Day Two

Last night after I sent off yesterday's blog, I went out to Temple Bar with Alan, a german couple about my age, a guy from Spain (I can't remember his real name but I just call him "The Spaniard"), and four girls from England. Temple Bar is the most amazing place I've seen so far. It's a small area just east of Old Town Dublin that's just rows and rows of pubs and nightclubs and at night the whole place is packed with people and street performers. That night we all went clubbing and I had a Genuess (because I had to, ya know?) and it was ok, I'm not really a beer person and I guess it was good beer but it still just tasted like beer to me. In all though, it was a great night.

I got up this morning early and started my day with the complimentary breakfast in the hostel. As far as food goes, it really wasn't all that wonderful; like camp food, not terrible just livable. I wasn't at all about to complain though, because it was free and I decided to try to eat as much as I could so that maybe I could skip lunch and save some money. After breakfast I walked down to Connelly Rail Station and bought a ticket to Belfast for tomorrow morning at 9:35am. At 11:00am the hostel closes every day till 2pm so they can clean, and so I walked around the city looking for an instrument shop that I might be able to find a fiddle in. I didn't think I would have so much trouble, but I couldn't find one anywhere. So I walked around Temple Bar for a while which is a lot calmer in the day, but still pretty cool. There are still street performers playing traditional instruments and all the bars have live music. So I eventually ducked into a bar to get out of the cold for a bit, and stayed there for a while listening to the live music. I caught myself nodding off in the end there, so at 2:00 I made my way back to the hostel to take a nap for a while. Well I got there and took a nap, but I guess I misjudged how tired I was because I didn't awake till 6 hours later. When I got up I was bummed that I slept so long because I could have been out doing stuff. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that there wasn't really a lot I would have done anyway. All of my roommates had gone off for the day, and I had about 7 euros left from the $100 U.S. Dollars I exchanged at the airport. And it was great because as I was walking down the stairs I caught the 4 British girls from the night before, and they invited me out to a comedy club. So I grabbed my jacket and went out with 4 british girls to an Irish Comedy Club. Of course I was the only American in the club, so the commedian singled me out and made fun of me a lot, but it was great because he was funny about it. Apparently Irish people really like Americans, It's the British they despise. We all joked about that a lot on the way back, because I had just assumed (like I think most Americans do) that all other countries prettymuch hate Americans, but in Ireland I've only heard good things. People are always really excited and friendly to me when I tell them I'm American or when they hear my accent.

Thank you so much Phil and Joan Tilley, and Grandma Beatty, and Amy and Paul, and Gabe Francis, and Dr. Abell, and Aunt Shar, and the Heatons for sending me money for my trip. I want to say that I definately got it and am putting it to good use. Actually today I used the money from the Heatons to buy my ticket to Belfast. and I've been using the money from the rest of you for food, and to pay for the hostel. So Thank You so much everyone. I love you all! Keep in touch!