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Published: February 7th 2006
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Guinness
My first Guinness, in a genuine Irish pub, the first of many... "How was Dublin?" you ask. Well, it was great, just watch out for the bikes.
I arrived in Dublin on Monday night, and went pubbing with a girl I met on the bus from Glasgow. Had a few pints, checked out the local music, all that sort of thing. Had a late night, a slow morning, and did the art gallery/poking around town bit in the afternoon. Joel arrived in the evening, my friend went to a music rehearsal, and Joel and I had a quiet evening to be well rested for Wednesday, which we hoped would be a long day on the town and a long night visiting the pubs. It was another slow morning, then in the afternoon we started our tour of the city. We went to the Guinness Brewery, did the big tour of it, ending in a pint at the top of the tower with a 360 degree view of Dublin. It was nice, we relaxed, got to just chat for a bit. Joel didn't like Guinness so I got his pint 😊 Then we took off, I can't remember specifically what else we did but there was a fair bit of wandering involved.
Museum Courtyard
The courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art. The building was originally a hospital, a couple hundred years ago. Here's where the story gets interesting (pun intended? I'm not sure). Around 7pm or so we were crossing a street, even with the right lights I think, Joel was a bit ahead of me and as I walked out onto the street I was hit by a person riding a bike. I don't remember any of this but this is what I'm told. We landed in a big crumpled heap; the biker was okay, and I was conscious initially, but I had a mild concussion and was out cold for a couple minutes. The ambulance came in about 5 minutes, we got to the hospital in another 5 minutes, I was sort of drifting in and out. In about half an hour they took me to do xrays, which took about 25 minutes or so, and after that I actually start remembering everything. A couple doctors came to check on me, my shoulder was really hurting so they were examining that (they'd already xrayed and nothing was broken). They also checked my neck, and the cut on my forehead. I had a bit of a gash, but not that big, it only took 2 stitches to hold it
Castle Chapel
In the chapel(/church?) at Dublin Castle closed so the scar wouldn't be too big. It's just to the left of my left eyebrow, and down a cm or so.
It wasn't til around 10 or so when they moved me into an obervation ward for the night, and I finally got food nearer to 11pm, then Joel left after 11. I had a rough night trying to sleep; every time I tried relaxing my left shoulder (which had gotten pretty banged up in the fall) it would start twitching sort of and felt like a nerve was being pinched. Not comfortable, to say the least. At 7am they turned on the lights in the room, and brought in breakfast before 8am, yay for porridge that tastes like it was made with liquid glue. I fell asleep again after breakfast, Joel came around 9:15, I was asleep til about 9:30, and apparently the doctor came in just after 9 and because I was asleep he decided to come back after lunch. Joel stayed for the morning, we played card games and tricks and read books. I was finally allowed to leave around 2pm, with warnings not to drink anything, and that I'd probably have some
Castle Chapel
In the chapel(/church?) at Dublin Castle post-concussion symptoms for a couple days, such as tiredness, dizziness and loss of concentration. I didn't have the dizziness, the loss of concentration wasn't very apparent at first but the tiredness really got to me.
That was Thursday, which was also Joel's last day in Dublin. He was going to the airport that night because his flight left very early Friday morning, too early for the buses to be running yet. We decided to take it easy in the afternoon, made a yummy dinner, then went to a literary pub crawl. It was led by two actors who performed parts of plays and books, and tied it all into a sort of history lesson about the literary masters who lived in the Dublin area. It was interesting, very chill and relaxed, and also fun. I figured we were the only sober people in Dublin going on a pub crawl and drinking fruit juice all night.
Joel took off before midnight, and I went right to sleep and didn't wake up til around noon the next day. That's when I really noticed the tiredness thing. So after 12 hours sleep, and I could have easily made it
Castle Chapel
In the chapel(/church?) at Dublin Castle more, I got up and bought some breakfast, went to the post office, came back to the hostel and relaxed in the common room. around 5pm I fell asleep on the couch. After 12 hours sleep, and 5 hours awake, I was ready for a nap. Says something about how I was doing, eh? I woke up and did squat all for a while, then was bored so around 7:30-8ish I decided to go to the airport. My plane left really early in the morning, like Joels, so I had to go to the airpor the night before. I tried sleeping in the airport but I had a hard time with it because I get nervous that I'm going to sleep through my departure time.
So I got 2-3 hours sleep at the airport, caught my plane, got to Charleroi in Belgium and realised that NO ONE in southern Belgium speaks English. At least the people who do completely escaped me. It's been several years since I've studied french, so that was no help, but it all worked out becuase I have a good understanding of the "mime" dialect. Figured out how to buy my ticket, found the
Big Blue Sky
Lying on my back in the park/field in front of Dublin Castle platform, trains took a couple hours, and finally I was in Maastricht. I couldn't beleive how NICE it felt to be back. Just to walk off the train onto the platform and know exactly where I was going, and knowing that I could relax and sleep and not worry about my stuff being stolen or missing any trains or planes or anything... just relax... it felt so good. I would have run all the way to the house if I wasn't completely exhausted.
So that's that... I will post more later. Things are good at the house. Sorry this post took so long, just been relaxing and recharging. I'm going to have such a cool scar! The bruises look like I've been beaten around the head with a baseball bat though, not so attractive. Anyways, more later. Take care everyone, miss you all and see you very soon!
going to make some wacky cake, mmm mmmm
~Bev
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Auntie Bo
non-member comment
enjoy!
Have really enjoyed your journal! You should go into writing/photography and then you could live anywhere in the world! Sounds like you are having an awesome time but so sorry to hear about the bike accident. In Ireland it could have been a lot worse!! Gotta remember to look in the other direction when in those European countries!! Enjoy and have a great rest of your adventure. Looking forward to your next segment. Love Auntie Bo