Tuesday was "Figure Out Phone Bullshit Day".
I met Pepe and Finn that afternoon upon waking, they were very nice. I took my time, drank a few cups of tea, then headed out to North of the Liffey to retrieve my phone. I didn't care if it was fixed or not; I seriously doubted that anything had happened to it.
I arrived to the stupid store, and of course the phone was not ready. They had it at some house and had to bring it from there... It was going to take 20 minutes surprise surprise. The phone had not been unlocked (surprise surprise again).
This time I didn't have my huge bag, and I was ready to explore! I decided I didn't care if they had to wait for me, so I went to a bar that I had heard about on Couchsurfing... I ordered some food (at a discount for couchsurfers! woo!), took my time, watched some Murder She Wrote at the bar...
On the way back (stuffed) I walked down another new major street, and decided since my phone was fucked I might as well get a new one at the Vodaphone store. I got the cheapest phone available (turns out EVERYONE ELSE at the house has the same phone lol - mostly because it's cheapest) and after a measely 50 euros I had a sturdy Nokia, a SIM card, and a 5 euro credit on the phone!
One thing I love about Ireland is the prices listed are the prices you pay. No thinking about taxes! Yay!
So I had all my new toys in their boxes when I headed back to the store.
I got there and the guy with my phone was at the pub. He came out and then of course it wasn't him with the phone it was his friend... five minutes later he shows up. I finally got my phone - but they were saying they couldn't fix it because the person before had damaged the software!
I took it to the first people, but Chinese girl looked confused and gave it to her boss. He looked at it for a second, but then said that it was stopped midway through and that's why the screen was going black right away. He could fix it, but had to take it somewhere else and it would take three hours.
I was not going to wait three hours. BLAH! I told them fuck it I'll get someone else to fix my phone I was too impatient and I was anxious to explore the city and not have to come back to the same place! He said I won't find anyone that will do it for cheaper, but I doubt that. I am going to poor parts of the world after all.
With that out of the way, I was free! I walked over the bridge, and wandered.
I got semi lost in North Dublin for a bit... In the south, I found Temple Bar, and Trinity College (the library was closed because it was after five). It was going to cost 9 euro to get into the stupid thing to see the Book of Kells, so I probably wouldn't have gone in anyhow.
Trinity campus was beautiful! I walked around taking photos pretending I was a student. There were very little tourists there because the library was closed...
When I walked out of the campus, there were a multitude of signs telling me where everything was. I saw one that said "Grafton Street", which is supposedly very well known. I had heard that Pepe might be playing on that street too, so I sauntered down the wide pedestrian street looking at all the shops, pubs, and performers.
I didn't see Pepe, but there was lots of stuff to look at :)
When I got up to the top of Grafton, I was at St Stephen's Green! It was perfect! I got some ice cream, and I had a mini relevelation on how to get back. I had no map (I didn't bring my book with me plus it doesn't go as far as where I was staying) but there was the Luas tram. The Luas was the light rail thing that went right by where I lived - if I followed the tracks upwards, then I knew my way back from the tram station.
I felt pretty proud for figuring this out :) I walked up and ended up finding Camden Street - another cool street to walk on.
I knew what general direction I was supposed to go in, so I took the odd detour if the street looked cool. there were cute little things along the way, and the weather was still sunny.
I saw finn bike by on the way up, Dublin is a small city centre... Eventually I made my way back. At one point I was walking down the street and it turned into Ranelagh which was the one I was looking for. It worked out well :) I had to stop for a little clarification at one point after, but overall it was easy, so now I could walk to the city and back unguided yay.
Ari was home, and she told me that since she worked at Trinity she could get me into the library and book of Kells for free! I was happy! We made a lunch date for the next day, and I watched some more Deadwood before falling asleep.
I woke up the next day and headed to Trinity. I got there without getting lost, and got to see the book of Kells!
The library was more interesting. They only show you one page of the book, and they turn the pages every so often so it was on a mostly writing page. It was cool, but the library was very pretty. I had forgotten my camera, but they didn't allow photography in there anyhow...
After we walked through the library (you could only really walk through that's it) we went out to a market thing for lunch. We got cheap veggie burgers with chips, but it was really good! She had to head back to work (she works in the chem lab) so I went to wander. I wanted to see Dublin Castle a few blocks away, so off I went. Again no camera, but if you really want to see it look it up! I'm told there are much much much better castles. The part I really wanted to see was beside it: the Chester Beatty Library. This was a collection of illuminated books and scrolls and things from around the world. There was also things like ancient snuff boxes, etc.
Basically this exhibition is possible because this guy, Chester, liked to collect things while he was alive and rich. He collected some rare books and things, and now they are on display. It was extremely interesting! I ended up there for over an hour looking at all the pretty things! It was very multicultural - it was closing though so I had to jet.
Ari told me during lunch that Pepe, her boyfriend, was playing a show that night at a funky place called Shebeen Chic. I was planning on going, but I wanted to get my camera for that night for sure, so I walked back to the house, got my camera, grabbed my leftover chips from Elegance Bar, and eventually headed back.
I got there with enough time before the show to order my first Guinness in Ireland. I took a picture with Ari with my first beer!
The music style was Flamenco, and there were a fair amount of clapping in this loud Spanish way :) It was cool - Dublin is very multicultural (I know Canada likes to claim this but I think Europe is way moreso simply because of the proximity of so many different cultures). There were people from Spain, Czech, Brazil, Venezuela, Ireland, everywhere! I ended up having more than one pint, and met lots of people :)
The next day I went down to Temple Bar with Ari to watch Pepe's busking band. They were playing in Temple Bar Square, and I was told to bring the hula hoops to try busking. Apparently it's really easy to busk in Dublin; the people are generous, you don't need a permit, and there are always a lot of foot traffic. I thought hey why not, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to ask for money by myself until I tried it out first to see how shaky I got in front of people.
I walked down and it was packed. There was a huge crowd around the band, so I went back a little onto an open square part to warm up and use the space. Lots of people were watching. Some guy gave me 1.50 euros and tried to ask me out.
I went for some water, then played on a side of the band! It was fun, but there were too many people walking by. After their break, I tried on the more public side! I still wasn't asking for money, but I wasn't shaky and I think next time I'll be ready!
this is post show, people have thinned a lot:
There was a show going on after the band played, so we all ate 2-euro chicken rolls and put the gear and hula hoops in the venue - a bar on river. We walked to Thomas' house to chill for a while before the show, so we sat on the balcony in the sun.
They were almost late for their own show, but it was fine. The bar ended up PACKED. There were three bands, and a lot of beer. I ended up drunk, and met even more people :)
I had tons o fun - it wasn't long before the bar was closing, and we were there for nine or something early like that... Most people went back to the house, where I left my hula hoops. Duncan, a guy in Cork that's in the band, knew the owner of the bar so we were able to go back and drink more behind closed doors. The next thing I knew I was feeling a little too drunk and kind of tired. When I took a cab back to the house I could see light. YIKES!
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