First things first

Thursday, June 13th

My first order of business when I woke up in Dublin was to get money. I had to pay the for an extra night at the place I was staying and also I was out of cash. Oops. I found a bank pretty quickly and then I went straight to a convenience store to get a soda. I have to start the day out right, you know.

 

I headed out to find the bus stop for the hop on hop off bus tour. It took me a little bit of wandering to locate it. Wandering was probably the theme of my time in Dublin; I never quite managed to orient myself. After I hopped on the bus I headed up to the upper level. Dublin is actually quite a small city with the river Liffey running between the north and south parts. The whole tour is about an hour and a half. Since I started near the end, when it got back to the beginning I switched buses and continued riding. On this trip I noticed a store Jocelyn suggested I check out, right next to one of the bus stops. Then the driver pointed out a good place to have lunch, The Bull and Castle. I tried so hard to remember where these places were. So I stayed on the bus for the second trip around to get back to those places.

The bus driver narrates the whole time. At one part we passed the hotel which is owned by U2. The driver said that you don't ever see Bono there because he's decided that he's now God and he's going to save the world. But sometimes if you're lucky you might see him around these parts, walking on the water.

Anyway, we got back to the store and I remembered the place for lunch was close to one of the stops right after that. So I started watching carefully. After a few stops I figured I must be close and got off the bus. I started following the bus for about two more stops and then realized that the restaurant had not been that far. I turned around and decided to pick something to do near where I was so I wouldn't waste the whole day and I picked Christ's Church.

 

I saw Bishop Lindsay here. I don't think he's related.

 

As I was leaving the church I walked out of the courtyard and directly in front of me was... The Bull and Castle. I had walked around the corner past a Thai place and completely missed seeing the restaurant I had been looking for. So I went straight in and ate a very delicious cheeseburger and French fries. It was really a very good cheeseburger.

 

 

It was very cold this day in Dublin and it rained a couple of times hard enough for me to hide out in doorways. After lunch I began my hunt for a rain jacket. I knew if it got any colder or rained anymore I'd be miserable. This was when I started to hunt for that store I'd seen earlier. I started to head towards the shopping area I'd seen from the bus. I ended up following the route of the bus, backwards, from the main shopping on Grafton Street. Turns out the store I was looking for and is on the street which runs right next to Grafton. The bus does a big circle up from the bottom of the street and back around. Eventually I found a tk maxx, which is the European version of tj maxx. I found a fantastic purple rain jacket and I love it. Success!

In the middle of my wandering to find my new jacket, I saw the Oscar Wilde statue. There are pillars with some of his famous quotes engraved on them. I liked the one that says "we are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars."