Day 66 - Limerick to Dublin (again)

Got up at 10 and rushed to dress, make sure i had all my stuff, siad goodbye to Rob, and then caught a cab to the train station.

ON MY OWN!!!

THANK GOD!

(just kidding of course)

I was actually pretty sad leaving Rob behind. I was really hoping he´d change his mind last minute and change his flight and come with me.

So i got to the statioon and hopped on the 11:30 train to Dublin. That first train ride was really weird being alone for the first time in almost 8 weeks. I got to Dublin around 2:30, then jumped on a city bus to Temple Bar and then walked to Temple Lane where i was staying at Barnacle´s hostel. Pretty sweet hostel. Very nice and clean, big enough rooms and beds, and a huge kitchen area for cooking your own meals. I threw my stuff on my bed, chatted abit with the two girls in my room (from South Africa and Italia) and made plans to meet the South African girl, Lindsey, for a pint at 8ish. Then i headed off to wander on my own.

I wandered around the Temple Bar area and south of there for a couple hours, stopping to do some shopping and buy some presents and souvenirs and then bought some pasta and sauce at a market on the way back to the hostel.

When i got back i decided to go for a quick stroll north of the river and found a place that would cut my hair for €6. I just told the guy ´short´and next thing you know he pulled the clippers out and did a stroke through my hair. Apparently ´short´means pretty much bald in Ireland. So me and my crewcut wandered abit more then back to the hostel, showered, cooked, and ate.

I met Lindsey at 8 and we went for a walk looking for a pub (not hard in this area). We ended up wandering in a big loop for 30 minutes and ended up right back where we started, right next to our hostel at a pub called The Temple Bar (in Temple Bar....confusing). Lindsey turned out to be yet another med student, studying in Johanesburg and is in Ireland during the African Summer Break (December through March) to work and live in a new country for the sheer experience. She´d landed a job in a coffee shop and for a cateror part time.

We had a couple pints of Guiness each and chatted about our countries and compared how different they are. Very, very different. When she asked me after our first pint if i wanted another, i responded ´Does a bear shit in the woods? ´, to which she responded, ´I don´t know. We only have regular animals back home like lions, elephants, and rhinos.´.

Case in point.

An Irish band started playing during our second pint, so we watched them for awhile, then called it a night early (11ish) and both went to bed as she had to be at the coffeeshop at 6, and i had to leave the hostel by 7ish.