Julia Frank

Well here we are, I have officially made it to the land of sheep and Guinness. Now have I seen a sheep or drank a Guinness? Of course not, but that’s not important. Now we are going to start from the beginning so I don’t have to answer any questions. So buckle up, buttercup, because I am about to give you all (some) of the details for the past day and a half in Dublin. 

Day 1-ish 

Luck of the Irish started on the flight for me, because I had no one sitting next to me. On southwest flights, I usually glare at people to keep them from sitting next to me, I have a pretty high success rate with that. Couldn’t do that with this flight. And to be fair, my section of the cabin was very empty. There were people moving and laying down on the 4 middle seats to sleep.  

Anyways, after getting off the plane I attempted to find the bus that would take me where I needed to be. I was walking all around the bus zones trying to figure it out. I went to three different buses, got denied by them all. Fourth times a charm amiright? It also turns out if I had just looked at my notebook, aka the holy grail with all my notes and trip info, I would have done it right the first time. It was all laid out right there in front of me. But what’s the fun in that when you can look like a sweaty rat with two backpacks huffing through the airport. 

I write everything in the holy grail after the end of the day, so the next part is quoted directly from my writing yesterday: “As I write this, I am watching a woman scratch her hairy husband’s back right outside the window in the hostel bar I am sitting in.” I know this was super interesting and exactly why you are reading this, so you’re welcome!

Since it was a 7 hour time jump for me, I got here in the wee hours of the morning according to my body clock, therefore, I was exhausted. I was able to check into my hostel right when I got there, which was about 2 hours before usual check in. At this point, I am still a sweaty rat. The humidity is insane, and I’m used to living in the dry Colorado climate, or the moderately humid but far enough away from the ocean Oregon climate. Once I got up to the pod room, I immediately changed my clothes and laid in bed for a bit. I kept waking myself up with my snoring though which was annoying. So I made myself get up, and in true girl fashion changed my clothes again. I had to feed myself, very inconvenient if you ask me. Instead, I sat in the bar for a couple hours and wrote all this previous info down in my notebook. Which I am now so graciously sharing with you. 

I got a spice bag. Very good, highly recommend. The one I got would easily have fed 2 people. I am all by lonesome and hadn’t eaten for about 20 hours, so I did eat most of it. If you don’t know what a spice bag is, it is a bag of French fries and mini chicken strips coated in a very yummy spice mix, big fan. I then grabbed the handy dandy kindle out, read for a little and crashed. I will note that one of the girls started blow drying her hair at midnight and one of the other girls yelled at her to go to the bathroom across the hall. I would like to thank this random girl for yelling, it sounded like a leaf blower. 

Day 2 (my only full day here)

My previous ramblings is based off of a page and a half of writing in my notebook, today I wrote three pages. So yet again, strap in for another day of Dublin adventures. Or leave, I don’t really care either way. 

Because I am a self-aware and semi considerate person, I put out a little bag of earplugs last night. When I woke up this morning, the bag was nowhere to be found. So lol sucks for the people on the rest of the trip, I obviously will not be supplying any more. That was my stash, and the stash is gone. Also, I would like to give a shoutout to the UK/Europe. Thank you for having bathroom stalls that I can’t see out of, appreciate it, truly. Good for you being ahead of the times and better than those American potty peepers. 

Now to actually start the day, I woke up with the intention of going to Trinity College and getting a ticket for the book of Kells experience. I didn’t do that. I mapped myself to Trinity College, but the new modern and fancy part. Honestly, I really wasn’t seeing the hype, it looked like a normal building. Obviously I was on the wrong side, but we will get to that later. But you know me, I am super go with the flow (not). I took a little peek at the map again to see what was close. Lo and behold, I was about a block away from the National Gallery of Ireland. And even better, it was free. I went and wandered around there for a little under two hours. It has a ton of different types of artwork and some very pretty rooms. Oh my goodness, stop asking! Of course I have some pictures! You’re welcome. 

Take a guess at what was right around the corner. I’ll wait. I don’t know what you guessed, but if it was the National Museum of Ireland, congrats you win nothing, but you were in fact correct. So I hit museum number two of the day. Honestly, not as big as I was expecting. Only two floors and I got through it fairly quickly. I’m also not my father, as I do not read every single plaque. Man did I try to channel him and read some plaques, but I think I’m allergic. After my meandering of the museum, I found my favorite part of it: the gift shop. And you bet I went crazy there. Yeah, that’s right, I bought a magnet. Big spender right here.

As one does, I then went right next door to the National Library of Ireland. A lot of ‘national’ places today, I know. Well the sign when I got in said you had to take off your jacket and leave your bag and you needed a card. What did they want me to do next? Strip? I then turn my head to the right, swivel if you will. I see a sign for an exhibit, and not knowing what it was, I decided to take a look. It was about the life of William Butler Yeates, a man I had never known about the existence of. I lasted about five minutes in there due to my lack of interest in this man’s life. The setup of the exhibit was more interesting than the museum, but that is simply not enough to keep me interested. 

Congrats, you’ve gotten this far. But guess what? There’s more!

And you bet I harnessed that Moses wandering the desert energy and kept walking. I then found myself walking down a much prettier area of Dublin. The streets were lined with all the shops. And guess what? I found the pretty part of Trinity College, the place I was trying to get to originally. It really is a very pretty place, and I now understand the hype surrounding it. 

After I stood there and took a few obligatory photos, I went to a coffee shop since I hadn’t eaten anything. I got an iced latte and a lemon muffin. When she asked me if I wanted any flavors in my latte, I said no. And once I took a sip, I remembered why I put flavors in my coffee: sugar. Therefore, it was a bit bitter for me and not the coffee milkshake I was expecting. And let me tell you, if you don’t like sweet, it would be perfect, but I like sugar. So naturally, I carried it around for an hour before just throwing it away. And the muffin, had a little too much moisture which was throwing the texture off. End result: total fail at getting a snack. I am calling it the Muffin Debacle, even though it was the least exciting part of my day. Hope you enjoyed my snack time story. 

I’m almost done, hang in there. I went into one of the Irish sweater stores, because I wanted an Irish sweater. Why else would I be there? Long story short, I walked out with a scarf. I also stood in there staring at sweaters for about 45 minutes, and it is not a big store. Decision making will never be my strong suit. 

I then begin my walk back to the hostel. At one of the crosswalks, there was a small, pudgy, maybe 50 something year old man. What was he wearing, you may ask. An orange sweater, one of those hats that children wear in Newises, and was smoking a pipe. Not like a crack pipe, but an old timey one. Yes, we made eye contact. That means that he still was looking at me when I looked away, and I could see that he was still looking at me every time i glance back. He wasn’t making me uncomfortable or anything. I was more so thinking about the fact that I could kick him if I needed to. We were going in opposite directions, so bon voyage little pudgy man!

Yay! I’m done and you made it to the end. Way to go, champ!

Oh no! I almost forgot to leave you this fun fact from the museum! “Although the precise sequence cannot be determined the deceased was decapitated, had his nipples cut and his thorax severed from his abdomen. The cutting of the nipples is highly significant. Sucking a king’s nipples was an ancient Irish form of submission and the mutilation perpetrated on Oldcroghan Man would have rendered him ineligible for kingship.” Below you will the see the preserved nippleless man from the museum.