Red Cow Moran Hotel Dublin

... not a lot of small towns between me and Dublin, the next ride would have to be my final.<br><br>A young man, about my age, in a business suit, driving a fancy new car pulled over to the curb. He wasn't going too far, but convinced me that he would drop me in a place from where I would surely get a ride. I climbed in. It turns out that despite his clever disguise, he was a traveler like myself. He entertained me with stories of his round the world trip. It all ...

... was a very international affair seeing as I was the only American. <br><br>After pints, drinks, learning how to dance Irish-style, and more meyham, we finally made it back to our hostel at 4am- Did you know it begins to get light at 4am in Ireland? I do! A few short hours later, I was up again to pack my things &amp; head to the airport. <br><br>It's sad that my time in Ireland is over, but now it's on to England! <br>

... but I didn&#8217;t because I was too worried about having to carry around a bag with shoes in it; completely ridiculous on my part, I know. The threat of death from falling didn&#8217;t seem quite powerful enough to compel me to action. <br><br>I immediately spotted an O2 store close by, so decided to duck in there and see about the phone first. It&#8217;s a tiny store and, since it was lunchtime, there were already a bunch of people waiting in what appeared to be two ...

... the church next to the hostel to see the memorial to St. Valentine; the memorial actually contained his body and blood. I then picked up my luggage from the hostel and took the bus back to the airport to begin my long journey 'home'. My flight was at 6.15pm, with a layover in Madrid at 10.45, then a flight to Barcelona from 11.15 to 11.55, giving me a few hours to pick up my stuff from my apartment and get back to the airport around 4.30am.      

... place you can visit, with the national pastime of drinking is only slightly more popular than the runner-up pastime, fighting. And yet nothing but wall-to-wall frickin&#8217; hipsters. I could not believe it.<br><br>(Before I go on, since this is a teaching blog, I want to try and educate a few of you &#8216;more life experienced&#8217; folks about what exactly a hipster is. I&#8217;ll do this by visiting the definitive source for this ...

... and then catch the bus for a sleep. The only question remained was can I have 2 big nights in a row with little sleep on this occasion. The S African cooked a wonderful pasta in prawn sauce with garlic bread. Tasty. Returning to the lounge was a better mix of nationalities, ensuring the conversation was in English. More Vodka and chat, we ended up heading out 7 guys and 1 French girl. Had a blast for a few hours but it was not without incident. A ...

... Springsteen, Tom Cruise, Justin Timberlake's parents - no I'm not making that up). Anyway, the sausage and chips were awesome. We walked over to Christchurch Cathedral and ate our food there, though Celia tossed most of her chips at the pigeons (one more thing I get enough of at home). Dublin Castle was packed with school groups (and not American schools, even, from the looks of it), so we weren't getting in there. Instead, we headed to the National ...

I felt like just relaxing today and I really didn't feel like staying inside so I had thought about going to the beach. I had taken a cab to Balbriggen Beach and, lucky me, not many were there. In fact, only about three people were around so I layed out my towel, and layed down. I put on sunscreen and just hung out. After about an hour of sun bathing, I ran into the ocean. Now, the feeling of the cool water on my skin ...

... girls had said if anything went wrong to just meet them at Valerie's friends apartment. They had given me the name of the complex and her building/room number. I, however, couldn't find the bus stop again so I ended up just hailing a taxi and trying to find my way there. I eventually got there but, of course!, they had given me the wrong building number. So I had to wander around with this nice girl I met in the laundry room who helped me eventually find the ...

I was finally able to find an internet cafe that would allow me to post some photos. It's surprisingly cheap, as well. At least compared to the one in the bus station! Anyway, I think I walked enough for a lifetime today, and I've only seen a bit of the city. I saw Christchurch Cathedral and Grafton Street today, though I didn't take any pictures of Grafton Street. Also, I made ...