Day 21 VCUK (DUBLIN)-29 June 2019

I had breakfast at the hostel which was free and somehow not awful. They pretty much had the exact same things except better. There was tea (Irish breakfast which was good), coffee, apples, bananas, bread, white bread, 6 types of cereal, milk, water, little tiny pancake items, jams, and best of all Irish butter. I had ?chocolate fruit loops? And then an apple and a piece of bread with Irish butter on it and some tea. My charging brick died in the night so I had to switch it in the middle of the night so this morning at breakfast I charged it.hopefully I’m charged for tomorrow’s adventures.

Then I left and went to Dublin castle. I got followed by a homeless person for a block which was creepy but it was a busy street and I lost him. The castle was cute but not what I thought. I was expecting full medieval super old but intact it’s more like a royal palace but not as nice. The tour was nice though. The building was where an Irish settlement was way back in the day. Apparently Irish people didn’t really have cities and towns until they were invaded by the Vikings. Dublin got its name from a murky pool of water that in Gaelic is called dubhlinn (dove-Lynn) which is how the Vikings named it when they came and heard the Irish.

The tour started in this basement where they have a portion of the original Viking castle. It had 4 towers and a big wall like most defensive castles do. We got to see part of one tower called the powder tower because that’s where all the gun powder was kept, part of the side castle wall that had stairs, and then part of the town wall that had an arch for the most to go through. The castle was never sacked or invaded. The only reason it is no longer standing is because it burnt down. The castle is where the English government seat was so the crown would put a governor there essentially. The governor hated the place and wanted a newer and more royal looking palaceesque place to rule over Ireland so it’s rumored that he set the fire. The fire started in the bedroom and they were worried it would reach the powder tower which would blow up the entirety of Dublin up so instead they did a series of controlled explosions to stop the fires spread. Thus they had to build a completely knew palace like building.

After the remains of the Viking castle we went to the medieval church which was really pretty but interestingly all a fake. It wasn’t actually made during medieval times but faked to look older. Also it’s made of wood with plaster to make it look like marble columns and arches. This is because its actually built on top of the river and if it was all stone it would sink straight in. The church was built by multiple governors and has all their names listed around the top.

After the church we went through the palacesque place. It’s has a long drawing room and a fancy staircase and some other rooms. There was a throne room for one of the kings IV with a huge throne. It was eh. The ceilings had cool plaster designs though. The queen just visited recently in 2011 and it was the first time since 1911 a English royal had visited. The one room was pretty cool cause it was the fanciest and it is where their president is inaugurated! Apparently they’re the first country to have two women presidents back to back. Also a lot of their motifs and paintings in the building are controversial cause they’re English, Scottish, Irish symbols all together because of the British rule.

After that I went to temple bar and got lunch. I sucked it up and ordered an expensive sandwich that sounded mediocre and listened to the live Irish music. They messed up my order which was annoying and I didn’t have time to reorder. I ordered the vegetarian one which was halloumi, lettuce, dried tomatoes, and grilled veggies. Instead they gave me the vegan one which was avocado, hummus, tomorrow, cucumber, lettuce. I took the tomatoes off and suffered through. I do not like avocados still. They’re just eh. They’re probably good with eggs though cause they look good with eggs.

Then I quickly went to Murphy’s cause I almost forgot it was there! Murphy’s is the best ice cream and only in ?5? major Irish cities. I got chocolate and brown bread.

Then I went and got in line for the pride parade! I got there about an hour early but there was really no need cause most people just showed up a half hour early and there were no barricades or anything. Very unlike nyc pride. So pretty much the whole time people were running back and forth and stuff and joining the parade and running loose basically. I was pretty near the start of it which was good and I stayed for about two hours ish. It was a lot of sponsored groups and most of it was big buses of people or cars which is interesting. Also there were literally no free items which I was bummed about. There was a rugby team though which was cool and roller skaters and Irish drummers. All the other groups were pretty standard. It’s funny though cause since it’s Ireland a lot of the company’s already have rainbows in their branding so this was probably pretty cheap for them to commercialize on. However one plane company had this hugeeeee plane float which was cool. There was also a good handful of drag queens (unknowns though).

After the parade I went to the hostel and charged my phone for a bit and played my games. Mom wanted me to make friends at the hostel but I’m honestly not in the mood this weekend I’m having a nice little me weekend. And I want to make friends in London that I can see multiple times not friends that I’ll never see ever again. When I went into my room all the guys from last night were sleeping still but this time they were dressed so I guess they went out again this morning and crashed early.

Then I went and wandered grafton street for awhile. There were a lot of musicians but they were mostly pop songs but they were all really good but in original ways. The one guy did a whole peddle loop thing like what Ed Sherman does. Another was a teen girl and guy and they were cute. There was also a magician. I went in the Disney store cause I’ve learned every Disney store has unique little thingies. This one had life size sculptures of hulk, iron man, and captain America, and Anna from frozen. Then I went and found where the restaurant was for later which took awhileee. Then I wandered around all the surrounding streets and found a tiny kpop store which is cute.

Then I finally went to dinner. It was the best meal I’ve ever had. However I almost cried when I got there cause owl exhausted and the menu was not what it was when I looked it up online and I was gonna get fish but they had none so I didn’t really want any of it and it was all expensive and was mostly stuff I didn’t like. I decided to get the pork with gnocchi which was sooooo good. It was Irish pork with mashed sweet potatoes, homemade gnocchi, micro greens, in butter sage sauce, and it was delicious.

The pork was like steak and everything was sooooo good all together. I ate it in 10 minutes flat. There were all mushrooms but I ate one and the texture was badddd so I skipped that part. I wish good food wasn’t so expensive.

Then I left. I was conflicted between getting their brownie ice cream dessert, getting Murphy’s ice cream again, or getting a Guinness at a pub. I went to a pub for trad music and got a Guinness of course cause I’m in Ireland.

I went to the same pub as yesterday cause all the other ones I popped my head into were doing more pop music than trad. Tonight it was a banjo guy and a guitar guy. They did whiskey jar which I didn’t know had clapping. They also did I will wait and country roads which was funny. I requested wild rover my bop and now I can leave Ireland happy. The banjo guy was amazing. They Irish dancer girl was also there again. I sat with this couple who later chatted with me. He’s from Brighton and he said he thinks she’s Spanish lol.

I had a Guinness on Marina! I love rina she just sent me a Venmo out of the blue and it made my day. Then secind performer was not as good. They were older and it was a woman fiddle player and guy guitarist and they brought all their professional equipment and cds and they took forever to set up so the Irish dancer did a dance without music to entertain us. They finally started but they were a bit a mess and kept fiddling with their sound equipment so I left.

I went back to the hostel and FaceTimed home and chatted about my trip. It’s super stormy there right now. It was beautiful here alll weekend! Good thing I didn’t bring a rain jacket lol

Then I went to bed. The group of guys came in later and were a bit loud the people in the streets were also loud. At 4am though there was this huge fight outside. There was this man yelling to give him back his money (only 20 euro). And I literally thought he was gonna pull a gun or something cause it sounded so chaotic but then I remembered we’re in Ireland and not America. Eventually they calmed him down and left.