Break day 5: Off to Ireland

Ryan Air sucks: we had to get up at three in the morning the next day to catch our plane. It was a rough day. We left the house somewhere around four am, took a bus, I stopped by a bank to take out enough money for Ireland (did I mention I was robbed? Sigh...still hurts), and we wandered around looking for the bus that went to the airport. Ryan Air airports tend to be far away from city centers, so getting there was kind of a hassle. That bus didn't show, so we had to dish out an extra 10 pounds to hop on a different one. We were a bit worried we wouldn't make the flight, but we did.

"Ola, do you have your passport?" - Nathalie's mantra after the first flight's fiasco

"Yes"

This time I wore the fanny pack. I think I may have fallen in love with them. I have a new theory: fanny packs' reputation for being dorky is a big scheme perpetuated by pickpockets worldwide. Honestly if we were all a little more like kangaroos and had all our important stuff in front of us, they would go out of business.

I want a fanny pack. But moving on...

We got into Dublin pretty early. Back in Montpellier I had done a little bit or research and found that there are free walking tours, so we did that. It was three hours of walking around, seeing the sights, learning a condensed version of Irish history.

One thing that stuck: the Romans came and didn't like it and left. Between the rain and my numb feet, I could understand why.

Our much, much too early flight to Dublin. Nathalie going to the land of her people

First things we were welcomed with: U2 in the airport and a Guinness truck in front of our bus. 

City Hall

Dublin Castle from the 13th century

Lady Justice with her back to the people (they had a long, hard history)

Color! Nice change from Montpellier

We stopped at a cafe on the tour. Nathalie "forced" me to share her cake. Honestly, I have never been so unhealthy in my life, and yet...so good

All of it, I agree with all of it

Him explaining the big tall stick thing the government paid to have built during the economic boom. The locals, according to the not-so-subtly leftist guide, don't like it, they call it the "Stiffy on the Liffy." You figure it out.  

Trinity College. I think UW is more impressive, in my humble, completely non-bias opinion 

Molly Malone

They light up the College and the bank at night

I'm going to be honest... that day: not my favorite. We had been up since three that morning, we were carrying all our stuff, it was really cold and rainy, and I was actually homesick after having been with family for a few days, I had realized how horrible the money exchange rate was and I had made the mistake of taking a look at my bank account that morning, it was a little tense. But we didn't kill each other! We have quite a bit of self-control, it turns out.

That evening we finally went back to our hostel. First hostel experience! Woo! It was a really, really nice hostel, I have to say, with breakfast in the morning, free dinner one night, endless free tea and coffee. It was clean, the shower was nice. I can't complain.

There is still a tiny, tiny bit of nerdy Ola left in me, I tried to do some studying. The old me would probably have gotten the homework due on the Monday I got back done before I left but...I tried. Sort of. 

"I hope I don't fall asleep with my clothes on and the light on again" ...I turn around 5 minutes later to find that she has, in fact, fallen asleep with her clothes on and the light on. It's a Nathalie thing. 

Am I pretty mommy? Honestly, we were soooo dead

We laid down at around 7:30 and I immediately felt the exhaustion.

"We have been up since three am..." Oh goodness. Then we proceeded to talk about how we had managed to not kill each other during the day and apologizing for whatever annoying things we had done that day, laughing like idiots at who knows what.

And then Nathalie looked at me, said "I hope I don't fall asleep with my clothes on" (a habit of hers), and then five minutes later I looked over and she had fallen asleep with her clothes on. Lovely.

Funny story though: I took our cups out to wash them in the kitchen and some Brazilian guys were standing around, and one randomly gave me a hug. Okaaaaay...? They were slightly tipsy. One of them started telling me I had beautiful eyes which was weird. I never get hit on...ever. I was kind of uncomfortable and I was going to leave, but then he told me he was also studying in France, in Lyon. So I ignored the creepy and we spoke in French for a bit, which was necessary. My French has completely gone down the toilet here, I'm going to go back and not even be able to order food anymore.

But we talked for a bit, I went to sleep. oh...glorious sleep.