In the Land O' Lucky Charms
One California girl's adventures in the big city of Dublin. With her trusty magnetic banana slug of course.
Last week at this time I had been home for an hour and half after spending 15 hours in travel time from Dublin airport to Boston airport to SFO. One week and a day ago I was at Blarney Castle, slipping on the iced over asphalt and falling on my butt. But that’s another story. Now I am sitting on my bed in Pismo typing things into the internet. Sound familiar?
Today it took me 36 minutes to walk my dog to the beach. It took me 36 minutes to walk from my flat in Dublin to Trinity. Its strange how walking the time from one destination to the other is the same but Point A and Point B are so easily interchangeable.
Today was the first time Ive been back to the Pacific Ocean since I left. I’ve been to beach at the North Sea in Denmark and Mediterranean in Spain. It was the first time I was able to be barefoot instead of wearing boots in the sand.
Today I drove past brown hills and oil rigs on my way to the beach. A bit different from rolling green hills and sheep I saw while crossing Ireland. And it was so bright.
Its strange to think how normalcy can be redefined in just three months and then reestablished as something completely different once again. I still look the wrong way while crossing the street.
Last pint in Dublin!
Such a bittersweet day. We came back from Cork and packed like crazy people. Then went to grab one last pint at the pub across from Trinity, Mac Turcaills. My first night in Dublin I had a Guinness and for my last night I had a Guinness. A good ending to an incredible trip.
Cork
I made it to Cork! Turns out Cork is a smaller, dirtier Dublin that shuts down at 7:30pm on a Saturday night. Not that great. My friend and I came from Killarney and decided to go to Cork and go to Blarney Castle. We decided to be typical European tourists and show up in a foreign city and find a hostel. Turns out theres no hostels in Cork City Centre. After wandering around for a good half hour, we found a YMCA and picked up a brochure for a hostel approved by Lonely Planet. Sold.
The next day we took the bus to Blarney Castle. So gorgeous! Everything was icy and had frost all over it. We were the only people there, along with three other American student tourists. The castle was not meant for tall people. Realized this when I was crawling up the staircase to make it to the top. But I made it and even got to kiss the Blarney Stone! There’s a man at the top who’s paid to hold you over the edge and another man paid to take your picture. Theres nothing like hanging over the side of a castle to kiss a rock.
Killarney
For our last weekend in Ireland we decided to travel around the south west of Ireland a bit. Such a good decision. It was a 6 hour bus ride adventure across the country. Kilarney (or K-Town as the local girls refer to it) is the most adoralbe Irish town Ive seen. All Christmas-y and decorated. Friday night the town was pretty dead. I hailed and stayed on the ground, so basically snow. The guy working the hostel gave us the name of a cool pub on the main street that had live Irish music. So fun. I got my first Murphy’s, which is like the Guinness of the west coast.
Saturday we got up relatively early and spent a good 3 hours wandering around Killarney National Park and the Ring of Kerry. We were there about an hour after sunrise, which made everything glow. And there was snow on the mountains! Snow! Most of the trails to the castles were flooded, but just seeing the forests and lake and deer was so worth it.
YES RAINBOWS REALLY HAPPEN IN DUBLIN
So much excitement. I had planned a busy afternoon of loafing in my bed recuperating from finishing essays, and watching TV. When suddenly my plans were interrupted by my roommate screaming for all of us to come out to the living room. And there out our big picture windows was a rainbow. A proper Irish rainbow. The first one I’d seen in Ireland. What made it even better was two days before I watched snow fall out the same window.
Mannings Bakery
Another Dublin eating establishment I will be missing. My friend and I got breakfast here once a week for a good three or four weeks. So good. I finally went for lunch last week. Got a potato pancake and three exciting salads. The closest I’ll come to Sweet Tomatoes this side of the Atlantic.
Can we just marvel at the beauty of this photo for a moment?
…
DONE
This is what a semester’s worth of work at an Irish university looks like. This will be my entire grade. ENTIRE GRADE. So no pressure or anything. But now they’re all turned in. This is what countless hours in the library, a good 10 euros spent on euro coffee, and my eyes being ever so slowly burned down by my computer screen. Hopefully come the end of January it will all be worth it. Thats when the grades come out. So no pressure or anything.
KC Peaches
Pretty sure Im black listed here as “That Chick That Buys 2Euro Coffee And Stays Upstairs For Four Hours” Which is why I havent been back since Saturday. You know they have a list. So other than providing a decent pseudo-Abbey study spot, they are very supportive of my California diet. The best thing they have? The American Breakfast Burrito. That’s right. American. Breakfast. Burrito. For all of Dublin’s collective epic fail at Mexican food, KC Peaches redeems itself for this lovely piece of breakfast. Its cheap too:4.25 for take away. And then you don’t want to eat for the rest of the day. Its that filling. That good.
A week from today at this time I will be standing in line waiting to board a plane back to the states. For now Im sitting in the library trying to finish my essays. They will be done today because they are all being turned in tomorrow. Its happening like this.
Oh library, how I dislike you. Let me count the ways:
-I can’t bring in my wine. How am I supposed to look classy while I study if I cant have my wine?
-No food, and no eating area offered, meaning they want us to starve ourselves.
-1 bathroom for 3 librarys with 30% of the toliets never functioning
-Signs telling you your stuff will get stolen creates an unnecessary sense of paranoia. Too bad it works
-You tell us don’t put the books back on the shelves ourselves, that you pay someone to do it, but the books are never back on the shelves
-24/7 study room has no bathroom. Building next door has a bathroom but closes at 10pm. What do you use between 10pm and 8am? The porta-pottys outside.
-No water fountains, resulting in dehydration. You cant drink water anyways cus then youll have to run to the bathroom and leave your stuff unattended which means it will get stolen for sure
Just one more day of having to set foot in the library. One. More. Day.
