Whoa: CITY?

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So what's the meaning of this? A trip to Dublin was what came about.

An old pal of mine from high school by the name of Scott Evans has been studying in Alicante, Spain and notified me he would like to do a trip to Ireland on St. Pattys. I highly insisted we should go to Galway, and even found hostels etc. A week later in my inbox was a message that Mr. Evans had booked a room at the "The hotel is Hilton Dublin Hotel, Northern Cross, Malahide Rd., Dublin D17 Ireland". Seemed a bit out of my range considering I had been enjoying spider infested 1 Euro a night rooms in Dharmasala not all to recently. I wanting an excuse to get out of Dingle for a little while decided to take this vacation to the most jammed packed holiday event in Ireland, not really realizing the meaning.

I planned to leave Dingle the morning on the 15th(17th being the holiday) and find my way to Dublin that day(oppisite side of the world in respects to Ireland). I fell asleep snuggly on the 14th with a clear starry sky, no wind strangely, and hopes of a good morning. The hopes were soon dashed when I woke up to see only grey, water pelleting the window, and the wind I will speak not of for god's sake. I had trouble getting out of bed seeing this but managed to pull myself together, put a trash bag over my ruck sack and finally head out of the door, and luckily sprinkles were only falling at that time. Walking halfway to the main road, I was stricken by the thought that I was doing a 4 day vacation with a loaded rucksack bigger than myself. I turned back swiftly homewards, changed out my bags, taking my Camelbak, a plastic bag with essential items and whatever that entailed.
Back on the road again I stood out in front of a driveway where the bus occasionally stops if the bus driver is merciful, and going the Irish way I stuck my hitchhike thumb out. It took sometime but eventually a stationwagon got me, driven by a German fellow commuting to Killarney. That got me half way out of the Peninsula and still in the rain. Luckily my next hitch was quicker than the hare we ate in February and got me out of the area in no time to Tralee, where on the long walk to the north exit of town a squall hit causing all the people on the street to run inside. I kept walking for some reason. Once the squall passed and I reached a stretch of road, the weather cleared up and although it was cloudy I could take off my rain coat confidently. It took some time as the farther east and north I went, the less likely hitches were, when a friendly guy from Donegal picked me up and get me all the way to Listowel where on leaving he gave me his small bag as a present since he saw my plastic bag setup was coming apart, making the trip bearable. I eventually got a ride with a grandmother, her daughter, and her granddaughter all the way up to the Bay of Shannon at Tarbet where after waiting sometime in town I walked to the hill road outside where I was treated to a view of the Bay.

After a long wait but clearer skies, a travelled fellow picked me up who was on the way to Shannon Airport, who knew not only a lot about South America, but also all the castles and ruins we were passing keeping me quite in tune with the area. He got me all the way to Limerick where on reaching such a large city i knew hitching was a thing of the past, so deciding me 6 am to 2 pm adventure was over I grabbed a Bus Eirriean all the way to Dublin which was way too long, too hot, and too expensive relatively speaking. I did meet a kid from Cali on the bus and an Australian girl working in Dublin giving me my first impression of how damn international Dublin is.

Reaching Dublin the fact that my one time amazing hiking boots were finally falling apart hit me quite hard as my sore feet expressed well. I walked across to the southern side of town in order to find the Hilton I looked up. And on reaching there gave the name of Scott Evans. His name was not found in the list whatsoever. I panicked for a moment thing all was lost, and this was some weird joke. I was then informed of a HILTON near the airport(not at all near the airport strangely). The clerk called in for me and we found out that Scott was indeed booked there though has not checked in as of yet. Utilizing my sore feet again I reached a bus for the airport. Took a shuttle to the Hilton. Walked in all unHilton like and found out Scott had taken a taxi into town half an hour earlier. I read a book for too many hours, went to bed, and was frightfully woken up to a lovely inebriated version of Scott jumping on my screaming my name at 2AM. We spoke for a time but Scott being so tired we eventually hit the sack leaving me wide awake for sometime.

The next day dawned.....didn't really dawn, it was damn cold, windy, and unpleasant as always. Scott and I took a taxi in town, and Scott got on his tour bus he had booked weeks before to take him over to the Castle. I walked around town for a few hours eating bagels, saying hi to Oscar Wilde's statue, and mocking everything in between. Nice town though. Scott and I met up later on, and walked around town for some time. We eventually ended up at the Guiness Storehouse where some of Scott's American friends studying in Spain were waiting in a giant tourist line (looked like a star wars opening) to get inside. Scott had a ticket preordered so went on ahead inside, while I waited in line with his friends. One of them was from Cedar Rapids, making him the first Iowan Ive seen by chance on my travels. His name may be forgotten, but he will be remembered. I snuck my way in with them to the storehouse, and ran through all the many floors quite uninterestedly looking for Scott. I somehow didn't get stuck at the taste section(free beer). I did get stuck as the free Salmon and cream cheese on Guiness Bread counter.

I finally met Scott afterwards outside the place and we made our way back to town center where Scott had already setup to join a large Bar Crawl, which I had no idea what that was beforehand. We followed a large group of people around from pub to pub, enjoying some, hating others, and all else imaginable. After a late night subway sandwich, we took the long road back to the Hilton and slept soundly with the next day of the great parade coming up.



I'll do the other half later...........NO PICTURES =(........

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