A Weekend in Dublin: It. Is. Cold.

The weekend has been a busy one! Settling in is never easy.

Yesterday, I had a bit of a day to myself. The Houcks had to go on an Irish doctor adventure, unfortunately (all is well, though!), so they encouraged me to go out on my own for a while and they could meet up with me later. So off I went!

The first stop was a little place called "Cow's Lane." It was like a small-scale Portobello Road, with plenty of shops from local artisans. A lot of jewelry and knitting! I decided to get myself a pair of felted fingerless gloves f. Dor the rest of the trip, as the afternoon started to turn a little nippy...

Far away Cow's Lane!

After my brief stint at the market, I headed off to try to get some wi-fi on my phone. Getting in contact with people is hard! So I settled into a Starbucks, got some tea, and unsuccessfully contacted no one. As I left the Starbucks in disappointment, I ran smack into a group from my program, led on a tour through Dublin by Dr. Foy! They had me glom on to them, and we went around the city for a bit, laughing at only the most tourist-y of tourist traps (and there are a lot).

Our impromptu tour ended, however, with the arrival of more concerned students desperate to find some groceries. Dr. Foy decided to help them find a local Tesco, and the rest of us branched off. We happened to be near a large shopping center called St. Stephen's Green, so I strolled through the streets for a while, looking around and taking in the local life!

The inside of St. Stephen's Green!

It was getting late, however, and I decided that dinner was in order. I had still been unable to contact the Houcks, so I went to go find some gluten free fare to satisfy my hunger. And find it I did! With no particular direction in mind, I came across another center called Powerscourt Centre. This center was much more specialized. There were couture stores, antique stores, a yarn store called "This is Knit" and a few nice restaurants. 

Powerscourt Centre! So cute.

And it was here that I found a restaurant made for me!

Gluten free pizza, garlic bread, carrot cake, and ice cream! YES.

As I had the most pleasant dining experience of my life, I finally got ahold of some free wi-fi and got in contact with Olivia. We agreed to meet back at Temple Bar so she could at least experience a little of Dublin for the day! We met up, got to experience Dubliners drunkenly belting out tunes at their finest, and walked about for a while. We even got some cappuccinos as we waited for our bus back to UCD to arrive.

So much food.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Little did any of us know that the chill we had experienced the day before would turn into one of the coldest experiences of our desert-loving lives. Because today was freezing. When a local says, "It feels like winter," you know that times are bad.

Cold and rain and rain and cold.

Today we decided that we wanted to get the beginning of our Ireland group pictures out of the way, and we headed to Kilmainham Gaol, the jail infamous for holding prisoners from all of the riots and rebellions that Ireland had to offer.

Kilmainham Gaol

It was full of sad stories and a wee bit eerie to see. Needless to say, we all nipped into a cafe after the tour was over and warmed ourselves up with coffees for a good, long time after. Our groups had to branch off for bus reasons, but we decided to meet up at the General Post Office, headquarters of the Easter Rising, to take our second group shot. Knock two out in our second day here!

The girls in front of the General Post Office!

Our little venture back into the center of Dublin left us tired and, most importantly, chilled to the bone. Even after purchasing some new sweaters for layering purposes, the wind was too much. All other plans went out the window and we were desperate to get home. The odds, however, were not in our favor. For some bizarre reason, Dublin played host to a Formula 1 Racing Circuit through the streets of the city today. Cool as that sounds, the streets were clogged, people were drunk, and all of the buses were diverted for miles, so we had no idea how to get back into UCD! We ended up taking a haphazard route through good old St. Stephen's Green Park and found a functioning bus stop almost an hour later. It was almost a repeat of our Thomas Moore adventure, but on the opposite end of the temperature spectrum. Even the locals were running frantically to catch buses they couldn't find!

I got some good pictures on the way! Robert Emmet's statue and a cottage in the park.

We all cranked up the heaters when we got home and went into heat comas. The end.

(On a related note to begin this day: I was woken up early this morning by a bird attempting to get in to my slightly ajar window so it could steal things and mess me up. Needless to say, I thought my life was over. It was great.)