Well this morning I was wrapped up in my sheet and I woke up with a headache. Not alchohol induced what so ever. Man-snoring, coldness and repeated waking up is the culprit. But I got up none the less. I had my grandola breakfast after a shower. The bathroom is 50 steps and 3 floors (?) downstairs. You walk in and there’s a room under construction with a washer and dryer, oddly sort of slick – like someone spilt washing detergent and it never was fully cleaned up. Continuing on to the next room there is a room with probably 8 stalls, toilets. But every single one of those doors do not close all the way and don’t lock. Toilet paper comes out in tissue paper size sheets, like baby whipes out the circular blue roll. I have to check to make sure they are popped out since you can’t pull them out otherwise. Nice, no? Past the stalls there are 4 sinks, none of which have soap.
Past that are the showers. Now, I’m not complaining – this hostel is actually not bad and pretty nice. Ok so I walk to the showers. There is a row of those as well, probably 8 as well. There is a curtain on each shower stall but no where to hang or place anything so you sort of just keep your clothes and toiletries on the floor. Sometimes you can grab the chair to put your stuff on. Ok, so when you get into the shower you push the button. The button turns on the water. The water has to turn warm, it gives you probably 10-20 seconds of water before turning off. Luckilly it doesn’t go back to cold. You learn to get used to it. Kinda amusing.
Ok so I got ready to go. I slept in my jeans and sweater last night since I don’t have any long PJs. So I end up switching jeans while I’m here. It gets chilly at night. I was in a room with…10 people? Guys and girls. And like I said, a snoring guy. Bleh. For the love of all things good in this world I hope I don’t marry a snorer, sorry Dad. Well, or the grace to fall asleep way before they begin to snore. Unfortuately I lost one of my earplugs, thus I could only block out one ear.
Today I stuck out at 10ish for the 11am free tour. I sort of went the wrong way but corrected myself, just fine. I got to the City Hall and waited around a bit with the group of 40 or so people. We were broken off in groups and I was with a Canadian tour guide. We went from the City Hall, to Dublin Castle. From Dublin Castle to Christ Church Cathedral, to Temple Bar street, Half Penny Bridge, Mansion House then ended St Stephen’s Green. After the tour I walked around St Stephen’s Green for a bit and then walked around what I later found to be a shopping district. I walked past a coffee shop called, “Insomniac Coffee” and I saw they had a logo cup and asked if I could purchase it. They said no. Heh. How stupid is that? If you have a cool cup, WHY NOT SELL IT?! Extra profit. Disapointment, again. I feel the strong urge to design a set of coffee/tea cups when I get home to make up for all the disapointing coffee/tea sellers not selling me their stuff.
I wandered around trying to find my way back and eventually ended up at Queen of Tarts. We had been to one of the city’s branches but I wanted to try their chocolate & pear tart and it was delish. I sat there musing to myself about the wonderful tart and about life. There were almond slices, the chocolate was creamy and there were bits of pears with one slice in the middle. All of this was put into a mini pie crust, which I suppose is what a tart is. And I received a small thumb dish with a bit of whipped cream. Very good. The small store had 6 or 7 small tables and had sort of a red theme. Very quaint. I was expecting cuter theme but it was pretty casual, minus the unmatching flowery tea cups. I really wish they would’ve had theme cups that I could purchase. How cool would it be to have a tea cup with “Queen of Tarts” on it? Ok, maybe I’m just on a really big tea cup logo collecting phase. I finished and paid before leaving.
I went next door to check out the coat of arms shop. This girl and I started chatting, her name is Sara. I was looking for Morgan’s coat of arms but they only had McCormack. Bleh. We continued to chat about guys, and life when I realized she didn’t sound like she was European. Hm. She didn’t sound Canadian either. Or Northerner…or Western. Hm. So I asked her, “You aren’t from around here, are you?” – She’s from Atlanta, GA! High five, score one for the South! We chatted about family and college for another 30 minutes or so and decided to go grab some tea over at The Queen of Tarts and exchanged Facebook info. 
She said she’d hit me up if she was free tonight. I waved bye and eventually found my way back to the hostel.
So my adventure out into Dublin, the better side, the South Side, was how I found Dublin. The real one. I mean as real as a tourist area can be. It’s sort of like going anywhere, it’s all there just for you. You won’t find the more or less real stuff until you head out to the neighborhoods off the beaten track, and sometimes it’s just not there. It’s just a facade.
I went back to the hostel, and my stomach got upset. I don’t think granola and sugar mix well. Anyway after that I went back to the front desk and was changed to another room for the last night here. – I was moved upstairs, to the attic, the 18 person attic. FUN. My rolly bag is feeling more and more like dead weight. The girls were ok, didn’t talk much. I grabbed my laptop and got on the WiFi downstairs. Sara eventually got on and said that she was just brushed off by her man and was too crushed to go out. I said it was fine and for her to go get a hot shower and cozy up in bed after calling her bff (or talk to me) and she said she was happy she met me, that I gave her great comfort today. I felt the same, it was nice to talk to someone today. Have a moment with.
I’ve been on the computer for the evening. I feel like I’m ready for home, I’m not having any stability moving around like this. If I had something set up and somewhere to get used to then I’d love to stay. I like staying in one place and relaxing. I can’t imagine when I will only have a few days holiday…now. Soon. It will be nice to get home and to have that knowledge that I can stay. I’m also sorta starting to get irritable. PMS. I can feel it coming, this slight tick, the slight bothering things that didn’t bother me before.
Well, enough of that. I’ve got to get up in the morning and find my next place to sleep and places to go.
