Day 2: More Dublin

The Internet was out at the hostel last night, so I've already reached Cork, but this post is mostly about yesterday.

Anyway, after forcing myself to stay up until 11pm on Friday to conquer the jet lag, I thought I'd be able to get up early the next morning and get some serious sightseeing in. Unfortunately, that plan was a little derailed when the next time I rolled over was at 11am and the cleaning woman was standing in my room. So I missed the highly rated historical walking tour that I had really wanted to go on, which was a bit of a bummer. But after reminding myself that this trip is a 65 day marathon and not a sprint, I decided that a little extra sleep was ok and probably needed.

Thus, I tour-guided myself, which definitely involved a lot of walking but not a lot of history: I saw all the major sites but didn't learn much about what I was seeing. Still, I had a fun day, and Dublin is a charming city. It certainly passes the city test, which is "would I want to ever live here"? Answer: "absolutely."

After a day of touring the city, these are some of my general musings:

1. Dubliners seem like a generally agreeable lot, although the place was so packed with tourists (many Americans and English) that it's hard to actually find any real locals. I think they may be hiding from us. Smart.
2. One place where you can tell the locals from the tourists is at crosswalks. For a happy-go-lucky, go-with-the-flow bunch, these Dubliners are AGGRESSIVE pedestrians. Not in a mean way, but more in a daredevil way. While the tourists are standing and waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green, the locals are dashing through the streets like a human game of frogger.
3. Overall, Dublin is a beautiful, fun city with a great attitude.

I met up with Andrew and his new roommate for a quick pint last night, and then left early to get some sleep. On my way back to the hostel I decided to swing by the Temple Bar area to check out the infamous nightlife. It looked like a crazy party. I quickly dropped into a bar called the Quays to catch a short session of live music, which was enjoyable but clearly meant for the tourists.

I'm working on getting more photos loaded, but haven't found the fastest Internet yet. I'm now getting out of Dublin and heading to the smaller cities of Cork and Kilkenny. I wish I had one more full day to spend in Dublin, but the conclusion that I haven't seen enough of the city is a good excuse to come back again one day, which I hope to do.

The train ride out to Cork was beautiful (lots of sheep and horses!) I'll send stories of Cork soon.

Temple Bar by Day

And Temple Bar by Night