14.5.07

Dublin Pubs

Well, how the hell else am I supposed to write about Dublin?

I was only in Dublin for one day -- okay, I arrived mid-afternoon, but I arrived on five hours of sleep and after plenty of time spent on trains and in planes and on the bus, etc., etc., etc., so my evening was something along the lines of buy sandwich, eat sandwich, sleep.

But then I arose, like the rosy fingered dawn somewhere else in the world; in Dublin the dawn was gray and cloudy and ucky. Seriously, Ireland is cold, y'all. Also expensive. Also completely dead on Sunday. If you are ever going just for one day, make it a Friday. Nothing happens on Sunday, and nothing opens until 2pm.

I left my hostel at around ten thirty, and it took me like two hours of wandering around in the cold damp to figure that out. But then, oh, but then. Then I found a pub. I love pubs in Dublin. Tea was two euros, which seemed horribly expensive until the guy brought it out and it was a whole potful. And I just got to sit, and drink it slowly, and read my Bill Bryson book (yeah, I broke down and bought it while I was in Durham). And then I finished my tea and the barkeep came to get my empty dishes and asked if I wanted more. "Um," I said. "Of course you do," he answered, "sit tight and I'll bring it out for you." And he did. And I sat in the pub for like three hours, all comfy and drinking my cups of tea. And he only charged me for the first pot.

"Thank you," I said. "Not to worry," he answered, "it's an Irish tradition to sit around in pubs drinking tea. You can stay as long as you like."

And that totally made me love Ireland. If AuntE had come to some of the pubs out here she would have liked the British Isles much better.

Then I went to the Irish National Museum and learned about the Irish wars of independence. And don't get me wrong, the English were bastards and evil and I'm down with that, but I do think it was moderately scummy of the Irish to wait until World War I had started and then buy a bunch of guns from the Germans and attack the English on the other side. Don't worry, I'm not making that opinion public; I like Ireland and don't want to get lynched.

Then I did the Literary Pub Crawl. Not sure if it's quite worth 10-12 euros, I'd put it at about 8-10, but it was good. The actors were excellent and professional, and the atmosphere was much more relaxed and friendlier than the atmosphere at the Berlin Pub Crawl I did a few weeks ago. At that one everyone was trying to get drunk and hook up, and I just got awkward, but at this one we learned lots of literary trivia and I made friends with a nice Canadian couple about my age. We compared travels, it was fun.

And now I am in Killarney, after a six hour bus ride. Ireland really is as green as you've always heard, I was not disappointed, but I did fall asleep for about half of it. Shut up, learning about Irish authors is taxing. If you're drinking Guinness at the same time it is. I'm totally right.

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