Bus tour and beyond

Well the last two days have been, well, a sort of blur really. Someone asked me yesterday what I all saw on the tour and i couldn't even remember the third thing...i still can't....what was it?...whatever, apparently it did not capture my attention.

Today I was a better little tourist than yesterday. Yesterday I went to Christ Church Cathedral and did a tour of "Viking Dublin," called "Dublina." I'm not a fan of reading things in museums and although I learned quite a bit of interesting stuff about the early days through the medieval days of the city, i was ancy by the end of it. Would have been an amazing way to learn about medieval europe back in gradeschool.

a little viking man having a rough go at it in the bathroom. complete with, well, sound effects

Since I paid 8 euro for the church/exhibit, I decided just to parooze around the St. Patrick grounds.  I may go back to hear the choir sing one of these nights. Then I hopped back on the bus (it's a hop-on, hop-off  2-day tour) and headed to the Guinness brewery. It wasn't a bad deal, considering I have my ISIC (student ID) card that Karl made for me and is saving me OODLES of money. But, come on now, I've been on so many brewery tours and well this one was a self-guided tour that didn't actually let you see, smell or touch anything. Basically, it was amazing architecturally speaking, but the actual tour was "eh." However! at the end you do get a "taste." A full pint of Guinness in their Gravity Bar on the top level. Great view of the city and great beer made for a decent stop.

Guinness settling!

Apparently a couple liked my photo skills after I snapped this one, cause they asked me to take their photo as well.

This is where i can't remember what i did next. A combination of missing lunch and pounding a beer at 2 left me a little unaware apparently. That's not true. I ate some bread. Oh yea. I tried to find some soup and ended up getting a bowl of meat something or other stew and trotted off back home. While I ate my soup in the common area I must have looked a little pathetic because some guy gave me a bowl of pasta. Very nice. very not yummy. I'm not a big pasta fan and getting a huge mound of it reminded me of the stomach ache-days of Costa Rica.

That night the Aussie (Susan), the Taiwanese (Agrin I believe), Suzy (Canadian) and two British sisters (Jenny and Lucy) and I went to a bar for some beer and a little Irish music and dancing. We all had a really good time. The poor Irish couple that we shared a table with probably got real sick of our rather loud conversation. But the old guy did wave at us a little bit as he left so maybe not.

Karl and I were able to sort of skype tonight (which means we could actually hear and see each other for awhile) so that gave me a much more pleasant night of sleep than the first night.

Happy, well rested Teresa

Today I continued the bus tour thing, going to the Kilmainham Gaol (jail). That was an excellent tour. After this I went to Phoenix park, the largest enclosed park in Europe I believe, and one of the first. I went to the park because I saw this little tea house that one of the bus drivers said was from the 1800's. It was adorable and had really good food. I had to double check with the waitress to see if it really was old because my goodness, the Irish are sarcastic. Or maybe it's just Dubliners. I dunno but I'm a pretty sarcastic person, I love a very sarcastic boy, and these people still constantly confuse me with their dry, tricksee humor. jokes abound, but it's all well and good. I've even grown skeptical of some of the plaques and things that indicate different sites of importance. I can't really explain why, but it just would not surprise me if someone labeled something of absolutely no importance to mislead tourists just for kicks and giggles.

Jail

Tea Room

I had planned to shop today. But i really have no room in my bags sooo I am distracting myself by blogging instead : ) I AM however going to see Harry Potter tonight with the Aussie and a friend of hers studying here in Ireland. It goes without saying that "Harry Potter Puppet Pals" have been stuck in my head all day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

DUMBLEDORE!