Dublin - top o' the morning to ya laddy!

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...I have since been firmly told by Emmet that they do not actually say that sentence in my title. My whole image of the Irish shattered slightly.

So, getting into the arrival section of the Dublin airport after an exhausting 24 hours, I see right away a familiar face! Happily I run and give a big hug of relief to Emmet and Kat.
FINALLY i had arrived.

At 8AM, i pass out @ Emmet's house. In the guest room, i share a extremely comfortable double bed with Michelle.
I'm out till 12 noon.
Much needed rest.

Emmet, Kat, and Mary (Emmet's mom), are 3 of the most hospitable ppl i know. With a "what's mine is yours" attitude, i actually had to grow used to not asking whenever i took something to eat!
(i also had to grow used to leaving my shoes on indoors - ...they don't take their shoes off indoors!! what!? unheard of! ...yes folks, even on CARPET! gasp.)

After staying in hostels for 2 weeks, staying in a proper family home was a breathe of fresh air! It was great just sitting around a kitchen table and relaxing over tea!

After a quick lunch, we head out to take the Dart (Ireland's train system - which is like the subway but overground), into the city center.
Now, Dublin weather is schizophrenic. one moment it's pouring rain, while a few minutes later it could be nice and sunny with not a cloud in sight! When emmet first picked me up, it was raining hard, causing emmet to panic about the upcoming weekend weather, but after my nap, it was beautiful! so sunny! which reminds me, Dublin's summers begin on May 1st, and end in August. And during this "summer" weekend, i never took off my coat outside even once, and the heat was turned on @ emmet's house.
...awesome summers.

In the city center, we saw the "Spire". A needle-like metal projection that shot upwards towards the sky. As tour-guide Emmet informed me, it was built to replace a monument that commemorated an English general, Nelson. This monument was blown up by the IRA because Nelson helped the British, and of course, the Irish hate the British.
Apparently many Dublin-ers dislike the Spire, i absolutely adored it!
It's so different, and it looks so surreal when you look up at it, seeing it surrounded by fog!

We then walked around the many streets. Two main ones being, O'Connell and Henry Street. The large streets were closed off for pedestrians, and many were nicely cobblestoned.
Michelle and I, still accustomed to dodging and diving while on Greek streets, hesitantly stroll carefully on these Irish streets.
We stop and shop @ Penney's (a subshop of Primark - the cheapest clothing/accessory ever.), then head to Butler's Cafe - a famous Irish chocolate and coffee company. And i will admit, the chocolate truffles were delicious!
Sitting there eating chocolate truffles and drinking mochas was wonderous! did nothing for my weight. but who cares? i've travelling!
With flavours like mango and latte, there was no way i coudl resist!
I went to buy 2 to eat, but after talking to the Brazillian storeclerk, Roberto, i iended up getting 2 free ones! the latte one (his favourite apparently), and one that's shaped as a heart! so nice!
definitely, melt-in-your-mouth chocolates!
we then heaed to the famous Guinness Brewery. Now, i don't drink Guinness at all, but the others were enthusiastic, so i mocked excitement and tagged along!
We were joined by Emmet and Kat's friends, Charlene and Brendan (Char + Bren).

At the Guinness Brewery, i learned:
- that Guinness is made of 5 ingredients: yeast, hops (a type of plant??), barley and water (the purest form apparently! =O), and "passion and hardwork". nice.
- Guinness was created by Arthur Guinness.
- Who also created the Guinness Book of World Records! oooo, bet u never made THAT connection!
- I also learned the process of how to create it, but have since completely forgotten it. Facts are wasted on me.
- I don't like Guinness.
- The nitrogen gas in the Guinness creates the foam. ooo ahh.
- How to pour my own Guinness from the tap. 45 degree angle baby!
- i REALLLLY don't like Guinness, and can only handle a couple of small sips, and no matter how many free samples i am given. ...no.

At the top of the brewery , there is a 360 degree view of the city,b ut unfortunately, being rainy, we didn't get to see much.

For food, we later headed to a genuine Irish pub, the Brazen Head. The oldest pub in Dublin. Opened in the 1100s, it had an "authentic Irish Pub feel", as i was told.
Complete with fireplace and all.
Looking at the menu, i find that Dublin is the most expensive city ive ever been to!
Our Irish companions were happily exclaiming how cheap the food in the pub was - so excitedly I look at the menu, and my jaw drops. I am shocked by what i see!
Main course meals for 10-12 euros average! I don't even spend $12 CANADIAN on pub..or even restaurant food! And the euro = 1.5 CAD!
The cheapass in me cries a little.

But Michelle and i were eager to try authentic Irish food, so she had boiled bacon and cabbage, and me, a beef and Guinness stew.
Surprisingly, though i cannot DRINK Guinness, i can eat it in stew form, and mixed with meat. mmm..they were both delish!
We washed it down with an Irish cider - Baulmer's (it was okay...), while our irish friends had, what else? Guinness.

