The next few days in Ireland

It's the third day I have been here and we went to the City Centre. (Yes, I intended to spell it that way- some words are different) The City Centre is pretty much downtown Dublin. It was so cool. But before I can tell you about that, I have to tell you how we got there.

The River Liffey

The Liffey- separates Dublin North from Dublin South.

Beautiful bridges everywhere. 

To get to all the places we had rented a car yesterday, and boy was that an adventure. I have no clue why they would rent a car to an American without giving them a thorough driving test. Nevertheless, they did. So, with Jeremy driving on the wrong side and me sitting in the what-would-have-been-drivers-seat, off we went. The roads are tiny, the people are not afraid of getting too close, and I am pretty sure every part of every street is pedestrian crossing.

This was a genuinely confused look.
This is after he walked to the wrong side of the car.  

Once we got in... so weird to be sitting on the left side of the car and not have a steering wheel in front of me.
Can't lie- it felt awkward.

I am pretty sure Jeremy got very frustrated with me, (even though he said he wasn't) because I didn't know how to read the map. I still don't know what direction was North, South, East, or West, because its not like there are a whole bunch of landmarks to look for. Everything is pretty much sea level. I have heard rumor that there are mountains, but I don't believe it. Not until I see them. So, with no landmarks (only the buildings), no street signs (or if there are street signs, you definitely can't see them from the crossing streets), oh and not to mention the fact that every street turns into another for no rhyme or reason, and each street has at least two names, some streets connect randomly, roundabouts in pretty random intersections, some roads are one-way for half of the road then suddenly turn into two-way (still don't know where those other cars pop out of), no shoulders, everyone parking on the actual road so you have to swerve around them, some streets that look like they connect on the map in fact don't, and then having the street names that I am lucky enough to see not match the names on the map... Jeremy next to me telling me to navigate (more like saying, 'come on Liz why can't you tell me where we are', 'I need you to tell me what streets are coming up' (when again the street names on the map don't really match those on the road), and 'honestly, can't you read a map, just tell me where we are'), I was getting a little irritated, thus he was frustrated. So, once I threw up my hands done with it all, thats when the baby talking started. Actually, it was more like he was using small words and small sentences like I was stupid. Tell me you wouldn't be irritated as well.

It does sound worse that what it really was. It wasn't bad it is just different. We did make it up to Dundrum yesterday to go to the very large Shopping Centre (i.e. mall). This building was crazy cool with a lot of shops I have never heard of. It has like 4 or 5 levels, but some are in the middle of two levels. For example, I believe it went Level 1, Level 1M, Level 2, Level 2M, Level 3. Where the M levels were just offshoots with maybe a restaurant or just one shop. All sorts of people were there, from every nationality. It was very neat to see! We also made it home (granted we did get lost and couldn't figure out the GPS- that doesn't matter though).

Once we were tired of driving we went down to O'Sheas again for another Guinness (we didn't want to do anything extreme last night.) That leads us into today.

So, we decided to go back into the City Centre (I was better at the directions- I studied the night before because I was so frustrated). We parked the car and took a little walk. Saw some pretty awesome churches. While walking around one of the churches we ran into this lady who told us the archway we were walking under was actually the oldest part of Dublin, but that they don't really tell people about it. It was the only part of the original rock work from the first settlers. I thought that was an awesome story and was very glad she told us about it.

The oldest part of Dublin.

Dublin City Wall and Gates 1240 AD Dublin City  Parks Council Division

This is not the church with the oldest archway but it was right next to it. I thought it was pretty.

It was very large. This archway went over the road to the other side.

What we really wanted to see what the Dublin Castle. And after getting turned around a bit (at least on my part- I can't speak for Jeremy), we found it. Not quite what I was expecting. The parish on the outside of the castle was very pretty! I like seeing the history of the old building. The Castle itself looked more modern than what I was expecting. I was thinking it was going to look like the old churches we had been seeing all day, but it was more like the Dublin surrounding. We tried to take a tour but everything was sold out.

The parish with the castle attached behind.

This was in the middle of the square inside the castle grounds and was made out of sand.
Pretty cool to see. The men were standing in 3-d boxes but were 2-dimensional.

If you look close, it says 1798 Cornwallis.  All the way around the parish there were different family names with different years. 

For lunch I had my first Bulmers- it's an Irish Cider. And it is delicious!

Look at those bubbles. It tastes like Apple Cider. :)

The Pub we went to was really awesome. It had so many different levels all scattered with like 1 or 2 tables on each landing going up and down having stairs connect everything. I liked the atmosphere a lot and thought that if someone were to get a pub style bar in Salt Lake, that this would be a good one.

I came home cause I had a meeting on campus with Carl Lusby. She is the International Student Adviser and the first thing she said was: "Oh, you Americans are always so stressed with so many schedules- we have a saying here in Dublin it's 'It'll be grand so just go with the flow.'" Meaning stop stressing. If it doesn't happen today then it will probably happen tomorrow, and if not then, then next week. It doesn't matter when cause it will get done. She told me that if I didn't slow down a bit that I would just get annoyed with everyone, and if I get annoyed then I will become the annoying student- and don't be that annoying student. I thought this was funny because I could see why she would say that. I am the type of person that has every minute of every day scheduled when I am stressed. We got everything worked out and now I feel so much better. Like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Now, I just have to find a place to live and life is good! (not saying it's bad).

We did get it worked out that I can now get a bank account here so that I can pay for a place to live and get a phone that works. That is so nice. See I was in a pickle- I had to have an address to open a bank account, but I needed my bank account to get get the money to pay for the living arrangements. catch22 if I do say so.

That night we went back into the City Centre. I didn't really want to drink to much just cause I am not used to drinking every night. Plus, it was cold and wet and we had been walking around a lot. So, I  told Jeremy that I wasn't feeling up for a pint but that I would still go with him and he was all bummed, At one point in time he called me lame... So, I caved and had a pint- I figure he's not here for long and he just wants to experience life and have fun. ( I am just not used to his type of fun).

Once we got into the pub that night, an awesome Irish band was playing on stage, so that made things pretty cool! They were really good and, of course being Irish and all, kind of cute. :)

We came home after that and now I am here documenting at midnight. :) Hope you are enjoying it!