First Train To Dublin

I'm not sure any of you appreciate how complicated it is to run this blog. If I had my computer it'd be a snap, but I don't. Instead I have my phone, my tablet, and my sister's laptop (which was small enough to bring whereas mine's a monstrosity) and I have to use all three to get all of this done. The phone is used to take pictures which I then have to email to myself because I can't us my USB cable. The photos are downloaded to my tablet where I type the posts and put the pictures in. My tablet, however, can't format the pictures and words together properly so I have to my sister's laptop to do that and finally officially publish the post. Why don't I use Jessica's laptop the whole time? Firstly, it's hers and she wants to use it when we have a few seconds relaxation time, and secondly the photos take forever to download on her computer where they take an instant on my kindle and we're not sure why. Also I want them on my kindle cause that's the device I have instagram on and it seems stupid to download them twice. Anyway, that's what I go through for all of this and for all of you and while I'm enjoying dong all of this, even blogging for me is a a complex task. Go figure.

Back to business though! Jess and I were up bright and early at 6:30am to get ourselves officially prepared for the train ride to Dublin. We were adamant on catching the 7:44am bus because it was the only direct train ride to Dublin where the other times had transfers. Not that it would have been so much of a hassle, but as we only had the one day in Dublin it made sense to get their as early as possible. We arrived at the train station with plenty of time to catch the train. Having said good-bye to Catherine last night we said farewell to Pat, who drove us to the station, thanked him for letting us stay with him, and boarded the first train to Dublin!

The train ride was so smooth! Omigosh, trains are awesome! There was a food trolley that went up and down and while we didn't buy anything we felt like we were in a Harry Potter or something! Just spectacular! We had a small snafu as it turns out we were in the wrong seats, but we figured that out before whoever was supposed to be sitting there arrived. Situated in our correct seats, we carried on for the 3 hour journey in comfort and style!

At the station we sought out the Information Booth as we'd been informed that there was where Ester, one of Catherine's sisters, was set to meet us. Turns out we went to the wrong Information Booth and Ester had to have us paged over the intercom so we could go to the right one! We all eventually found each other though and had lots of hugs and hellos while we gathered ourselves into her car. Ester then drove us the scenic was through Dublin, showing us several monuments and statues of interest or importance which was lovely since Jess and I love sightseeing! Along the way Teresa, the other sister, called and said she would meet us at Farmleigh, so there we headed! Farmleigh is the place where foreign dignitaries stay apparently but the land is open for people to stroll about and there were plenty of people walking about as we meandered pleasantly towards the cafe.

Inside Jess and I got an eclair and strawberry shortcake, respectively, while Ester got an apple fritter type treat. All we exceptionally delicious and we happily ate and talked until Teresa arrive where we ate and talked some more! Jess and I tend to be chatterboxes but they seemed highly interested in hearing about us and our lives and we were more than happy to tell them everything, or the closest thing to it! We talked about Jessica's boyfriend Frank, our majors at school, our future plans, our current travels, our upcoming travels, and an assortment of other topics that Jess and I jumped to one right after the other. Once we finished our meals we said good-bye to Ester and continued our journey with Teresa, who we would be staying with for our one night in Dublin at her B&B, Glen House.

Teresa drove us through some of the main town before dropping us off outside the Charles Beatty Library in order to go exploring on our own. She dropped us off at 1:00pm and told us to meet her at St. Stephen's Green facing Grafton Street at 5:00pm. Left to our own devices, Jess and I went to the Chester Beatty Library, which isn't really a library but rather a collection of old mostly Asian and Middle Eastern books with several Christian works. The paintings from the books were the main interest and the focus of most of the displays as the works were all written in older, foreign languages so it wasn't like a great number of people could read the text. There was wifi there so we spent almost an hour there, mostly touring about but also chilling in the cafe communicating with several people about where we were and what we were doing.

After the CBL we walked to Temple Bar. Teresa told us we had to see it, so we went, but we discovered Temple Bar is both a street and physical bar. We didn't know that and were very confused why everything was named Something-Something Temple Bar. We did find the actual Temple Bar which was very popular and lots of people were taking pictures and no one can tell me why. There must be some reason it's famous but all my relatives just said later that it's "a touristy bar with good music" which I don't really believe. Things are touristy for a reason. Either way we got a few pictures because it felt like the right thing to do, as tourists.

