In Dublin

I arrived safely and uneventfully in Dublin. I was greeted here by rain (yesterday) which has since cleared up and I enjoyed a beautiful day today. I spent a good portion of the day on a free walking tour offered by New Europe. It lasted about three and a half hours and we got to walk all over Dublin. Trinity College is beautiful, and we got to cross Ha'Penny Bridge, but my favorite part was St. Stephen's Green, where we ended the tour. Beautiful! Technically, anyone is allowed to graze livestock here but I forgot to bring my sheep.

Staying here, I have been reminded of one of the immutable laws of hostel-staying: the rules of the dorm room are determined by the person who seems the least mentally/emotionally stable. In this case, this is the woman who has one of the bunks in my room who insists that the lights be kept off and the curtain drawn AT ALL TIMES. She doesn't seem to leave the room, and the only time she has ever spoken to me is to introduce herself ("Marianne") and once, randomly, to ask if I am Catholic. One of the other girls in the room, Cathy (from South Carolina) and I were discussing this woman in the bathroom when our other roommate overheard us and asked, "Ze woman?? JE DETESTE." so at least we've come to some sort of international consensus about her.

This evening, I went on the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl. Not having a costume, I eschewed the myriad "Halloween" pub crawls and felt that this would be a fun alternative. I was right - it was quite enjoyable, featuring scenes and recitations from a variety of Irish authors. My favorites were a scene from Waiting for Godot (I now feel confident that I will NEVER have to see that play), and a recitation of a letter written by Oscar Wilde about his experiences in America. I met a 4th year med student from Indiana University who is a visiting student in Dublin for the month and chatted with him while walking from bar to bar. (I told him where I was staying and my planned itinerary for the next several weeks in case he needs to find me JUUUSSTTT KIDDING) It was good he was there as we consistently outpaced the rest of the group - I had imagined this outing as a boisterous group of young literary fans but actually the average age was around 50. I shall mark this in my journal as the only pub crawl I have ever been on where TWO people were walking with canes.

Tomorrow I head down to Cork, and from there likely to Galway. I am hoping once I get out of Dublin this country will get slightly cheaper - although discussing how expensive this city is has been a wonderful conversation topic with other tourists, much like discussing the weather.