There's a trail of red fuzz from here to Ireland
So I bought a bright red rug at IKEA at the beginning of the semester and quickly realized that it shed like crazy. There's red fuzz all over my room all the time, and I spot some on my clothes sometimes as well. So I went to Ireland last weekend, and it was a little colder than Paris was, so I stopped in and bought a 4euro scarf, bright red. I quickly realized that it shed like crazy, crazier than my bright red IKEA rug. Red fuzz all over my backpack, red fuzz all over my brown winter coat, and a long trail of red fuzz from Dublin to Athenry. At least I left my mark!
I arrived Friday night late and planned to find John somewhere in the Dublin airport. I was in line at customs and heard two girls behind me speaking English. I turned around out of curiosity, and there was a girl that was in my class in Angers named Erin! Quite the coincidence. So in the middle of doing the, "Oh my gosh how are you how is Angers/Paris??" thing, John taps me on the shoulder and says, "Hello little lady, want to share a cab?" The very next moment, a girl and guy in front of us in line turn around and start talking to us, the guy being from New Orleans and a student at UNO! Mind you, all of this happened within a one-to-two minute timeframe. It was grand!
So we all parted ways, John and I to go find a cab and our hostel. The cab driver spoke Gaelic and English, but the latter was just about incomprehensible to us. After we put our things up at the hostel, we walked down the street and found a neighborhood pub. Two old men were at the door, and we asked if it was still open. They said, sure is but the music is awful. Inside there was only old people, including this like 90 year old lady singing with a live band. This lady really looked like she was 90 years old, and her voice was indeed awful! I struck up a conversation with two 50yr or so men next to me at the bar, and as soon as they responded I realized that they were extremely drunk--as in could barely talk (and it wasn't just the accent!). Upon finding out I was American, they immediately started Bush-bashing. I thought this was interesting, because not even the French immediately do that. John and I had one or two pints of delicious Guinness and had a laugh with the bartender (who invited us behind the bar for a picture), then we moved on to another pub.
The next pub had a "club" in the basement, which moreso resembled a high school party to me. It was all dudes on the dancefloor, and it wasn't very packed. A lot of people were extremely noticeably drunk. We stayed there for a pint and a few mins on the dancefloor, then walked to O'Connell street, one of the main streets in Dublin. I can honestly tell you that a vast majority of the people we passed (almost all guys 20-40 years old) were extremely noticeably drunk as well. Right as I was making that observation known to John, we pass by a guy peeing in the middle of the sidewalk and yelling at the top of his lungs! We then went to a McDonalds for a midnight snack and there was one man at each table with his head hanging in a drunken manner over his hamburger and drink.
It started out funny, but it was really creepy after a while to see so many men just wrecked from drinking!
To be continued after I do a little reading for class..........
I arrived Friday night late and planned to find John somewhere in the Dublin airport. I was in line at customs and heard two girls behind me speaking English. I turned around out of curiosity, and there was a girl that was in my class in Angers named Erin! Quite the coincidence. So in the middle of doing the, "Oh my gosh how are you how is Angers/Paris??" thing, John taps me on the shoulder and says, "Hello little lady, want to share a cab?" The very next moment, a girl and guy in front of us in line turn around and start talking to us, the guy being from New Orleans and a student at UNO! Mind you, all of this happened within a one-to-two minute timeframe. It was grand!
So we all parted ways, John and I to go find a cab and our hostel. The cab driver spoke Gaelic and English, but the latter was just about incomprehensible to us. After we put our things up at the hostel, we walked down the street and found a neighborhood pub. Two old men were at the door, and we asked if it was still open. They said, sure is but the music is awful. Inside there was only old people, including this like 90 year old lady singing with a live band. This lady really looked like she was 90 years old, and her voice was indeed awful! I struck up a conversation with two 50yr or so men next to me at the bar, and as soon as they responded I realized that they were extremely drunk--as in could barely talk (and it wasn't just the accent!). Upon finding out I was American, they immediately started Bush-bashing. I thought this was interesting, because not even the French immediately do that. John and I had one or two pints of delicious Guinness and had a laugh with the bartender (who invited us behind the bar for a picture), then we moved on to another pub.
The next pub had a "club" in the basement, which moreso resembled a high school party to me. It was all dudes on the dancefloor, and it wasn't very packed. A lot of people were extremely noticeably drunk. We stayed there for a pint and a few mins on the dancefloor, then walked to O'Connell street, one of the main streets in Dublin. I can honestly tell you that a vast majority of the people we passed (almost all guys 20-40 years old) were extremely noticeably drunk as well. Right as I was making that observation known to John, we pass by a guy peeing in the middle of the sidewalk and yelling at the top of his lungs! We then went to a McDonalds for a midnight snack and there was one man at each table with his head hanging in a drunken manner over his hamburger and drink.
It started out funny, but it was really creepy after a while to see so many men just wrecked from drinking!
To be continued after I do a little reading for class..........