Dublin, Dingle and the Euro...

So Dublin, strangely enough, acted as a resting place from the Lake District for my friends and I. We did so much hiking around Keswick that I think we just collapsed in Dublin and rested! Dublin was a great city although mostly hard to navigate in it for a majority of the time that I was there. We were in apartments, too, which was fun because then we didn't have to go out every single night but we could cook some food. My apartment and I did spend a lot of time at this ''Gourmet Irish Burger'' place called Bobo's which was fantastic. If you are ever in Dublina and just need a good burger and chunky chips... I recommend it. My one most favorite spot was probably St Stephens Green. It is this beautiful park close to Grafton Street (where I believe the movie Once was shot) that had fountains and flowers and all kinds of greenery plus lots of fun statues dedicated to lots of fun writers, etc. who all came from Dublin. Many great writers came out of Dublin, mind you: Joyce, Shaw, Oscar Wilde to name a few. Thursday night we also got to go to the Arlington Hotel where we listened to really great Irish music and Irish dancing. It was pretty spectacular. I didn't get to go to the Guinness factory which I heard was amazing but we just didn't get a chance to make it down there. :( Next time, I guess.
So now we've transitioned to Dingle which, against all odds, might be one of my favorite places so far. It is definitely the most beautiful. Yesterday we took a trip around the Dingle Peninsula to see some of the sights, but also to get a sense of the idealized pastoral qualities of the land that so many people talk about. We had absolutely fabulous weather. I mean, we shouldn't have had such beautiful weather but we did. It was truly amazing. :) It was sunny and clear and we had pretty good visibility. The water was so clear and beautiful and the landscape so green. It really reminded me a lot of home in some places (minus the dramatic cliffs that are here and the extremely windy roads). :) Our bus driver, Gabriel -- who seems more like some nice guy who gave us a tour than a paid tour guide, drove us around the island and told us a ton of stories about the folk lore of some of the places that we were but also some of his own heritage. We also visited the Blasket Island Center, the Gallius Oratorio (one of the oldest and most intact in the world) and an old graveyard with ruins within it. A few of us also went on a walk at dusk around the town and just looked around. Everything closes on Sunday really early or isn't open at all so I'm excited to look into a few of the stores that we saw last night.
So confession, I was so hungry last night (because I hadn't run to the grocery store so I didn't have food) that a few of us went in on Chinese take away from the ''Happy Garden Palace'' or a name something to that effect. I did feel guilty eating Chinese food in Dingle but it was good... and like all Chinese food, totally not filling a few hours later, even though we stuffed ourselves full.
Can I just say, the Euro...very strange. All of the bills are different colors and different sizes. the 5 euro being the smallest up to...well, I've only had up to a 50 euro bills from the ATM so I have no idea if they make them bigger. It 's pretty crazy. The money just works so differently. There are coins are in cents and are 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, 1 euro and 2 euro pieces, exactly like the pence from the £. I still will never understand why the 2c/2p pieces exist. Couldn't you just use 2 1c pieces?? I will still never understand it. I get the whole different sized money so that blind people can tell the difference between the bills but what is the purpose of the 2c piece? I will really never know. It is also strange how you can have so much change and have a ton of money because there are no 1E or £1 bills. I mean in my change left over from Keswick, I have only change but about £15 worth of change which is equivalent to about $35 or $40. So bizarre!
Some things that are coming up for me this week in Dingle is more class and reading and all that fun stuff like normal but reading King Leer tonight out loud which will be fun, Pizza and Jazz music on Tuesday night and hiking (I don't know where yet) on Wednesday. Thursday we drive out to Shannon airport and catch a plane to London where we'll be for three weeks! Anyway, that's the happenings of our trip thus far. It's all pretty normal for being so far away. :)
Well, I hope that everyone is doing well and the quarter is going well. I can't believe that we've only been here for three weeks! It seems like so much more time has passed. Talk to you all soon!

K