Dublin, London und die Backstreet Boys

NEWS!!! Ich habe nach meinem fehlgeschlagenen Versuch, einen Eintrag ueber Dublin und London zu verfassen, einfach nicht mehr die Nerven und Lust dazu. Daher habe ich Euch mal einen Bericht von Sarah eingefuegt. Der Bericht ist also aus der Sicht unserer kleinen, asiatischen Kanadierin geschrieben worden und wird Eure Englischkenntnisse erfordern, aber ihr packt das schon. Haha. Viel Spass damit. Zudem gibt es zwei Links, die Euch saemtliche Fotos unseres Dublin-Trips zeigen. Yeah!

ICH KANN ES NICHT FASSEN.... ich habe gerade 2 Stunden lang an einen Eintrag geschrieben und ihn dann versehentlich geloescht. Drecks Technik!!!

Tja schade... jetzt bin ich leider nicht mehr motiviert genug um das Ganze zu wiederholen. Aber die Fotos zeige ich Euch trotzdem schonmal (wenigstens etwas).... Der Eintrag folgt dann die naechsten Tage.

DUBLIN

"....A good time was had by all this past study week, from my first and last pint of Guinness in Dublin with Anne and Essi to experiencing the incredible architecture of Antoni Gaudí dispersed all over Barcelona with Ate. Early on the morning of the 22nd, Anne, Essi and I got to Blackpool before lunch to take our 45-minute flight to Dublin.

dublin.IRELAND sat.OCT22/05-tues.OCT25/05

After taking the bus from Dublin Airport to Heuston Station in the city centre, we finally arrived to an unexpectedly ghetto hostel. Come to think of it, this past week’s worth of traveling, I stayed in some of the more ghetto hostels, although the one in Barcelona had some good benefits. The Brewery Hostel in Dublin, however, was seriously lacking, apart maybe from the included breakfast and that it was conveniently located near St. James’s hospital (this came in very handy, we soon find out).

I should have known how ghetto it was when the receptionist (an American guy) reminded me so much of this guy I used to know from Waterloo. This was the first time I was gonna stay in a 4-person private ensuite, and I was expecting it to at least be nicer than my past 10-people dorm-type room. It couldn’t have been worse. We get into the room and there’s garbage on the beds, a wet and very dirty towel on the floor of the bathroom, and a gross unflushed toilet. Apart from that, I couldn’t even sit up straight on the bottom bunk, and if I can’t sit up straight, something’s definitely wrong.

Of course we complained and this other guy, who we later learned was from Orillia, apologized to us, somewhat insincerely, and assured us the room would receive a proper Eric Cleaning. He was Eric.

Eventually, we got into our semi-clean room, freshened up a bit, and went walking into the city centre of Dublin. We walked along the River Liffey, which runs through the city of Dublin, dividing the north and south sides, where we ended up at Temple Bar, a trendy area filled with pubs, clubs and restaurants. We decided to have a nice dinner that night, choosing this restaurant called Trastavere in the middle of Temple Bar. The food was good, but it came at a price, we discovered the next day…
After dinner, we walked around Dublin for a while, getting familiar with the city as we got all the way to Grafton Street, this pedestrian shopping street, St. Stephen’s Green, and seeing the Leinster House, which is, I believe, their government building, illuminated at night. After some coffee at this café, we walked back to the hostel, conveniently located right next to the Guinness Brewery and away from the city centre, in the rain.

After breakfast the next morning, we got on the Dublin Tour Bus and took the tour which took us as far as Kilmainham Gaol and Phoenix Park, and running along the north side of the River Liffey.

Here’s a view of the River Liffey from O’Connell Bridge. The next bridge further up is the Ha’penny Bridge, which connects the Temple Bar area, on the left, to the north side.
After going up Parnell Square on the north side, the tour took us back down to the south side, passing by Trinity College, Merrion Square, St, Stephen’s Green, and us, ending up at the Guinness Storehouse. I think Guinness was everywhere even more so than shamrocks, Leprechauns and anything green.

Of course we had to do the brewery tour, although I wasn’t all that interested in exactly just how much water, barley, hops and yeast was needed to create the “magic that is Guinness.” That’s a direct quote. Coolest parts about the Brewery tour, however, was the entrance keepsake which is this clear plastic circular thing, which I’m assuming is a paper-weight made to look like a blob of water, which actually has a few drops of Guinness encased in it. Pretty fun. Also pretty cool was the free pint you get at the end of the tour, served up in the Gravity Bar, this circular room with glass windows all around, giving a panoramic view of the city and is the highest bar in Dublin.