We then walked along the River Liffy (which separates the Northern part of Dublin from the Southern, posher, area). And it was then I learned about Emmet's fear of bridges.
Kat pointed out to us Dublin's only skyscraper. An extremely out-of-place 14-story office building.
To be frank. it's ugly.
very out of place as the rest of Dublin had small, old-architecture type buildings.
It was just funny to think that THAT was the only "skyscraper" in Dublin, whereas that "skyscraper" would be dwarfed by all the grander business buildings in the heart of downtown Toronto!

We then walked along Temple Bar (no. not an actual bar), the popular bar/pub/tourist street. It was beautiful at night! With small pedestrian roads and no traffic, and at every corner, a lively, brightly lit pub was found! All of which held a t ypical irish name, "Murphy's", "O'Grady's", "O'Shea's", it's awesome.
I sort of wish China had pubs that were named after typical CHINESE names.
"Ming's" "Chung's" "Wing Wong's" - hm probably wouldn't be as cool.
we're just not the coolest race.

So pubs to Dublin are like Starbucks AND Timmy's combined to Toronto. There's one wherever you go! If you don't like one, you run across the street to another!
From inside the pubs, we hear the Irish-jib, celtic music spilling into the streets.
Emmet and Kat crine in disgust, saying that along with the notion of leprechauns, the actual Irish people despise that type of music.

It is then when i sadly give up hope of seeing my very own leprechaun.

TAN WATCH:
after cloudy London, then a whole day spent in various airports and transportation systems, then rainy ireland, my tan has FINALLY at long last, evened out.
now i am just a solid shade of feces-brown.
i look like a female, shaven, Russel Peters.
SCORE.

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MAY 18

We wake up today to what the Irish call a "fry".
Meaning lots of oven-baked meat! Emmet and Kat had made: sausages, rashers (Irish bacon - similar to Cnadian bacon but less fatty and thinner), white pudding (parts of a pig grinded up, mixed with oats and spices, and packed together in pig skin to look like a sausage), AND blood/black pudding (white budding + pig's blood).
Heart attack central!

But it was DELICIOUS! Surprisingly, i loved the blood pudding! It tasted like oatmeal cakes - you can't even taste the blood. this was a pleasant surprise, as when i first heard about blood pudding, i seriously thought blood would be squishing out once i took a bite. mm mm.
Along with toast, boiled eggs, and irish tea, we were full to the brim, and many a top buttons had to be undone.

After a nice rest of the stomach, and accompanying slothishness (made up word), Kat and Emmet pack a bunch of apples and chocolate bars, and we get into Kat's car to head to New Grange. A tomb site apparently older than the pyramids.

Long story short, it takes us a couple hours of driving (because the signage in Ireland is crap. and half the time, road signs are hidden, or plain do not exist) and the directions of 7 different people (one of which we met in a secluded, dirt path, between tall grass - who, the first thing he says when he meets us, "you ever see the film, "The Hitchers", when the hitchhiker kills a car full of people?" - i half laugh in confused nervous giggles, and half prep myself to run out fo the car screaming bloody murder.)
In the c ar, Michelle and I amuse ourselves with eating pretty much all the chocolate that was packed (the apples went untouched by me. obviously.). Chocolate in Dublin is amazing! So many different kinds!
We also entertained ourselves by continually placing bets on when Emmet and Kat would finally blow up on teach other. Impressively, that time did not come.

Side note: if there are any signs found in Ireland, they are written in English AND Irish (Gaelic). So cool seeing the 2 languages. Apparently Gaelic is a required course for all Irish students until high school grad. Despite this, Emmet still lacks Gaelic finesse.

Despite the long ride, it was fun seeing the backstreets and the little towns of Ireland. We passed by one called Finglas, many-a-time. Finglas being the projects of Ireland. Like the tourist i am, i still think it's an awesome place, and take pictures.
"oooohh ahh, baddies and coke-addicts" *SNAP*.

When we finally got to New Grange, in relief we head in to find the last tour over, and no entry into New Grange! Arg! We did get to see the blinding green grass, grazing sheep (more of those than ppl actually living in Ireland) and the rolling country side, all in good sunny weather surprsingly!
We go back into Dublin to see Trinity College, and of course, it starts to rain. Schizo i tell you!

Trinity College = a beautiful closed campus college in Dublin that Kat attended.
We then shopped at a very greenly decorated souvenir shop.

Due to the rain, it was impossible to see any more sights, so after getting some fish and chips, we head back home with a 4:30Am wakeup call. We spend the evening chatting and watching Emmet's film production (NOTE: Youtube: Renegade Force 1, and yes, Renegade Force 2!).
And with that, we slept.

4.5 hours later..........

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May 19

We head home.
After hugging a half asleep Kat, and Emmet goodbye, we take off.
It was great staying in Dublin!
Kat, Emmet and Mary made Michelle and I completely at home, and they were so kind to take us around and show us what real Irish culture is like.
(leprechauns, pots of gold, jigging drunk Irish tap dancing on tables...sadly. not part of it.)

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