Relaxing weekend in Dublin

A bit behind, I haven't posted one in a while. Short update: this last weekend I was in Barcelona, tonight we are making Irish stew, I just saw Inception (AMAZING movie), and Thursday is wine and cheese night... lab is going well, should be finishing up experiments today so I can start writing my paper and working on my presentation. Yipee!! Brian (with an i, not y Brian says because y is Protestant... what?!?) wants a shout out in my blog. He's a post grad who has long hair that he accidentally cut short and wears it in a pony tail. When his hair is at his shoulders he looks to be a bit of a girl.

Back to two weekends ago...

This last weekend I decided to take a nice and relaxing stay in Dublin. Several exciting things were happening. One was Jussi's girlfriend was coming to visit. I was very curious to meet her as I wasn't sure what kind of girl Jussi would date. She ended up being lovely. Beautiful and very, very nice. Also, I was invited to the DLWCC... the David Lydon wine and cheese club!

After and exhausting night Thursday, David had invited me to go to wine and cheese at his house. I'm always giving him a hard time, because whenever we ask him to do stuff with the international students (still think it's weird calling myself that... like I'm foreign or something. And I am, but.. still) he says he is drinking wine with his friends. So finally I said that I was his friend too, so guess what? I was invited. He lives on the opposite side of Dublin from me, about a 45 minute bus ride. So I headed off.

May I say now that buses here make me nervous. There are no clear signs about what stop you are at. David told me what stop, but I would have no idea knowing where that was. So I asked the bus driver to tell me when we arrived. It all worked out, and I arrived at David's teeny apartment. It was very cute. I had brought my own bottle of wine, and so let the festivities begin.

I am no wino. I can't drink at home, and have virtually no idea about wine and the different kinds. So when I went to buy a bottle I bought the cheapest stuff possible. Might as well start at the bottom, and work my way up right? It tasted fine, I think it was a red wine, but couldn't tell you what kind from there.

It was great conversation, and I really enjoyed getting to know David's friends. I found out some interesting stuff about him (yess!!) and he has now inspired us to host our own wine and cheese night.

The next morning, I woke up and headed to a multicutural festival in Don Laghore (a suburb of Dublin) with Luke and some of his friends from Trinity college (another university in Dublin). Turns out there are about 4 UCSB students that have an internship there. Marieke also joined us, and the time we had was very enjoyable. We saw an irish-folk band, an Indian band, dances, and various other performances.

Jussi and his girlfriend met up with us later, and I ate some Indian food. It was quite a pleasant day. I also ate my first bite of watermelon for the summer. Madness I know. At home, I know I would have had some for the fourth of July. It was a nice taste of the warm, sunny, summer that is currently non existant in Ireland.

After a nice day at the festival, we headed home to get ready to go out. A few pre drinks (I had to drink a Bulmers by myself because James was in Switzerland... booo), we went to take the bus as we always do to the city center. This time, Luke managed to fall flat on his bag as we drove off. On the bus. Laughing the whole time. I saw it all. And the bus driver was laughing as well. After only 2 beers...(Luke, not the bus driver) oh Luke, thanks for the laugh. We headed to some bars that Olivier had visited before, and I really like the first one called the Celtic. It was smaller, not as large, drinks weren't too expensive, and it had live music. Automatically like it. Plus, they played some songs I could sing along to. Even better, as most of you know :)

After a great night once again in Dublin, we headed back home.

The next day, we had agreed to wake up at 11, head off to Howth again at 12. Of course, by 12, no one else was up. (James would've been... just sayin'). So we waited until everyone was ready, around 2, and headed off to Howth. Jussi and his girlfriend went to the beach (if you can call it that) and collected sea shells for a good 30 minutes. Made me laugh anyways. We then went off on a hike up and around Howth after buying some sea food at the local market. I wasn't sure I could stomach the octupus (eating things with tentacles is... weird. But I'm getting used to it after Spain!) so I bought a pork sandwich. We set off on a hike. It was gorgeous, and had a great time exploring around the cliffs and rocks. The tide pools reminded me of Santa Barbara (I know Dana would've loved it). At the top of the hill, we stopped for lunch. Olivier made me try the tentacle of an octupus and I think Jussi thought it was hilarious watching my face as I put it to my mouth. Conclusion: could be worse, but would never crave it.


Headed home, made some dinner, and relaxed. Another great weekend.

Hope home is ok. Still miss everyone...