What better way to spend Halloween than… traveling??? Well, actually, once we got to the airport (K and I seem to have this amaaaazing luck with travel… our bus to the airport was… errr… delayed… and we thought we were going to miss our flight) and got through customs, I heaved a large sigh of relief… for several reasons… a. we made it, relatively unscathed… b. we were leaving Paris (no, there’s nothing wrong with Paris… I just was ready to leave… and I understand NO French… which was more than slightly annoying…) and c. I was going to a country where everyone spoke ENGLISH!!!! You honestly have no idea how starved K and I felt for a familiar sounding conversation… no, I don’t mean eavesdropping, I mean, not having to filter and translate constantly… I mean actually feeling like you belong somewhere!! Really, I love Italy, and traveling has been great, but knowing that I was going to Dublin kind of felt like going home…
Once we arrived in the Dublin airport, and lugged our huge bag onto the waiting bus, I felt better… I could zone out and actually understand the people around me… I didn’t worry about asking for directions, or making some gigantic cultural blunder… I just felt… at home!
Upon arriving at our hostel, K and I met up with M, who had arrived the day before… she was asleep on the couch… recovering from her first night in Ireland… definitely a good sign :-p The three of us threw the big bag into the storage room, grabbed our stuff, cleaned up in the bathroom, and went to go get fooood!
Now, at this point, anything that was not over-salted airport food would have been a gourmet meal, but M took K and I to this great pub for some home-cooked Irish goodness… while we were eating, catching up, and planning our night, we saw out the window a rather straaaange sight… a parade of people dressed as oompa-loompas (at first I thought leprechauns, but realized, right country, wrong holiday)… apparently this was the Halloween Parade… no, it didn’t rival the Macy’s Day parade, but it did make me smile… though… with the amount of sleep I was running on the giggles were inevitable…
From there, we headed out into the streets of Dublin… to complete our costumes, and enjoy the city…
I felt like I was at home… walking through the streets of Cambridge… with the shops and cafés, restaurants and foot traffic… not to mention understanding the language… it was honestly the best feeling… the people were friendly, the atmosphere was just warm (despite the temperature) and comfortable… Having only been there few hours I had already decided Dublin was my favourite… and Halloween hadn’t yet begun!
Still having some time to kill, M, K, and I wandered back over near the hostel (Temple Bar area!!!) and found a little outdoor market selling all sorts of cakes, torts, cookies, and other wicked heavy goodies :-p Clearly we needed dessert, so we each bout a piece of pie, sat down, and listened to a street cover band sing the Beatles… Yep. I love Ireland.
By the time we got back to the hostel, we took to settling in, taking quick naps, it was time for dinner… so we headed to a place M had already found, and had the one thing K and I had been craving for way too long… BAGELS!! Honestly, I don’t know what it is about Italians and their breakfasts, but bagels are an essential part of life… and should never be overlooked…
And then… back to the hostel, getting ready for the night… M, K, and I getting ready for anything is already ridiculous… three girls, one mirror, and way too much fun involving crazy makeup, costume adjustments, stick on nails, and a boot debacle… :) By the time we were finished it was time to meet up with M’s friends C and A… the five of us headed out into the streets for some bar hopping and Halloween craziness…
After trying my first Guinness, taking some group photos, and really getting into the Halloween spirit, we ended up spending the entire night in this one pub listening to this awesome live band, red kid.... several hours, bulmers, and songs later, we walked back in the pouring rain.... but not before stopping to get Chinese at possibly the only place open at (****) in the morning :)
good night.
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