The Dub

Buds from the Dub reunited in Dublin Ireland. I arrived in Dublin at an unholy hour but fortunately Trevor and Jeanne were there waiting for me making it a tired trio. We checked into our hostel which was the Kinlay House, a classy building next to a cathedral and near the major Dub sites. We walked around for awhile the first day but were too tired to do much so we went back to the room to take a nap. During his time our roommates in our 6 person bunk room came in, two suspicious looking French guys. Me and Trevor were not happy. After our nap we decided it was time to get a better feel of the twon, or better yet, a taste of the town. Me and Trevor went to what would become our home for the week, a kebab shop called Momo's. We ended up eating dinner there everynight except for one, when we mistakenly thought that a place named AbraKEBABra might be better. Everytime we ate there the crowd usually consisted of the kebab maker, me and Trevor, four Turkish men in the back wearing suits, and two spinning chunks of meat. The men with suits brought back memories of Turkey for me and I began regretting not bringing my suit to Dublin. Enough about kebabs.
The first night we went down to the pub next to our hostel and got our first pint of Guinness and watched the USA play Italy in futbal. It wasn't pretty. We went back to our hostel and were hanging out in the common area when the French guys were spotted. Not them again. We were preparing for some glares when they walked over with large grins on their face and asked what we were doing that night, so beginning our broken English friendship. We ended up loving these guys, going out with them every night, and even befriending them on facebook.
Dublin felt like a small city to me, with most of its sites located near each other in the centre of the city. We walked good portions of it each day seeing the major sites such as their ridiculously large spire, the Guinness factory, famine statues, Phoenix park, Trinity college, James Joyce, the International Street performers Championship (where we held up a performer named "Alakazaam" in our red ponchos), and more kebab shops.
While we were in town we had the chance to celebrate Bloomsday, a celebration for their favorite author, James Joyce. Unfortunately this meant literally tens of people were out celebrating, but that didn't stop us from going to his statue and also the James Joyce centre.
The highlight of the week for all of us was probably our afternoon spent in Phoenix Park. The park itself is twice the size of central park, has 500 free range deer, the presidents home, the US ambassadors residence, and a zoo. We rented bikes when we got there and had a really good afternoon biking all over it and lounging in the grass underneath a giant cross that was erected in the centre of it. It was great being on a bike again, although my breathlessness at the top of hills brought anxiety as I realized in a few weeks I would be biking 420 miles across Iowa.
My final night in Dublin was also really nice as it started at first started at Momo's before moving on to reggae night at a pub called the Turk's Head. We went with our French friends and enjoyed some music that seemed really out of place in Dublin, bu everyone was really into it. On top of that, when we entered two girls with Budweiser shirts approached us and asked if we would like a free pint of Bud on them. We all reluctantly agreed.
Dublin was a really enjoyable town, and was an interesting oppurtunity to learn more about Irish history. I really had never heard much about "The Troubles," Sein Fein and Northern Ireland before and I was really fascinated with how this seemingly normal European country had such a history of religious conflict that still permeates today. As the street performer "Mr Toots" said, "Im going to need you guys to work together on this one, but the Irish aren't known for that are they?"
I once again flew back to England at a painful hour in the morning which left me with several hours on my hand before my bus back to Southampton. I took advantage of this by walking from the station to Buckinham palace and taking a big nap in a park next to it. A nice little journey I would say.