Essi, Anne and I with our pints of Guinness in the Gravity Bar. The view from the bar was amazing. The Guinness, a little less so. One sip, of mostly foam, and we were done. I hate beer to begin with and Guinness is just black death on your taste buds.
That was Attempt One of us trying to be Irish. Attempt Two quickly followed in the Guinness Storehouse gift shop downstairs.
Do Irish people even really wear these hats? It’s probably some joke they play on all the tourists.
After some fun times taking pictures at Guinness, we walked down towards St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin Castle (not at all as impressive as some others I’ve seen), and then to Trinity College, where Essi and I took the self-guided tour of the Library to see the amazing Book of Kells and the Long Room. The Book of Kells is the oldest manuscript, with the most amazing coloured illustrations of the four gospels made by monks in the 8th century. I can’t even describe how cool this was. Enlarged pictures showed the incredible detail of not only each picture but also of all the text within the book. In the upper floor of the Library is the Long Room, about 65m in length, which houses around 200 000 of the library’s oldest books. I wish I could have taken pictures.

We then headed down to Merrion Square, around which are the Leinster House, the National Gallery of Ireland and streets of Old Georgian tenement houses, where you can experience a display of a typically Irish door.

This, we were told, is the most photographed door in Ireland. Why, I have no clue and I don’t think the tour guide did either, but it’s pretty, no? The doors lining the street are all painted in bright colours, apparently because when some royal (I can’t remember who) died, the Queen of England asked the Irish people to paint all their doors black as a sign of mourning, but being Irish, they all painted their doors bright colours. Another thing with the coloured doors was that they helped the drunk Irishmen find their house when they were coming home from the pub.

Anyhow, after a load of door-picture-taking by Anne and Essi, we went to Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre and had supper, during which Essi’s whole body broke out in horrible hives. The night before, she had started itching all over, but had been alright during the day. We quickly took a cab to St. James’s Hospital, with the assumption that it had to be the nasty, dirty sheets she slept in at the ghetto hostel which caused her rash. The doctor assured us, however, that it was not the sheets but the seafood Essi had the night before at Trastavere. Poor girl. Already lactose intolerant and now, seafood was off her already-short list.

I later found out that while in the cab on our way to the hospital, Anne and I were having the exact same thoughts: Goodbye, Backstreet Boys concert.

If you thought that the purpose of this Dublin trip was to see Dublin, you’re sadly mistaken. At least, according to Anne. Kinda embarrassed to say, but this Dublin trip, which happened to fall during our study week, was planned pretty specifically according to the Backstreet Boys Never Gone Tour schedule. Even before buying the tickets, so many bad omens were telling us that we’re not meant to go to the concert, to Anne’s dismay, but Essi lying in the emergency room was the final nail on the coffin.

2 hours later… however…
With Essi’s assurance that she’d be perfectly alright at the hospital and the doctor’s assurance that Essi would be monitored until the end of the concert, this is what Anne saw for the next 3 hours. What I saw was about 9 inches to the south.

After screams of “I love you, Jesse McCartney!” the Backstreet Boys put on a good show for Dublin, although, I’m sure they were a ton better back in the day when they could actually dance. It was a good show nonetheless, although it didn’t help having this giant German girl constantly yelling in my ear “I looove them! Don’t they look so cool?? I loooove Brian! And Nick. But not Hoe-wee.”

An eventful night, but everything turned out well. Essi was released early from the hospital and managed to walk back to our hostel by herself; Anne got to see the Backstreet Boys and left with a free poster she found on the ground; and I got soaked walking for half an hour in the pouring rain to the bus stop. Anne, remember – big GIANT Christmas present. BIG.

Side note: Never, ever call Canada from another country other than in the UK. Collectively, Essi and I spent about £20 talking to family and friends in our respective countries on one phone call each. I guess it could be worse; at least it wasn’t $600+ USD.

The next day was, thankfully, not so eventful and was spent shopping around the north side of the city, discovering and buying a ton of stuff at the cheapest store, Penneys. Clubbing shirts for €3.00 and cute purses for €1.00 – you can’t ask for more. We also had a nice late lunch/early dinner at this place called Sorrento’s, just off of O’Connell Street. All shopped out, we walked around a bit more and then headed off to the hostel, and had a quiet early night of packing and internet...."

Places I visited in Dublin:
Trinity College
Merrion Square
St. Stephen’s Green
Christ Church Cathedral
Dublinia
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Leinster Houses
Guinness Storehouse
Kilmainham Gaol
Phoenix Park
River Liffey
Ha’penny Bridge
Temple Bar
Parnell Square
Dublin Castle
The Four Courts
Bank of Ireland building
National Gallery of Ireland
Oscar Wilde Memorial

BACKSTREET BOYS

WHOOHOO..... ich war tatsächlich auf einem Konzert der Backstreet Boys...

LONDON

Essi und ich nach einem langen Spaziergang beim Ausruhen nahe der Tower Bridge in London.