June 30 - Hop On, Hop Off!

I think in the end I'd have to recommend the hop-on hop-off system of touring a city. Arcadia (the study abroad program) was ever so kind and gave each of us a ticket to the bus so that we could travel around and get to know Dublin a little bit better, and that's exactly what we did. I had originally planned to get up at 10:00am but through so body aches and cries for sleep it wasn't until 11am that I actually started moving. Anyway, what this all resulted in was that I didn't get to Fitzwilliam Ct until 12:30pm (of course this includes a little 10min portion of time where I got lost getting to the flat, but let's not talk about that).

I felt better though when I met up with Jennifer and Michelle and they weren't ready to go either.

Finally all three of us made it to the bus stop on the other side of St Stephan's Square, and on the walk through the park I got a great look at some of the greenery that Ireland has to offer, even in Dublin. Because I do think that that part of my expectation of the country was met. The grass and the trees are just so wonderfully green here, with bright flowers and far-reaching smells. And the grass even feels different. It's not fake looking like you find on golf courses, but it's soft and so inviting for sitting - even to me who doesn't like to sit on the ground (I'm way to distracted by the thought of bugs crawling in really uncomfortable places).

The first place the three of us got off was at Dublinia and the Viking World. It's a multimedia fill museum-like place, where visitors get to take a look at what Dublin was like in ancient times and what the Vikings that first settled the area looked like. I had a lot of fun - surprisingly enough. Because really? I don't like museums. But this time around there were things you could touch and mess with and not feel like you were damaging a priceless piece of history. Even more than that, I was able to travel at a faster speed with nothing requiring too much attention and Jennifer and Michelle were with me at that pace - wonderful!

After leaving Dublinia we hopped back on the bus and got off at the next stop, Christ Church Cathedral. We didn't decide to go inside the church, but we looked around the grounds, generally just getting a feel for the place. After that though we stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral, a beautiful and large church that has a beautiful park beside it. We toured the park first, taking pictures and watching an idyllic scene of couples and families frolicking among the flowers and green, green grass. Even I couldn't resist sitting down for a while, running my fingers through the grass.

We left the church as it was closing, and spent the rest of the evening riding the tour bus through the end of it's run, looking at the stops, deciding where we wanted to visit later. Eventually I ended up back at my flat, and took some time to cook myself some spaghetti in bolognese sauce (I even browned some meat to go in it). Later though things got really crazy - the joys of hosting 25 college aged men and women in Ireland.

I can't think of another time where I've been part of the hosting party of a get together like this. All the people of the program getting together, drinking, eating, laughing, just having a great time even though none of us were leaving the apartment. And I even enjoyed it. I don't think in the past I would have been as open to hosting people for this long (especially when thing's started getting rowdy) but tonight? I'm part of the excitement and I'm having fun. Maybe that's it. Since I feel so much a part of the people and the party, I don't feel the same about having them all here. I think it's a great way to end a Saturday night in Dublin -though I don't think I would do this kind of thing too often - it's a little loud.