Dublin, Ireland

You may or may not know this, but when I first conceived of this Eurotrip, I had originally planned to stay in Dublin for a year. Something about the pub scene and how jovial leprechauns always seemed to be  must have had something to do with it. This should hopefully convey to you how anticipated this part of my trip was for me, and how genuinely excited  I was about coming here.

I flew on budget airline Ryanair. If you book it early enough (and fly to their few select destinations) a flight can cost as little as $30! That’s why they do everything in their power to squeeze another buck from you. They don’t serve a meal and hand out

Apparently I like profiling my flight mates, so this time I sat to this guy Phil, who turned out to be pretty awesome! We chatted the whole flight through, and he eventually treated me to the cab ride home! (We were going the same way anyway, apparently…) He works in IT in some odd gambling website (the equivalent of which is illegal in North America, but awesome elsewhere in the world.)

In Dublin I stayed in my first hostel. Turns out I was way over-anxios about the whole ordeal. It’s right in the middle of the citycenter (in Europe it’s not called “down town” like it is in Montreal).

I actually feel very homesick here. It reminds me a lot of Montreal – People look more like Montrealers here than Londoners do. Also, this is the first time I’m actually by myself, without Tara or Julien or anybody familiar. You wake up in the morning, walk around town, and then having nothing to do for the rest of the day.

Here’s an odd thought: people told me London would be very cold, but it was actually much warmer than Montreal. So was Coventry. From there,  I was told Dublin would be colder, but it’s even warmer. This is making me worry about Paris and Spain… Also, it hasn’t even drizzled once since I left home 13 days ago. I thought it always rained in England…

Talking with Phil, I realized that Ireland is the Canada of England. Many Irishmen seem to agree with my analogy. Think about it – they are the less populated, more polite little brother to the north with a slightly less valuable currency and a self-esteem problem. England and the US are both at the forefront of the world news and politics, whereas Canada and Ireland kinda just sit back. Ireland also had a an odd tense cultural environment (due to campaigns by organizations with Three-letter acronym), resulting in a significant portion of the population having a different cultural identity. I know I’m really stretching it, but the available parallels are quite impressive nonetheless.

Odd Irishism: men here tend to shave their head much more. I haven’t seen any balding men, only completely bald ones. I have also seen one (total: 1) asian person.

Quick one: Guinness actually tastes way better here.

Here’s another: if you ask for the time and it’s around 1:30, people call it “half one”. Extremely confusing the first few times.

Another: there are switches on the power outlets here. You can plug in your laptop, and then it’ll die half an hour later, and you’ll just sit there wondering what the hell happened.

One last one: everything around here happens in a pub. You eat lunch there, you bring your kids there for dinner. It’s weird. This was the case in England, but it’s worse in Ireland.

While we’re on the topic of drinking in Ireland, I have to share the experience of my birthday. There was this big rugby game, so I hop into a pub and meet some friendly people. We eat, drink, be merry. And then they drink more. Then some more. At a certain point, I’m feeling way too buzzed for 5:30 in the afternoon, so I start drinking water, and they mock me for it. Then they drink another few drinks – and they don’t look the slightest bit tipsy. Meanwhile, I’m falling over, but I swear each one of them had at least 3 times what I had to drink! I’m talking young adults and middle-aged men and women.

Photo time!

The Spire of Dublin:

I couldn’t not share this with you:

Dublin Bixis!

Birds have no respect for public property:
 

This also makes no sense:

My next stop is Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. I’ve been here days already and it’s awesome. Post to come tomorrow.