I'm writing this blog entry on a rainy Monday afternoon after spending only a few hours at the Unicorn before being sent home because my supervisor was so tired from opening night of Cinderella. It was yesterday, I was in Ireland, but he had told me that while they were supposed to tech the show all week then have dress rehearsals on the weekend, to open Sunday. Unfortunately, they didn't get through all the teching so they called a dress rehearsal for Sunday morning right before the show, and this was their only dress rehearsal, plus one of the actors backs gave out that morning, but it all worked out fine. I get to see the show on Thursday for Press Night. I can't wait. Anyway, I'm listening to the free Irish CD that I got in Ireland while Leanne (my flatmate that broke her foot on the Acropolis in Greece last weekend,) elevates her foot right now. Yesterday I got back from Ireland. I went with my roommate, Celina, and one of my flatmates, Caiti. We stayed in Dublin in a 10 person hostel room; very interesting. We arriveed Friday morning at around 11, and bought tickets for a hop-on hop-off tour bus. This means that you can get on and off the bus at what ever stop you like, and then get on again when ever you like at any time. It was very good, and we were so tired form traveling from 6am that it was nice to sit, and then get off at certain areas we wanted to walk around more. We went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Stephan's Park, Oscar Wilde's house, The Irish National Gallery, Grafton Street, Temple Bar, and we took a tour at the Guinness Storehouse, which was really awesome. The tour was of the 9 story factory that Arthur Guinness leased 250 years ago for 9,000 years, paying 45 euro a year. Insane! We got a free pint at the Gravity Bar, on the top floor, that had a full view of the entire city of Dublin through all glass walls. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday night we met up with some of Caiti's friends from Siena that we had randomly run into (I also ran into someone I graduated high school with, along with Clark Jewish Studies Professor Everett Fox's nephew.) We all went to a restaurant in the Temple Bar area, then made our way to two different pubs and an ice cream place, both pubs with live music, and we checked out the crazy Irish pub scene. Since everyone goes out and drinks, every single pub was absolutely packed, but everyone was so friendly that it wasn't too bad. The nightlife there is so insane, and it was a ton of fun.
On Sunday before we had to catch our flight later in the night, we made our way to the Southern Coast of Ireland to two different little towns called Dun Laoghaire and Dalkey (which the Irish pronounce 'donkey.') Dun Laoghaire was a boating town, and had a long pier that we walked down. It was absolutely beautiful. We even walked down to the beach and climbed on some rocks, and got splashed by the crashing waves because it was SO WINDY. We were literally blowing away, it was insanity. It was just a really fun and gorgeous area, there was a gazebo, a little jazz band playing Christmas music, and dogs running freely everywhere. We then took the Dart, which is like the Tube or the Subway, to 2 stops away to Dalkey. Dalkey was very quiet, but with lots of tiny little shops, many of which were closed because it was Sunday afternoon, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We went to a small cafe where I happily ordered a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese, which was so good. It was all just very relaxing. We walked around for a while, checked out a castle, wandered into an exchange bookshop, and strolled down a residential street with cute little cottages. It was so nice being away from the busy city life.
The best part about Ireland was the people. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I didn't feel like an out-of-place tourist like most of the other big European cities make you feel. Everyone was so helpful and would just strike up a conversation at any moment (speaking the same language didn't hurt either.) It was so refreshing because the people in London are very unfriendly as a whole, so having a weekend away from that was nice. I have been getting slightly sick of the way Londoners act. They are try to be polite and refined, but they are sort of just grumpy and not as friendly as they are in Ireland, or even back at home in the U.S. London is known for being a place where you don't make eye contact with people. On the tube it is unheard of to make as sort of eye contact with anyone, even when it is crowded and you are squished up against everyone. They don't get into conversations other than to be polite. Well, anyway, I won't get into all of that, but I'm just so glad I had a chance to experience Irish life, because it really was awesome. We all had such a good time and it was such a great last trip for the semester. I'll be home in less than 2 weeks! Insane!
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