St. Patrick's Day

Hullo from Dublin!

It's been a lazy few days in Dublin- i've been over-indulging and sleeping in late. Not my style of travelling really, but my friend here has been spoiling me.

Im sleeping on M's plush sofa in her super-warm living room- funny thing is, im literally living here. She's got a room mate, so i cant quite share the room, im just living outta my suitcase in her living room. Im not complaining- it's warm and the telly's just here.

Spent an afternoon drinking at the Guinness factory- i have a certificate saying that i can pull a perfect pint of Guinness. I have never tasted the Black Stuff before and i think it is apt that the first time was at the Guinness factory in Dublin. I cant quite place the taste, but im quite fond of it now......getting drunk at 3 in the afternoon was a plus as well.

St. Patrick Day's was a riot in Dublin- everyone in green and wearing ridiculous hats and headgear! The parade was a grand affair- brass bands, colorful people and huge floating balloony things. We didnt get such a good vantage point and i tried carrying M's friend E on my shoulders. I hurt my back and the tiny girl manage to crush my brachial plexus, giving me parasthesia (tingling/pins and needles) down my left arm. Yeah, so dont try it unless you're really strong (even on the tiniest of girls unless they're like 6). Later we went for hot chocolate and cake- heavy on the cream and chocolate flakes on everything....yum!! Walked about town and then had lovely filled crepes. Came back to curl on the sofa and watch a movie and eat pringles. ...

My day at Newgrange started off quite normal- i dropped by the tourist office and the guy there advised me to take the shuttle bus there. Being skint and i up for an adventure, i opted for the 2 busses and a 30-minute walk option (later i realized the savings made up by the loooong trip was minimal, but hey, time and energy is what i have loads of, i have just little money). It was a lovely 30 minute walk- just that there was construction works and i had to dofge JCBs and piles of earth and rock. The weather held up, thank God.

Newgrange is a Neolithic monument older than the pyramids- no one knew why they were built, but they knew that the Boyne valley is home to 40 of these sacred mounds, Newgrange being one of the biggest. On the shortest day of the year the sun shines a beam of light into the slim tunnel in Newgrange. It's a huge mound, and there's this tunnel with a cruciform chamber at the end. The whole place is held up by stones placed in 3000 B.C. and hasnt been touched since. The slate roof is holding up tonnes of rock and soil and yet it's still standing strong with no mortar. Kinda scary thinking that when i was creeping in, but it wasn't too scary (it's hard to be scared in a tour group.....)

Because the tour finished late, i missed by bus from the village of Donore to Drogheda. I was planning to walk the 10 kms to Drogheda, or hitch, but the lady at the Visitor Centre was worried for me so she found 9 other tourist and booked a cab for the lot of us. That's how i ended up walking and hanging out with 7 italian guys and a brazilian couple. Watching the group of Italians i recall why it's nice travelling in a group- people to talk to, share jokes and generally make light of a difficult situation; it's a totally different experience from travelling alone, but the concern of people (like the visitor centre lady and my lovely friend M) reaffirms and restores my faith in humanity (no matter how sometimes people can just be real shitty).

Im off to Galway today, meeting up with an old friend from D.J. (my earlier highschool). I'll update later then darlings, au revoir for now!