Top of the mornin' to ya!
I'd say it's high time I told you about the entire Dublin experience. Unfortunately, I don't have a TON of time to write; Katie, Anna and I are about to return to the marché aux puces (flea market) for the last time. Nevertheless, I'll write until they make me leave...
We arrived in Dublin late Thursday evening and determined that we would stay in the airport till morning since no cabs or buses were running. We felt soooo scandalous, and we literally hid in this little wooden cubicle for hours until an Irish policeman found us. HA! There's a little more to that story, but basically we discovered that it is PERFECTLY legal to stay in an airport overnight, but not in the wooden cubicles. Those are "privileged areas." I think between the three of us we got about an hour of sleep that first night, and it goes without saying that the next morning, the site-seeing was less riveting than it may have been had we gone to a hostel.
However, we made some interesting discoveries at the airport, the most important of which is that Irish McDonald's have oatmeal (much to Katie Ramsey's delight).
We arrived at the hostel around 7:00 a.m. Friday morning only to hear that we weren't allowed to enter the rooms until 2:00 p.m. We wandered around for a few hours and looked at monuments and poked our heads into some souvenir shops. It was SO WEIRD to be able to speak English with everyone; I felt a little guilty for not speaking French! I'm not going to lie, at first I was disappointed not to be able to employ my new skills, and it was interesting to find out how many lingual habits have gotten ingrained in me over the past several weeks. I kept saying "merci," "bonjour," and "pardon" to store clerks and pedestrians, completely by accident.
Also, I began to realize that France has taken a toll on my feet. Even though the flats that I wear are great for getting around, I really believe they have begun to do significant damage to my feet since I have such a high arch. I was trying not to wimp out, but after a few hours I was in unspeakable pain and could not walk without feeling like I was going to cry. We stopped to see a movie ("Thank You For Smoking" -- really Irish, right?), which I loved, and when I took my shoes off, my baby toe on my left foot rivaled the size of my big toe. I'm a freak. No, but seriously, something is wrong, and I felt really bad for being the Super-Gimp of the group.
After the movie we returned to the hostel, showered for the first time in what felt like days, and SLEPT. We decided to go get some traditional fish and chips, and right after we left I decided to puke my guts out in the bathroom of a Burger King for about a bajillion years. Of the three of us girls, I was DEFINITELY the excess baggage, but Anna admitted that she had been feeling a little mooky too, so we decided to go back to the hostel for a little bit. I felt DISGUSTING, not to mention incredibly guilty for spoiling all the fun. It was not the greatest of times. I cleaned up and vegged out in front of the TV (we watched Italy win a football match), then the three of us tried to go out dancing. Unfortunately, we got started too late and we couldn't find any good clubs, and we ended up sharing a pint of Ben and Jerry's and sitting by the river. A little bit of a downer, but I think we were all still tired, so that was the end of day one.
Day TWO was extraordinary. My feet still weren't in great shape, but I was more attentive of them so it was bearable. The non-residential area of Dublin is quite small, so we walked EVERYWHERE we needed to go, which was nice on the pocketbook. We toured the entire historical district, saw the Guinness factory, shopped for souvenirs, and saw a really cool museum that had a ton of ancient religious manuscripts (many of you know about my obsession with old books, so of course that was HEAVEN for me). LOVED that.
Then it was on to find a traditional Irish pub to watch the France v. Brésil game. We left early because we knew how those places fill up quickly, but the England v. Portugal match was in overtime, so we decided to eat a traditional Irish meal at a semi-nice restaurant while we waited for the game to end. I got potato soup and this really gourmet goat cheese tart. It was tasty, but of course I was all decked out in my pro-France attire, and a huge group of guys wearing Brazil jerseys and black curly wigs came in and were being unruly. We decided to see if the bar was free downstairs at that point.
It was free indeed, and the girls and I managed to snag the best seats in the house, RIGHT in front of the TV. I'm pretty sure we were the ONLY France fans in the ENTIRE place, so everyone was giving us a hard time. It didn't matter in the end, because France WON the match, 1 - 0!!! The girls and I made some new friends during the game, and we were all thrilled at first because we thought they were Irish, but as it turned out they were from Indiana and Ohio, and they attend Ohio State. Ha! Of course we would attract the attention of the only American guys in the pub.
After the game we all hung out on this big public square and people-watched. It's funny, because in Paris no one gets dressed up to go out (you'd think they would), and in Dublin everyone gets dressed to the nines. All the women were wearing these INSANE (read: really ugly) outfits, like neon orange mini-overalls and SUPER high-heeled pumps. I kid you not, I saw women wearing heels that were longer (taller) than their skirts. BIZARRE. Anyway, the girls and I had the most fun EVER. Vive la France!!!
The next day was a little low-key since we had to check out of the hostel by 11 a.m. It was raining when we woke up, and we trekked all the way across town to visit an observation tower, but it was closed. BOO. We ended up doing a little more souvenir shopping, eating lunch, and heading back to the airport. We returned to Paris around 8:00 p.m., and I have to admit, I was feeling pretty lazy with my French. By the end of the trip, I was definitely getting used to being able to talk in English again. Sighhh...
Overall, very fun, very easy trip. I wish I hadn't gotten sick (or gimpy), but that really didn't stop us from having a great time. Anna and Katie are SUCH a blast, and I'm lucky to have happened upon two such kindred spirits thousands of miles away from home!
Peace,
Kate
P.S. I have a whole bunch of pictures to upload, but I'm at school and we're not allowed to do that here. Hopefully the computer at the apartment will be available when I get home later this evening.
