Laid back, pleasant day-wise, it would be hard to beat today.
Today I got to show Kate all of my favorite things about Dublin - the things which hundreds of Dubliners walk by every day without much to-do, but which still make my heart pound nearly audibly. Poor Kate - I kept pointing things out, and giving her as many interesting facts as I knew about them, and then telling her about my previous experiences there... when really, I think Kate (if she's anything like me, which I know she is) just wanted to see for herself. But I couldn't help it. This whole time, I've been wandering around on my own, completely overwhelmed by the beauty and sheer awesomeness of the things around me, with no one to elbow and say "Look!" to. So many times I've just wanted to stop walking in the middle of the road, point and just yell, "LOOK AT THIS." Because I feel like nobody really does. But I don't do that... because I don't want to be hit by a car, or put in an asylum, or anything like that. So instead, I annoy Kate with thousands of little facts and memories. She was very good about it, though.
In all, we spent about 13 hours out today. As I write, I am in bed, stretching out my very sore legs. Kate is already snoring next to me.
We started out in Merrion Square Park, because I wanted to show her Oscar Wilde. We then went to the National Gallery, Dublin Castle and the gardens, (The Chester Beatty Library was closed... sad), Christchurch Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral (not inside... I think we're saving that for tomorrow), and Trinity College. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back a second time - because my first time was so glorious that I was afraid I'd be a little underwhelmed a second time. It was a bit too crowded today for my liking, and the sky was so dull that the Old Library just wasn't quite the same. But still. What a majestic place. I really do think that the Old Library at Trinity College is one of my favorite places on earth.
We then meandered up O'Connell Street, searching for a non-crowded pub where we could enjoy our first official pub meal. O'Connell Street yielded no results, so we went back down south and walked along the river until we entered Temple Bar. It was my first time back in that block since my first day in Dublin - I got lost that day and couldn't get OUT of the area, so I've since avoided it. (Also, side note. I am incredibly proud of myself today - I navigated us all around the city, even the unfamiliar parts, without getting us lost once!) We finally happened upon a place called "Auld Dubliners", which we thought looked promising. I think that was one of my favorite dining experiences ever. It was a nicely sized place, a bit dimly lighted, with a few tables on a platform in the back. The first thing I noticed as we made our way to a small table was that Simon and Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" was playing on the radio. A fellow came up and asked if we were looking for food or a drink, and we told him both. We each ended up with the day's special: beans, fish and chips with a pint of Harp. Shortly after our meal was served, a local fellow took to the microphone with his guitar and treated us to popular Irish and American songs (ranging from old Celtic tunes to "Wild Rover" (aghhhhh) to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to "Folsem Prison Blues"). We were there for quite a while, just enjoying our food and pints and the general atmosphere of the Auld Dubliners.
As we were gathering up our things to go, two fellows approached our table and asked if they could sit. By then the pub was beginning to fill up a bit, and our table had extra chairs, so we obliged them - mostly because we knew we were leaving in a few minutes. But oh my goodness. Most hilarious few minutes ever. They were Norwegians, here in Dublin for a three day "pub crawl". Apparently they had been at it today since noon, and had been to six or seven pubs in that time. One of them, a shorter round fellow, was extreeeeemely sloshed - he pulled out a map of the city to show me where all the pubs they'd been to were, and he could barely hold it straight. After discovering that we are Americans, they asked what we were in Dublin for. I told them that we had time off from school so we just wanted to do some traveling. Drunk-Norwegian gasped and said, in a very slurred, halting way: "But! For Americans! Isn't that extremely... expensive and... unUSUAL?!" We assured him that it was, wished them luck on the rest of their pub crawling, and I told them to help themselves to our table. As we left the area, Drunk-Norwegian began to sing "And it's no... nay... neverrrr...." in self-consolation. Kate and I headed out and walked along the river for an hour, snickering to ourselves and speaking with Norwegian accents when we felt like it.
We spent an hour or so just walking along the Liffey, and around 7 we made our way to the Abbey Theater. We had incredibly good seats - five rows from the stage, dead center! - and the play was incredibly enjoyable. Also rather scandalous at times - so we've told Ray and Carole not to take the boys to it, for sure. But we had a grand old time. I'm really glad Kate went with me... those sorts of things are much more fun when you've got somebody you love with you. It was an incredibly Irish, modern take on Alice in Wonderland - and it made me happy to get a lot of the Irish culture jokes that I knew Kate didn't get. Not to rub it in or anything... it's just that I've been around the culture here much longer. She enjoyed it a ton, though - it was incredibly well done, and a good time was had all around. Except by our legs, which were a bit angry at sitting still for that long after walking so much for the rest of the day.
The play was over by 10:30, and we made our way through a few sketchy streets to the DART station. Kate almost fell asleep on the train home, but we covered the last part of the journey quickly and arrived back a bit after 11. We drank a few glasses of water each and went straight to bed. Which brings us up to date - which also reminds me that my eyes are closing. SO. I'm going to go to bed, wake up at 8 tomorrow, and enjoy my last full day in Ireland. Last full day. How incredibly strange.
Goodnight. :)
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