We tried to find Trinity College but I think we only saw a few buildings that were away from the main college as we walked through the town. We found an indoor Flea Market area called St. George's Arcade where we tried some free samples of caramel cashews and hazelnuts, saw some outstandingly fashionable sunglasses, passed an obligatory 'nerd-gear' shop, and generally saw what the people of Ireland sell outside of the tourist shops. We have only popped into one of those shops as we find them inherently tacky but we firmly believed we had to step into one before we left so we saw one and found our family crests on a few items and moved on, having checked that off our to-do list.

We found St. Stephen's Green early and decided to take a walk around to see what it was like. The area is just a park within the city, which most cities have, but it was very pretty and good for a walk! We ate a few of our snacks as we casually strolled and chatted surrounded by the greenery and trees of the park. There's a sign that says No Bikes but no one listens to that anymore than they listen to No Smoking signs and that's just how it is and no one really cares so we didn't either. After an full turn about we found a street we'd been told to find that has a bunch of museums on it. We only had about and hour left so we looked for one that was close, interesting, and obviously free. We were delighted to find the Archaeology Museum!

The inside was filled with artifacts from Irish history going back to the Iron and Bronze Ages. Popular exhibits are the gold pieces, which are fabulous, and the Viking Times area which had lots of weapons so of course that was a fan favourite for a lot of people. The museum is free and runs of the donations which you can tell from the quality of some of the exhibits. The pieces are wonderful and many are well displayed, but there are places where things are missing with no explanation and labels that don't always fit the items. It's still a lovely museum and we adored it but it always makes me heart sad to see museums that could use some funding.

After the museum we headed back to St. Stephen's Green and walked around once more while we watched to see if Teresa appeared. In the meantime, however, I officially broke the zipper of my trusty Paris Purse. Now the zipper got out of funk on the bus ride to Killarney where it popped off after we tried to stuff too much into it. I managed to get it to kinda sorta close after reattaching the zipper but it didn't really hold together effectively. While trying to fix it in the park though I officially snapped it and my poor purse is now zipperless. The plan was to use this purse in France and while I still intend to do that we have to be a lot more careful with it now it's an open purse. C'est la vie.

Jess managed to find some free wifi on the cusp of the park so we were able to email Teresa where we were and that we, of course, couldn't seem to find her when 5:00pm rolled around. About 5:05pm she pulled over in a No Parking zone and dashed over to where we were and we all gunned it to the car before it got a boot. It did not get a boot and we all happily headed off to a particularly popular and chic Italian restaurant in Dublin. The name escapes me, but it was fabulous! Jess and I actually got to order a main dish each which has never happened. We always get one appetizer and maybe one main, both to split! So this was nice, but overly filling if I'm being honest. While at the restaurant, Teresa's daughter Emer joined us and we, like always, had a marvelous chat! We rehashed a few topics we'd covered with Teresa and Ester earlier but it was no matter because neither Jess nor I minded saying it again. For desert I ordered a serving of profiteroles while Jess got some banana cake thing that she couldn't finish and neither could I no matter how I tried! When we left Jess rode with Emer, on Teresa's insistence, and I rode with Teresa to her sweet little B&B.

At the house I promptly felt sick from eating too much food (I really wasn't ready for that much food apparently!) but I felt better after a quick break before I joined Jess, Teresa, Emer and three new guests in the main gathering room. The three newcomers were Patricia, one of Catherine's twin girls, and Tom and his daughter. I believe all of us are related somehow but the family tree my mother drew up can't cover everyone! No matter, we all had a grand time discussing Cow Tipping (which Patricia didn't know about and vehemently opposes on the citation of general stupidity), Car Surfing (which everyone opposed for the same reasoning), and Frogging (which we all considered weird but rather French).  We had just a grand time talking and laughing and swapping stories until about 9:00pm when everyone muscled their was out of the house, arms filled with fruit that Teresa foisted upon them because she didn't want it to go bad. Waving their bananas, everyone cleared out except me, Jess, Teresa, and 3 rugby players in the rooms upstairs. At least I think there were 3. Young men all sort of look the same for a couple of years in the middle.

To end the evening, Jess and I presented Teresa with our gifts for her: A little black 3D printed dragon and Dunkin Donuts coffee. She particularly liked the dragon which she set on her fireplace before shooing us off to be so we could get a decent nights sleep for the next mornings 6:00am wake-up which she promised would be greeted with pancakes. Despite her telling us to go to bed, Jess and I were up until 11:00pm showering and getting all our things assembled for the following morning's flight into Paris! It was sad to think of leaving Ireland, but the thrill of Paris awaited us next!