the shankill butchers wanna catch you awake...

okay, i know what you're all thinking. you can stop emailing, you can stop calling my mom... i'm alive. not being able to access my blog from home is becoming a big inconvenience. i recently had a 17 day work week without a day off, then had a sunday and monday (stat holiday) off so the library wasn't open, and today is finally a day when i can let you know what's been going on over here.

excusez-moi du dérangement.

anyway, i don't even know what to say or where to begin. as you can imagine, lots has happened in the last month and it's hard to sum it all up or properly explain it all in one go.

so, stephen moved back to newry (northern ireland). it's so sad not having him at work anymore as he was really the one who got me through every day with a smile on my face (not to mention the bombardments)... we had a few good nights out before he left though, which included a night at eamon doran's.

this is kevin. you'll hear more about this dreamy boy later.

then christophe came to stay with us for st patricks day weekend! it was nice to have my kiki back for a few days, but i also started to realize how small my apartment was with 4 people in it. anyway, you'll see more of him after i talk about st patricks day.

st patricks day was interesting. i didn't really know what to expect as melinda and i were leaving the house... we were trying to prepare for every possible situation, but obviously didn't prepare ourselves for what actually happened. we left around quarter to 11 to get the luas into town. the parade was at noon so we figured we had plenty of time. we're lucky because we are the last (or first, depending on which way you're going) stop so we're always first to get on. but the line for the ticket machine went about 2 blocks down the street, so our "it won't be crowded in tallaght" theory didn't pan out so well.

we finally got on and about 3 stops later the train was completely packed. lucky for us we got seats back in tallaght, but people were practically sitting on top of us anyway. people kept trying to just squeeze in at every stop even though people would tumble out every time the doors opened.

it was busy. and gave us some idea of what to expect in town.

we made it to the last stop, which was not quite in town because of the parade. so we had to walk for about half an hour before getting close to the parade route. we were planning on meeting with morten and preben, but once we reached the corner they were on we realized we were on opposite sites separated by the parade gates and there was no getting across. we stood waiting for the parade, and around 1pm decided it was too crowded and too long to wait for the parade. we saw a few guys in hats and heard some irish music... but other than that we just completely couldn't take it.

we decided to get out of the crowds and had to walk down dame street to get to temple bar. the crowds were stopped. and not comfortably stopped. melinda and i had to walk one block and it took us about an hour of being squished, pushed, and very claustrophobic.

but we made it!

and by that time it was definitely time for some food and drinks. so we went and got some lunch and a pint, then headed to the pub for some serious recovery guinness. the pub wasn't too bad at first. it was crowded, but the parade still hadn't ended so we were among the hardcore early drinkers still. but eventually the crowds started pouring in and, again, we had people sitting in our laps. but melinda took advantage of this situation by leaning her head on the guy in her lap. quite clever, mimi.

anyway, the pub got really crowded. and i'm not just talking kinda crowded. we actually couldn't move in there. but we met some interesting people, managed to get to the bar a few times for some pints, and joined in on a few good bar crowd sing-a-longs.

we decided to leave there before the oxygen ran out, and headed to another pub to meet the students. they were at turk's head, which is just outside temple bar, and which was far less crowded. melinda went home pretty soon after we got there because i think she was a little overwhelmed from the day (plus it was about 7:30 and we started drinking at noon). but i stayed with the students and danced until kevin and stephen got there. the night ended well, and kevin took me home around 11:30 because, honestly, 12 hours of drinking is a bit too much.

so, overall, i guess i was a little disappointed. every irish person i know told me not to go into town because it's way too crowded and full of tourists. i honestly didn't see one irish person (except kevin and stephen) the whole day. it was all the americans and australians who kept picking fights with eachother in the overcrowded pub. i've learned my lesson for next time. but it was still a good day.

what's next? oh yes, kiki. i didn't see as much of him as i would have liked, only because he wasn't here long and he had a lot of people to see. and i still had to work. but he did end up meeting up with us on paddy's day and we went to the plaza for a few pints on his last night. it was really fun to see him and very sad to see him go again.

but a fun weekend.

so, they have this weird game here... it's not even really a game, just a thing that people do in pubs... where you put your mobile on top of your pint glass? very strange. but colm decided to do this (let me mention as well that he's been off drink for a month because of lent... so he used his pint of club orange) and was the only one to drop his phone into his glass. the sober one.

so kiki one-upped him by playing the mobile game and drinking out of the glass as well. this brings a whole new level to an already weird and boring "game".

the last thing i'll talk about is last weekend. i hadn't seen morten and preben for quite some time so we went for dinner on saturday and got all caught up. then we met up with kevin and louise and went for some drinks at bob's in temple bar.

the night got a little messy. can i just mention as well that at one point we noticed firetrucks outside bringing their hoses into the bar? we asked what was going on and the doorman was like "oh, there's a fire inside." apparently they don't evacuate bars in dublin if there are fires? so we went back upstairs and it smelled so badly of fire and smoke that we ended up leaving. a similar situation happened the other day at work when there was a gas leak. the smell was so strong that we were all feeling light-headed and dizzy, and there were about 4 cop cars and 2 firetrucks outside... but still we were all working as normal. no one light a cigarette!

what a weird country i'm in.

so, that's been my life. there has been so much more going on between all the things i have pictures of... but i guess i can't go over everything.. and i doubt you'd read it all anyway. it's been really good over here though. the weather has been nice (apart from a few freak snow storms), i've been keeping busy, and am in constant anticipation of mom's arrival in may! hopefully i'll have more regular days off from now on so i'll be able to post once in a while. i have a bunch of great videos of random things but i can't post them on here so i'll have to set something up to show those. it should only take another month.

thanks for your patience and concern, everyone.

written by

girlbits on March 29, 2007 from Tallaght, Ireland

from the travel blog: a britt in ireland.

Send a Compliment

Ok, where's the juicy part about Kevin, the dreamy boy. I read every word with great anticipation and now have to go to bed disappointed!

written by Joyce on March 30, 2007

sorry! i should have worded it better. something like "i will not be disclosing anything about this dreamy man at any time". he is the beautiful, badly-timed and unfortunately-located boyfriend. he may be coming home in my suitcase. i hope you're well, joyce!

written by

girlbits on March 31, 2007

GOOD ON YOU BRITT.
DON'T FORGET, I'M COMING TOO.
CAN'T WAIT.
MYRN

written by myrn on April 1, 2007

I'm with Joyce on this one. You liar!!

written by angie. on April 2, 2007

comment on this...