We spent the last day in Paris getting ready for Dublin. I packed while Tina ran errands. The flight was delayed for an hour, so we sat in the hilariously Jetson-inspired airport for a couple of hours eating homemade sandwiches and cherries.
It was late when we finally arrived in Dublin, having passed the time on the plane reading The White Lioness by Henning Mankell. We took the bus into town and walked around trying to find our hotel. I’m telling you 90 Euros a night doesn’t go too far, but at least we have our own bathroom.
That night we had a pint and a half at the Celtic Lodge. They had a traditional band playing, complete with strange tuning and a mic that kept cutting out. There were some crazy people at the pub, including a really drunken Russian man who tried to pick up Tina, who told him her name was “Sue.” I automatically became “Barb.” We walked around tipsy-like to The Spire, a large phallic monument meant to celebrate the millennium. There we ran into some kid from Idaho who thought it was quite funny that Tina didn’t have a French accent, but she was from Paris. Heh. Being a little tipsy in Dublin was actually kind of fun.
We got up the next morning and went for a tour of Trinity College, saw the Book of Kells and then walked around. I bought a lovely woolen sweater because Ireland is cold! Not unlike the trip the RRBF and I took to California, thinking it would be super hot, we didn’t pack any warm clothes and froze our asses off.
Today we’re off to see Christ Church Cathedral. And then another church with a crypt in the basement with real mummies. Oooohh!
Dublin’s lovely, a real mixture of old and new, and parts of it feel like Yonge Street on a Saturday afternoon. I’m excited to see rural Ireland next, lots to do in the next 10 days!
“Barb” and “Sue”. Priceless. Absolutely priceless.