Adventures in Publin

...or Adventures in Dublin as the case may be. It's just funny, someone accidentally said "Publin" and it's kind of stuck. More on that later though.

So today, Saturday the 18 of June, at 11:56pm is when I am sitting down to write this. Today has been a very good day. I woke up at 6am and the view from my window is spectacular.

To the left you can see part of what I see when I wake up, with hedges further on the left and more fields on the right.

Except, when I woke up these very large birds were all being very loud. So while in the kitchen getting yogurt I looked out the window and saw a red fox trotting through the field in my picture. (Unfortunately my camera was in my bedroom so I did not get a picture of the fox.) And the fox was at least two times as big as any red fox I've seen in Missouri, it honestly looked at large as a coyote. After that I sat by the window and read/wrote assignments.

Then it was time for class, and I was able to expound upon how duty seems to lead to a type of paralysis in each of the stories in Joyce's Dubliners. It felt nice to have a theory the teacher happily asks you to tell more about. Especially when you don't like the other book being read, so have nothing to say about it. After class we had free time, and Dina and I decided we'd head down to Trinity College in Dublin City before the other people. Has anyone else had a day where you go "Awesome! I've figured out the bus schedule. We just need to hop on the 46A and get off at this, this or this stop"? I had that day. But didn't realize that we had gotten on the 46A headed towards the other end of the route. You know, the end away from Dublin city. However, this mistake was a wonderful mistake to make. First, I got to ride on a double decker bus. The second reason? Is where we ended up.

I feel I must tell the story, and not just the name of the town we stopped off in. So we were on the bus, and I mentioned that I really wanted to got to a city on the bay to eat fish and chips along the pier. We both agreed it sounded fun, and stopped at a stop where we could see the bay, and where a lot of people got off at. There we landed in Dun Laoghaire.

Now, try to tell me that getting off here was a mistake. You can't, can you? I definitely couldn't. It was so beautiful and walking along the bay was just wonderful. I also got a cheap leather belt, and some black leather boots (flat, not with heels) because of the rain. There were many different bands on the street corners, including a Peruvian Flute Band, and so much to see. However, after two and half hours here we decided we should head back to the bus stop. Which is where the next 46A bus driver asked us why we were waiting at the very last stop on the route. We didn't have an answer, really. He did helpfully tell us which street to go to for the correct bus stop, and the side of the street to get on the bus on (which is what threw us off in the beginning). Then I got to take another fun double decker bus ride! We did make it into Dublin as well, getting off the bus at St. Stephens Green and making our way to Grafton Street.

Grafton Street is the street to the right, and since

we...adventured a bit before getting to Dublin, Dina and I walked along the street and the side streets for a bit to explore. Much of our time was spent trying to decide where to eat at, and there were a lot of choices. It was a very important decision, since it was then 6pm and we had not eaten since 9am. Finally we decided upon a place, where I ordered.....

Fish and chips! Unfortunately, I didn't like the fish. That one bite missing? Yeah, that's about all I ate from that...and I didn't actually ingest it.

After a hearty meal of...chips...it was time to meet up with the group on Duke Street. Why is the class meeting up at 7:30pm on a Saturday night you ask? Well, for the literary pub crawl of course! (We are Irish Literature classes after all.)

And there it is, where we started our pub crawl quiz! We went from here to three other pubs, stopping under the bell tower in Trinity College and outside the tourist information center (that used to be a church).

Along the way we learned some very interesting facts about Irish authors and Irish literature, only a few of which I could tell you right now. One is that Oscar Wilde, after leaving Trinity, boxed in college.

Here are some other things I did learn today:

1)Getting on the wrong bus, or the right bus going the wrong way, can be an amazing detour. Just go with it, it might just be worth it. (At least here. I wouldn't advise that everywhere.)

2) Bulmers Cider is basically the Irish equivalent of jungle juice (in face, they call it that).I did not know this at the start of the literary pub crawl.

3) A shot of Jameson whiskey will burn, no matter how smoothly someone guarantees you it will go down.

4) The Irish are incredibly nice people. Even when lost because you passed your bus stop. At 11:30pm.

5)Everyone says you should go to the oldest pub in Ireland, but no one can really agree on where that is.

6) During the summer months (as in, right now) the sun literally does not go down until 10:30ish pm. It's entirely disorientating. The sun rises at 4:56am though.

Now here's a question for whoever reads my blog, because I want comments. When is it said that the bell tower at Trinity College will ring? (Guess if you don't know. It's fun, I promise.)