their houses, looks unreal. Back at the hostel we ran into the 4 Americans studying abroad in Salzburg who were supposed to fly out Sunday but thanks to the ash cloud it doesn't look like they will leave till Wednesday, poor fellows. After making a nice pasta carbonara dinner we chilled out in the common room with Amy (U.S.) and Kurt (South Africa), who we hung out with in the kitchen earlier, and watched 'Snatch' (another great movie) before getting to bed fairly early
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