dublin

oh my god i'm so mad, i just finished writing this post and accidently screwed it up and have to start all over again. yarg.

annnnnnnyyyyyyway.

yesterday dad and i got on a train at around 730 and road for the better part of 3 hours to spend his i think weekly day off in dublin. wow! nothing like i was expecting. dublin is a busy busy place. in fact, it's probably the busiest place i've ever seen. you have to turn your shoulders not to crash into people when you walk down the middle of a pedestrian street. There is a place called temple bar we walked through that's famous for having old and unique character. it's basically a section of town with narrow, windy streets of cobblestone, leftover from medieval times i think. on a busy day like saturday, they're overrun with pedestrians though meandering about the shops. lots of shops. dad made a big deal about going to this one PEN shop to get his pens fixed. he's truly mad in the city. i know i said that he's calmer here, but i suppose that's just the country end of it all. walking through the city he's over stimulated it seems and gets paniced, frantic, and crazy all over again, walking ten paces ahead of me, interupting himself to talk even. funny and annoying. we saw the great dublin town spire which i thought was awesome, lots of pubs, the oldest of which frm 1745 or something ridiculous, the river liffy, lots of things. it was basically a day of walking and boy did we ever. when we got hom, i didn't have energy to do much of anything and probalby slept 12 hours. but it was a good day in all.

when we got home around 8 or something, we had to get the car from bridgette. she's one of dad's friends in town, an old crotchety stereotype. ha, she's nice, very nice, but something out of a bad british sitcom on pbs. we left the car in her driveway to shorten the walk and when we came off the train, she had a can of pinto beans or something she had been insisting on giving us for a few days because she would never touch them. shes hilarious, "ooooohh dooo come in for some tea before you go!!" and so we did. and so she talks us up for an hour or so about this and that thing that seems appauling and bothers her and that we should be careful about and what have you.

on another note, guinness truly does taste better here. muuch mcuh mucho better.

and i am planning on what i'd like to try and see during my backpack portion of my stay. anny suggestions? it's looking like barcelona, stuttgart, vienna, prague, are all definates. and i think i found the rail pass option i need. we'll see.

cheers!