Vacance: Third Leg: Dublin (I)

When we first got off the plane it was nice and completely cloudy, but warmer than Germany. Everything was going great, until we got off the bus and onto the actual streets of Dublin. It took us around an hour (carrying our now heavy bags full of souvenirs) to find our hostel. First stop: internet café followed by food at Madigan's (which you can find by walking about ten minutes in any direction). Since most places in Dublin close around 5pm, we decided the perfect thing to do would be to go shopping! But it was mostly for other people. After dropping some €'s at Carroll's and then bringing it all back to the hostel, we went in search of the one thing that was still open: Dracula's House/ haunted house. Just getting there was an adventure in itself. It took about 20minutes walking through drizzle to find Connelly Station. Then we got on the wrong DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit), which would be better named Sloth. Eventually we did get there though. The first part you just walk through this semi-dark hallway with a lot of info one Bram Stoker and where Dracula came from, as well as posters from a lot of the movies based on the book. Then you go into the 'haunted house' part of it, which was amusing, but not really scary.

When we came out, the guy that works there started talking to us, which was just as fun because he's a comedian. After a little while he asked us if we wanted to have some fun... Yes? He took us back into the haunted house to this little tiny room in the middle. Inside he showed us how you could scare people in four different place just from there. So we did a rehearsal then came out to await our victims. About ten minutes later two guys that worked somewhere else in the building went in for the first time. We gave them about five minutes, and then ran in to take our places. But while running down the first hallway part, Dee did a wondrous face plant. Her initial speed allowed her to slide a few feet face down, with her arms at her sides. With the sliding and the way she was flapping her arms, my mind was inspired to superimpose the image of a seal over her and I almost peed myself laughing so hard. Thankfully she wasn't actually hurt, and we did scare the crap out of those two guys. After that we were talking to the guy a little more, and he told us a few good places to go in Dublin.

While we ere waiting for the DART (we had about fifteen minutes), these two kids (I'm guessing about 12) starting hanging around the stop. About five minutes after we first saw them, we heard yelling coming from the street below and next to the platform. We ran over to the fence and saw two cops booking it. A few moments later one came running back chasing one of the kids and yelling, "You bugger! Stop! Get back here!" Then the kid starts practically bawling and blubbering, "I didn't mean to! I won't do it again! I'm sorry; I don't know why I did it! I'm sorry, please don't tell my parents!" This was after the cop had caught up to him and shook the shit out of him. A few moments after that the second cop comes back with the other kid, pushing him along while gripping the back of his shirt. We saw them with some kind of can, so we think they were graffiti-ing. The whole scene was pretty hilarious and we were happy to have the free entertainment while we waited.

Once back in the city center we realized we were hungry, so we stopped at an Indian restaurant and ate...a lot. We ate so much in fact that we ditched our plans to go to a club and just walked around for a while before heading back to the hostel. When we got up to our room the guy in the bed under mine was already there...asleep. As we were getting into bed he said to us, "You two are crazy!" Dee asked why, and he repeated, "You two are just crazy!" I motioned to Dee to ignore him because he just sleep-talking. Then, after we had laid down he said, (and not too quietly) "As it was" and we both started laughing and woke up one of his friends. Strangeness.

By the end of our first day in Dublin we were happy, and looking forward to the next day's fun activities. How Dublin deceived us...