Wednesday, September 30 I attended a play that was part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. The play was Chekov’s Three Sisters and it was performed in Russian with subtitles projected onto screens above and beside the stage. It was hard to follow both the translation and the action on stage but I managed and was greatly exhausted afterward. It was a play where the audience, if it is performed correctly, feels empathetic toward every character at some point. The sisters themselves all had dreams about working and love, but nothing turned out for them in the way they had hoped. It was by no means a happy ending, but more of a realistic one.
Friday the school hosted a free trip to Glendalough which a few of us Americans took advantage of while the rest of the tour group was filled by European students. The ruins of the monastery were quite impressive, but our tour guide was speaking so the European students could understand her so it was hard to completely appreciate the tour. It’s not that she was talking slower but more of the fact that she sounded like a pre-school teacher. After a quick lunch by the lake, eight of us headed up a trail, six of them went up a mountain but I wasn’t feeling too great so I stayed behind and Laura joined me. Kyle came back down after a bit and we waited for Chris so we could head back to the bus. At this point it was 1:30pm and the bus was to leave at 2:00pm. We hoofed it back and saw the bus leaving the parking lot at 2:10pm so we were stranded; apparently no one noticed that eight Americans were missing. The rest of the group caught up to us about 10 minutes later and we went into the tourist office where we learned there is only one bus that heads back into Dublin and it wouldn’t be around until 4:30pm.
Most everyone was accepting of the fact that we were left behind. As Patrick and I said at least we were altogether. It definitely made for an adventure that none of us has planned on, which I feel most of this trip has been like that anyway. We ended up walking into the nearest town, Laragh, where we found tea rooms in the downstairs of someone’s house. It was a very laid back atmosphere and definitely a place you read about stumbling across in a tour book. The bus for Glendalough actually left from Laragh so we managed to get on it for 13 Euro each back into the city. There weren’t too many people on the bus; one man did bring his dog though.
Once back in Dublin I didn’t feel like going home so I went back to the apartments with Patrick, Abby, and Kyle. Patrick and I had scraped together some of our change, and I’m not kidding we counted it twice to make sure we had enough, to buy pasta and sauce. Patrick made dinner and Kyle and I partook in eating a ton of pasta with him while Abby ate some food she had made in her own apartment. After dinner Patrick and I did dishes and discussed an array of topics from religion to awkward conversations at dinner in Galway to why all the men in his family drink black coffee. We then joined Abby, Katie, Casey, and Teri on a venture to a true local Irish pub called The Cobblestone. The pub itself is quite small and packs a ton of Irish locals into it along with traditional music played by whoever feels they want to play that night. I didn’t get anything to drink as I had to catch the bus within the hour, but I stood with Casey and watched the band play. I have fallen in love with the Irish flute and that is all I’m going to say on the matter as I will want one even more if I go on about it. More people joined our group so it got quite crowded in our corner, they themselves had been playing beer pong. Patrick walked me to the bus stop and gave me a history lesson on the architecture of the churches in the area, as he himself if a history major.
Saturday I got up and met Abby and Katie so we could catch the DART into Bray. The weather didn’t look promising and we were caught in a downpour about a block from Tara St. Station. Once in Bray the weather was quite lovely and we met up with Erin and Jeff. We stepped into a pub called Katie Gallagher’s complete with a fireplace so we could decide what we were going to do. Maps laid out on the table, Jeff, Katie, and Erin decided to climb Bray Head while Abby and I decided on the cliff walk aka the trail around the mountain. Abby and I didn’t make it around but we explored some ruins and then sat on the stone wall overlooking the Irish Sea and had a really nice conversation. We met back up with the other three in the pub after they completed their hike before splitting off again to explore the town. Once back in Dublin, Katie, Abby, and I all napped and then woke up for a late dinner during which we met Toby’s twin sister Gwen, who is studying at Oxford this semester. We then attempted to find room at The Brazen Head and The Cobblestone before settling on the Glimmerman as there was such a big group of us. I drank a Kopparberg pear cider and spent most of the night in a booth talking to Patrick and Brady. After leaving the pub we all went back to the apartments where I spent the night on Casey and Teri’s couch.
Sunday morning, I woke up and headed out of the apartment complex toward the bus stop. I was stopped by a little old woman who asked me the time, it was 9:45am and her watch was reading 3:20. I find it nice how for being a big city, people act like it’s a small town. When I finally got home I met Mary’s sister Anne who had come to visit for the weekend. We then made a trip to Maynooth with is where their brother Joe and his family live. Lunch consisted of chicken, ham, potatoes, and vegetables followed by apple tart and raspberry swirl ice cream for dessert. They then took me down to Maynooth College and gave me a tour of the campus. It was an absolutely beautiful campus but I forgot my camera so I didn’t get any pictures of it unfortunately.
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