We arrived in Dublin late Thursday evening and determined that we would stay in the airport till morning since no cabs or buses were running. We felt soooo scandalous, and we literally hid in this little wooden cubicle for hours until an Irish policeman found us. HA! There's a little more to that story, but basically we discovered that it is PERFECTLY legal to stay in an airport overnight, but not in the wooden cubicles. Those are "privileged areas." I think between the three of us we got about an hour of sleep that first night, and it goes without saying that the next morning, the site-seeing was less riveting than it may have been had we gone to a hostel.
However, we made some interesting discoveries at the airport, the most important of which is that Irish McDonald's have oatmeal (much to Katie Ramsey's delight).
We arrived at the hostel around 7:00 a.m. Friday morning only to hear that we weren't allowed to enter the rooms until 2:00 p.m. We wandered around for a few hours and looked at monuments and poked our heads into some souvenir shops. It was SO WEIRD to be able to speak English with everyone; I felt a little guilty for not speaking French! I'm not going to lie, at first I was disappointed not to be able to employ my new skills, and it was interesting to find out how many lingual habits have gotten ingrained in me over the past several weeks. I kept saying "merci," "bonjour," and "pardon" to store clerks and pedestrians, completely by accident.
Also, I began to realize that France has taken a toll on my feet. Even though the flats that I wear are great for getting around, I really believe they have begun to do significant damage to my feet since I have such a high arch. I was trying not to wimp out, but after a few hours I was in unspeakable pain and could not walk without feeling like I was going to cry. We stopped to see a movie ("Thank You For Smoking" -- really Irish, right?), which I loved, and when I took my shoes off, my baby toe on my left foot rivaled the size of my big toe. I'm a freak. No, but seriously, something is wrong, and I felt really bad for being the Super-Gimp of the group.
After the movie we returned to the hostel, showered for the first time in what felt like days, and SLEPT. We decided to go get some traditional fish and chips, and right after we left I decided to puke my guts out in the bathroom of a Burger King for about a bajillion years. Of the three of us girls, I was DEFINITELY the excess baggage, but Anna admitted that she had been feeling a little mooky too, so we decided to go back to the hostel for a little bit. I felt DISGUSTING, not to mention incredibly guilty for spoiling all the fun. It was not the greatest of times. I cleaned up and vegged out in front of the TV (we watched Italy win a football match), then the three of us tried to go out dancing. Unfortunately, we got started too late and we couldn't find any good clubs, and we ended up sharing a pint of Ben and Jerry's and sitting by the river. A little bit of a downer, but I think we were all still tired, so that was the end of day one.
Day TWO was extraordinary. My feet still weren't in great shape, but I was more attentive of them so it was bearable. The non-residential area of Dublin is quite small, so we walked EVERYWHERE we needed to go, which was nice on the pocketbook. We toured the entire historical district, saw the Guinness factory, shopped for souvenirs, and saw a really cool museum that had a ton of ancient religious manuscripts (many of you know about my obsession with old books, so of course that was HEAVEN for me). LOVED that.
Then it was on to find a traditional Irish pub to watch the France v. Brésil game. We left early because we knew how those places fill up quickly, but the England v. Portugal match was in overtime, so we decided to eat a traditional Irish meal at a semi-nice restaurant while we waited for the game to end. I got potato soup and this really gourmet goat cheese tart. It was tasty, but of course I was all decked out in my pro-France attire, and a huge group of guys wearing Brazil jerseys and black curly wigs came in and were being unruly. We decided to see if the bar was free downstairs at that point.
It was free indeed, and the girls and I managed to snag the best seats in the house, RIGHT in front of the TV. I'm pretty sure we were the ONLY France fans in the ENTIRE place, so everyone was giving us a hard time. It didn't matter in the end, because France WON the match, 1 - 0!!! The girls and I made some new friends during the game, and we were all thrilled at first because we thought they were Irish, but as it turned out they were from Indiana and Ohio, and they attend Ohio State. Ha! Of course we would attract the attention of the only American guys in the pub.
After the game we all hung out on this big public square and people-watched. It's funny, because in Paris no one gets dressed up to go out (you'd think they would), and in Dublin everyone gets dressed to the nines. All the women were wearing these INSANE (read: really ugly) outfits, like neon orange mini-overalls and SUPER high-heeled pumps. I kid you not, I saw women wearing heels that were longer (taller) than their skirts. BIZARRE. Anyway, the girls and I had the most fun EVER. Vive la France!!!
The next day was a little low-key since we had to check out of the hostel by 11 a.m. It was raining when we woke up, and we trekked all the way across town to visit an observation tower, but it was closed. BOO. We ended up doing a little more souvenir shopping, eating lunch, and heading back to the airport. We returned to Paris around 8:00 p.m., and I have to admit, I was feeling pretty lazy with my French. By the end of the trip, I was definitely getting used to being able to talk in English again. Sighhh...
Overall, very fun, very easy trip. I wish I hadn't gotten sick (or gimpy), but that really didn't stop us from having a great time. Anna and Katie are SUCH a blast, and I'm lucky to have happened upon two such kindred spirits thousands of miles away from home!
Peace,
Kate
P.S. I have a whole bunch of pictures to upload, but I'm at school and we're not allowed to do that here. Hopefully the computer at the apartment will be available when I get home later this evening.
posted by Katie | 5:06 AM
2 Comments:
The France v. Brazil game was an amazing match. Being able to watch it in an Irish pub, that is even better.
Hi kate
I like you.. I would like to know you...
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