I can’t believe the news today. Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away. How long, how long must we sing this song?

After one night in Jacobs Inn, I am not too sure if I like Frenchmen!  My bed was relatively comfortable, the room not to loud or noisy despite being at ground level…but at 4am 4 of my roommates (who are french;)) came back after a night out and proceeded to make noise for 30 mins.  Now I don’t mean quiet chatter, but they were yelling, jumping, wrestling, etc.  My general hostel rule is that you give people a break if they TRY to be considerate.  We all know that after a few drinks it is a lot harder to be quiet than try to be quiet…but you can tell the difference and these guys weren’t trying.  The rest of the 6 of us in the room weren’t happy and let them know about it.  If it is a one off occurrence I can live with it though.

I should probably start where my last post left off though.  I went and explored the city randomly on foot.  Personally I love doing this in a new place.  You evidently find yourself stumbling across most of the ‘major’ attractions but also all the great little places that most people will miss.   The one thing you notice around Dublin is the city’s age…it isn’t as old as some cities in Europe, but unlike Belfast it is OLD!!!  You see that if you are drinking a beer that hasn’t been brewed for at least 200 years, you’re a fool. Speaking of beer though, it is interesting how much american influence you find in Ireland – much more so than in the broader UK.  Coors Beer and Bud Light are served in every pub (Which is amazing as Irish beer is brilliant…loving my Guinness and Smithwicks!!) but also TGIF and other American or American-like food places are on most corners.  It is kind of sad when the Irish culture is so interesting that they end up being overcome by this “American-isation”.  It isn’t that surprising though when you learn about the strong two-way connection between Irish-Americans and the Irish.  The relationship between the Irish and Irish-Australians appears to be a lot more one sided.

I last night also found my pub for my time in Dublin.  Kate’s Cottage is just around the corner…served great food and has a quiet, distinctly Irish atmosphere.  After a pint there last night, I went back for a burger and a pint (AKA dinner) later on and have just left there after an afternoon of newspaper + Guinness – a very relaxing Afternoon!

This morning the breakfast made me lament not having the ability to have scrambled eggs cooked to order for £2.00…but it wasn’t bad – just bread, jam, toast , muffins and loads of OJ.  It does get a little crowded though as the hostel is full.  Luckily it is full of kids about 15/16 years of age…so my older, grumpy morning self can just look at them and they get out of my way 😛  haha

Now, today my main goal was to get a broad perspective of the city.  As I planned out my days in Dublin, there was so much to do it was hard to know when to start.  I decided to take a free tour offered by NewEurope.  It was a brilliant decision. Now it isn’t a literally free tour, as they rely on tips to pay the bills/guides, but this is a brilliant business plan.  As a result the guides are great, informative, energetic and it was a young tour for young people.  My guide was an Irish/German guy by the name of Ali and he was able to inform me not only of a broad history of the city, but also gave you plenty of interesting stories.  Storytelling being a very IRISH thing I am noticing.  My favourite stories  were those about the City Council’s destruction of preserved Viking Settlement, the summary of the easter uprising and how he was able to put Ireland’s place in the UK and Europe in perspective for a layman. We walked around for 3 hours getting a comphrehensive tour and it was good…all 20 odd of us were tipping in Euro notes, not coins or leaving without ‘paying.’

One thing that may have made the tour and my day walking around even better than most is that I am pretty sure my head got sunburnt.  Today was/is like a spring day in Australia…not Ireland.  The sun is out, the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming.  I may have got a somewhat unique view of Dublin – but it was a view I definitely enjoyed.

After the tour I went to the William Butler Yeats exhibit at the National Library. WBY, as he was known is a famous Irish literary figure/poet who helped defined the Irish/Celtic culture in the early 1900s.  Now I am no poet…reading any of my blog posts would confirm this.  My main history in studying poetry is with WWI poetry for year 12 English (which I hated and was surpriingly good at) and reading the writing out of “If”  that I claimed from my grandmother when she moved house, it primarily being a memory of her house than being based on an interest in poetry.  However, I thought the WBY exhibit was really interesting.  Not only was the poetry suprisingly moving, the story of a flawed individual who achieved so much (the kind that interest me most) and the importance for this country I have taken for granted and am only just learning about was enthralling for me.  Yep…I was enthralled by a poetry exhibit – someone call a doctor!!!!

As I said…I then spent the next few hours in the pub just reading the paper (The Guardian becoming my paper of choice).  It was interesting though reading about Kevin Rudd, my PM, from a British point of view.  KRudd is almost like a comical figure in the papers – known mainly for the Earwax and stripper stories, but at the same time his opinions are explained more fully than supposedly influential figures like the leaders of France, Germany and Brazil.  It is an intersting idea of Australia as the “little big man” in world politics that makes me think that we haven’t moved much past our position when Billy Hughes was PM. It is also funny that a photoshopped picture of the Brighton Bathing Boxes (including one I have been in before in my youth) with bad weather (clouds/darkness) is used by Etihad  airways as advertising for their new routes from London to Melbourne.  I don’t know if proving that we are now “neighbours” by worsening the weather, Australia’s main selling point in Europe, is a smart idea.

Anyway, tonight I will head in to Temple Bar for a good feed (hopefully) and another pint (definitely) after a Seista in my room.  It appears easily to get two hours sleep between 5pm and 7pm than to get 2 hours between 3am and 5am 😛 haha