Just say YES

Our philosophy for the trip was.... when someone asks if you want to do something you answer "yes" and do it. We did so many cool things because we said "yes" to things that we wouldn't normally have thought to do.

Excerpts from my journal.... days 3 and 4

This morning Grainne and I drove to the airport to pick up my dearest roomie, Lisa. As the tiny, sleepy-eyed, blond girl walked through the arrival doors, I broke into a huge smile and we ran at each other with squeals of delight. The reunion was sweet (literally.... she brought me homemade chocolate chip cookies!) and we basically haven't stopped talking. Grainne dropped us at our hostel (most graciously... what a lovely woman) and we then walked around the city for awhile. We walked through St. Stephens Green. The sun was shining and warm. We walked down Grafton Street (the main shopping street). We got coffee in a mall food court that overlooked Stephens Green. We walked to Temple Bar which is the touristy Times Squar-ish area. It isn't a literal bar but was originally a sort of port along the river Liffy, making it a central area of Dublin. We walked around inside Christ Church Cathedral (1000 AD) and saw a mummified cat and rat that had trapped themselves in an organ pipe. We walked back to Temple Bar for lunch at a great little pub where LOTS of Scottish men in kilts were drinking in preparation for the match. I tried to take their photo, at which point they invited us to be in the photo with them, commenting on how "tiny" we were. Hmph. We may be small but we can bite!

The pub had DELICIOUS veggie mash soup, and the most wonderful bread on earth.... brown soda bread. It would become a staple for the rest of the trip.

We also got a photo with the most authentic looking Scotsman around. Lisa was scared to ask him for a photo because he was too authentic looking... making him a bit scary. But he was the cheeriest man and we were so glad we talked to him. He is the old man with the beard in the photo below. On our way back we looked in this little designer dress shop that was SO COOL. The woman was a real artist with crazy hair and skinny legs. Cheapest thing in the store? 1000 euros.

Now we're back at the hostel (Lisa brought me WHEAT THINS, CHEEZ ITZ, AND Girl Scout cookies.) and she is snoozin' off some jet lag before we hit a pub to watch the match. I am so happy. Lisa, Ireland, and new experiences add up to a very content Emily.

Next day....

A few things I forgot to write about!

On our drive back from Howth, Noel and Grainne drove me up to a lookout to view the lights of the city. They told me to "look straight ahead because there might be some steamy windows and love's sweet embrace being experienced" on either side of us. Sheesh.. I guess not everyone goes up there to look at the beautiful lights of the city. Oh well. Their loss I guess.

Also on that drive they told me about U2. Noel said Bono was a part of his father's chess club when Bono was young, and that in recent years the club's funding dropped so low that they wrote to Bono and the money that they needed came quietly and swiftly.

Ok, so back to the present. Last night after Lisa woke up, we went out and found O'Connell Street and walked up it exploring. We walked in "The Best Value Rugby Stop" only to find it was a LIEEEEEEEEEE to entice people in and was actually just a junkie tourist shop. We walked over the river on the Ha'penny Bridge (It used to cost 1/2 penny to cross it.) and then wandered back to Temple Bar to search for dinner..... DUDE. Ireland is EXPENSIVE. Every menu we looked at was like 15-20 euros! When we were just about to give up we found a great little pub a little off the beaten path. Lisa got her first fish and chips while we watched rugby (not Ireland sadly because the match was already over... they lost) and then wandered home. We walked by Christ Church, all lit up and peaceful, and Lisa noted that churches were eerie at night because they were so still. So.... we spooked ourselves, turning our little tails around and booking it back in the other direction to Spar (convenience store) and bought some Nutella to eat.

When I think of Dublin on a Sunday morning this is what I'll imagine:

Baby blue skies, church bells chiming from all directions, and the smell of fresh bread. Glorious.

After our meager hostel breakfast of toast and OJ we wandered in the direction of the park but ended up at Trinity College instead. You walk through the entrance and all of the sounds of the city disappear and there is serenity. It was so moving.

We headed back to Christ's Church for a Eucharist service. The girls' choir sang as beams of sunlight streamed in through vaulted windows and tears left streaks of salt along our cheeks. After the service we had tea and biscuits (cookies) in the crypt where we met a sweet old man who told us that the church had 700 members and then introduced us to an American girl named Cathy who was studying in Dublin. We went to lunch with her at the Queen of Tarts afterward. She was a sweet girl from Iowa and had an internship at the Natural History Museum. The Queen of Tarts was YUM YUM and so adorable. OH EUROPE AND YOUR SCONESSSSSSSSS.

We went to the Dublin Castle and got there before it opened so we got trigger happy and took some artsy and not-so-artsy photos in the courtyard...

The castle was really interesting. We learned a lot about Irish history. We also learned that Dublin is the compilation of two Irish words that mean "black pool" for the body of water behind Dublin Castle, and the invaders named the town Dublin because they didn't know better.

We walked around the back of the castle and saw that it was painted like a Dr. Seuss book and took lots of pictures and then laid on a helicopter pad/garden behind it and looked at the sky while some French or Italian or Spanish guys tried to show off for us.
We walked around for awhile before going to Tesco to get some dinner to make at the hostel. We found out that the Irish version of Primark is called Penney's. Lisa loved it.

We played cards for a bit and then went to bed for a FIVE AM WAKE UP. Ew. Michael betta know how much we love him."