From Ireland to Austria Series: Never Trust an Irishman
This is from a series originally posted on my original blog: Seefahrer Thayer. While I don't recommend it, you can view the original posts here. Because the content had value and useful tips I've decided to repost them here, however, they've since been heavily edited and updated.
Many Irish men I've met wink at the end of their sentences, like they told a funny joke and I didn't catch it. It's pretty entertaining.
So yesterday I got lost in Dublin.... again. Twice. I was looking for the Kilmainham Gaol which is an old jail, pictured somewhere. Very cool, but it took me an hour and a half (instead of 10 minutes) to get me to the tram stop... because I thought it was by the hospital at the end of the rail... whoops. So I finally get off at the right stop and I get lost for about an hour looking for it- someone gave me bad directions. Eventually I sit down with some brie, a baguette, water and toffee. Best lunch ever.
Shortly thereafter I found the prison, had a great tour guide, and I learned a lot about the local history. I wandered back into town, but got off at a different stop because something looked interesting (I got distracted by something shiny).
Decided to ask where the Dublin castle was, and somehow ended up back in front of the hostel. Left there to find the castle... found Trinity college instead. Then found the castle and drank Fanta in the gardens (which I believe is a different color than home, but others disagree). After all that, I wasted my money at a wax museum. It did have a few nice things but it was kind of trumped by the crowd of screaming local teenage girls.
Went back to the hostel, and met an Australian guy, Mike, we went and got some food at a bar around the corner, and talked about our different cultures. Food was amazing and the company was good. We went to a couple of bars to get the lay of the land, where we met Sara who told me all about where to go in the UK.
From listening to everyone, I discovered my next stop should be Belfast, instead of Galway. I'm looking for more of a small town vibe, I'm kind of done with the hustle and bustle of the big city. A little too fast paced for how tired I already am. And I may be getting sick, my nose has been running since last night, and I couldn't get to sleep until around 4 because I had such a terrible headache.
My impressions of Dublin are as follows:
- Actually relatively nice locals, usually willing to help with directions (in their difficult-to-understand accents of course)
- Very clean with few homeless roaming the streets
- A plethora of bars (all expensive) with more live music than you could ever listen to. (Pictured was one we listened to- I ended up buying their CD)
- Kind of touristy, lots of great shopping, but it kind of takes away from being here.
- The sun practically never sets. At 10:30- 11:00 at night you still have some light, and it's early to greet you in the morning too.
- To this day, only in Dublin have I seen a truck flat full of kegs.
- Really interesting, but incredibly sad history I never knew much about.
- Guinness is still gross.
Also, I've been somehow picking up the accent, and the whole time I was writing this had to fight the urge to say "yeah?" in the middle of a sentence, adding extra "r's" or saying "very good, very good". Ryan claims I said "mum" instead of "mom" last night, and I've definitely caught myself saying "bullocks" and "wanker" and speaking with an Irish accent in my head. It's kind of funny how quickly it gets picked up, because I definitely couldn't even attempt an accept before coming.