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A rambling account of my trip to Dublin ….

I woke up bright and early on Tuesday morning (5.45) to get my bus out to the airport. The trip was fine, except that the plane was a little late. I managed to talk my way through immigration at Dublin (the woman was a little scary) and after a minute of thinking I’d lost Bec’s phone number, got happily on the bus to Heuston Station, full of Bewley’s coffee and McDonald’s hash browns.

Aly had arrived the night before, and Bec introduced me to her flatmate Nick (who has the biggest record collection I’ve seen in a long time – although that might be because all of my friends here are backpackers). To be honest, we did a lot of sitting around, but that was okay because the conversation was actually intellectual, to a certain extent. On Tuesday we went to get some lunch (Aly reckons Irish McDonalds is perhaps the best in the world, so far, but Bec and I still didn’t eat it), see the Giant Irish Deer (otherwise known as the Giant Irish Elk) skeletons at the Natural History Museum, had a coffee at the Winding Stair, went shopping for food at Tesco and then had a very civilised dinner with pre-dinner wine and cheese and crackers. I had great success with my first ever Spanish omelette (well, first one made how Ines showed me), Aly said it was the best Spanish-omelette-made-by-a-Chinese-person that she’d ever had (I think that’s a compliment…). We sat up talking and listening to James Brown, Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash singing Nick Cave, Johnny Cash singing with Nick Cave … Plus a lot of other eclectic music too. I have never listened to as much Johnny Cash as I did these last couple of days, but surprisingly, that’s okay.

Bec, Aly and I all slept in Bec’s double bed, and I think I had the worst sleep I’ve had in a very long time. Dreams were odd, it was too hot, and I had about 20cm worth of space on the edge of the bed for most of the night. So I slept in after Bec had to get up and go to an interview. After that the three of us went to a little café for a full fry-up (the most pork and blood products I’ve eaten in a long time) – at €4.50 including tea and toast, it was the best value we’d probably get in the Dublin city centre (extortionate prices for everything, even biscuits at the supermarket). Following that we waddled over to Grogan’s (Bec’s local) to meet up with a couple of her friends for a drink. I had my first ever (half of) Guinness all to myself (best place to start) and I managed to drink it as well (I guess I wasn’t being persistent enough all those times I tried in London). It wasnae bad, really (yes, I’m now back in Scotland). Then there was ice-cream in the park (we had sunshine!), before a poi lesson for Bec and then a scenic route home (via Tesco again).

Nick made dinner for us and a couple of his friends, and it ended up being a four course extravaganza (cheese and crackers and wine; lasagne, salad and crusty bread; meringues, strawberries and whipped cream; chocolate fudge cake, tea and coffee). We all rolled away from the table after that and had to have a very long sit down (more chatting, no going to the pub as planned). We were up til about half one, at which point we forced ourselves to go to bed (I’d been unable to contribute anything intelligent to the conversation for about 3 hours at that point because I was so full and sleepy). I opted for the couch, so my 3 hours sleep were a bit more comfortable. We were out of there at 4.45 and the taxi driver was kind enough to take us to the airport for what little money we had (it was raining and it was much better than waiting for the bus). He even offered to give us money back cause we had none for coffee at the airport, but at airport prices, if we’d taken enough back to pay for coffee, he wouldn’t have had anything left at all. I slept a little at the airport and on the plane, and then it was straight into work, where I find out they might not pay me my holidays … damn them …