The Litterbox: So many rainbows, so little time

One of the numerous rainbows we saw in Dublin; this one is from the view of the Guinness Gravity Bar

We're back in London for now, for less than 24 hours actually, and we have been for a few days. I've put off updating this for a bit because it's been so nice to just relax at the flat without feeling the need to do things like figure out travel plans or write about them. Much as I loved this past year, I'm on exhausted traveler. It'll be nice to be some place boring for a bit, or at least stay in the same country for longer than 3 months. Anyway, I've also put off updating because there's just so much to say and it's a little overwhelming. Over the past week we've been to Ireland and Scotland, and they were incredible. In order to help myself start this entry, I decided I would only focus on Ireland for this update; I'll write about Scotland when I'm back home.

So Ireland. Wow. Well, after going on tours and learning all about Ireland's unfortunate history, I find it somewhat fitting that Tony and I spent most of our time in the country in the rain and worried about money. We flew in late Saturday evening and arrived at Isaac's Hostel. When we arrived they were having a social BBQ in the garden where we could get a hamburger and beer for just €5, which is reasonable enough. I enjoy hostels; I often feel out of place walking into a hotel. In a hostel I don't feel the need to act like anything other than what I am: a broke college student. But it can be a little uncomfortable when sharing a room with strangers. Tony and I stayed in mixed gender 6 bed rooms in both Edinburgh and Dublin. In Edinburgh we completely lucked out and had the place to ourselves for 2 out of our 3 nights there, but in Dublin it was a slightly different story. The sleeping patterns of the people in our room were so random that there was constantly at least one person asleep in the room at all hours of the day. First off, there was a guy there who was.. rather interesting. Tony and I think he was a vampire, but we have no proof other than the fact that he was completely nocturnal, came in at 9 am, slept until 8pm, got dressed in a suit and went out until the next morning. The two of us got into the habit of going to sleep early so that we could get up early to take tours, and I also felt a little ill while we were there so I took to napping in the afternoon, around the time the vamp--other guy was leaving. Once we'd go to sleep, the group of French girls would come in, get ready to go clubbing, and get back loudly at 3 in the morning and then sleep until 11am or so, while we would get up and leave by around 6 or 7am. It was a complicated schedule... sorry you had to hear all of it, but I found it somewhat fascinating.

Walking the streets of Dublin

Anyway, after a night of sleep, Tony and I went on a free tour that was being advertised in the hostel. It was a great tour and it let us see pretty much all of Dublin, plus our tour guide was filled with fascinating stories about Dublin's past. My favorite, and probably the saddest, story that I think captures the unlucky nature of Irish history involves Dublin castle, which was built and inhabited by the English. The Irish weren't very happy about the English occupation, that unhappiness dictates most of their recent history, and they were prone to rebellions that were often catastrophically unsuccessful. This one particular rebellion involved 19 men and women (because Ireland is so above sexism) who believed that they alone could storm Dublin castle and reclaim the city from the English. They made it pretty far and were nearly at the point of raising the Irish flag in the castle until they started having second doubts; they hadn't been met with much, if any, resistance, but why? They started to think that the English must have seen this coming, that they were laying in wait, two steps ahead of them, just ready to catch them in the act. Paranoid and panicked, they retreated to the City Hall just next to the castle, where one of the members raised the Irish flag from the roof of the building and was shot by an English castle guard. But, the real tragedy is that the English were hardly onto their plot at all. Where were they? At the races. Had the group simply carried on, they could've taken control of the castle and possibly reclaimed the city for Ireland, bringing an end to years of rebellion, oppression, and bloodshed.

So kids, the moral of the story is: believe in yourself and your ability to rebel against the English. Just don't mess with their tea like the colonists did, it makes them cranky.

Frothy mustaches after our first taste of Guinness brewed right in Dublin

Anyway, the tour was money well spent, especially since we didn't spend any, and it set us off on the productive track to see the rest of Dublin. We also got to hit up the Historical Museum and see the bog men, which were incredibly impressive. We decided to be especially ambitious and walk completely across town to the Guinness Storehouse. For €11, the student price, we walked through the exhibition and got a free taste of freshly brewed Guinness, along with a free pint in the highly impressive Gravity Bar. The exhibition was all well in good, but the Guinness was excellent and the bar was way beyond our expectations; we didn't know that it offered a full panorama of the city of Dublin. We even had the incredible luck of seeing a rainbow from up there, which is the first picture in the blog. We would see a good 5 or so more in just the 3 days we spent there; I can see now why leprechauns and rainbows are so stereotypically Irish.

A walkabout of the Gravity Bar

That was enough for one day (trust me) and the next day we woke up tired, worried about our dying bank accounts, and, at least on my part, a little more than under the weather. We mostly took it easy, making simple adventures out to see the streets of Dublin and coming back in for naps and rest. I won't explain my symptoms here because I still have to cross the border of the US and I want to be allowed to come back, so I'll just say for now that flu meds seemed to help. Still, the day wasn't a complete bust and we got to see some great street performers, not to mention of course the tickets we bought to see Riverdance. The show was incredible, definitely the best dance performance I've seen. Unfortunately, it only furthered our anger about the Moulin Rouge... Our two tickets for Riverdance combined was less than half the cost of one Moulin Rouge ticket, and yet the talent of Riverdance was astronomically greater.

Galway Bay

Our last day in Ireland was spent on a tour of the west where we visited Galway Bay, the Shannon River, and the Cliffs of Moher. They were all staggeringly beautiful and I would write much more about them because they deserve the attention, but I need to get to sleep so I'm well rested for the plane tomorrow. Besides, the tale is better told with pictures.