half a day in dublin :(

Ok so like I said we set out to snag some serious Z’s...well, that we did. We didn’t wake up until nearly half past 12. I guess this was jet lag’s way of saying, “Hey guys im here and you better not mess with me!” Really weird but there is no clock in the room and now alarm to be set so we decided to get a power converter so matt could charge his cell phone (not working here but it came along so when we are on our way back we can call and check in) We were kinda bummed cause the sun goes down around 4:30ish so it didn’t leave us with much daylight to wander Dublin.

We got all bundled up and ready to venture out into what looked like a blizzard from hour hotel window to find a quick bite to eat and ended up at Abra Kebabra... um yeah this is the Kebab version of McDonalds so I recommend that if you ever see it stay clear! We didn’t really realize until after we ordered our Kebabs and they were pulled out from under a heat lamp!! Yeah lets not speak of this lunch again...

On the plus side we had good news on the sweater front...we made a stop by the bar we went dancing at and sure enough they found matt’s sweater. No luck for my scarf tho...oh well, matt was pretty happy to get back his sweater so it turned out well cause it was worth way more.

Moving on now. We decided to head out in a direction that we had not been together but matt had wandered into on his search for the brazen head and yours truly the night before. We took a stroll down Grafton street which is where all the shopping and high end Dublin reside on a snowy afternoon. We wandered around checking out a few different areas and more or less using the little bit of daylight (when I say daylight I mean we didn’t see the sun at all but it wasn’t dark) and ended up at a pack of about 30-40 singing santas! At that precise moment the blizzard that I thought I saw before but what happened next was crazy. It started seriously dumping on Dublin. Im talking about snowflakes the size of a dime and so thick that it was hard to see the end of the block we were standing on.

Since it was coming down soooo hard we tucked under the entrance to a small corner cafe to pull out a map and make sure we knew exactly how to get back to the hotel. While we were being total tourist we realized that the local folk were too...A group of Dublin locals came rushing out of the cafe and asked matt and I to take their picture standing in the snow storm...they were in such awe of how much it was snowing and said they had never seen snow like this in Dublin! It only lasted about 15 minutes then it slowed back to a slow but steady drizzle of snowflakes. We made our way back to the hotel to relax, warm up and chill out before heading out to get some grub.

Matt and I wanted to go to hear some Irish music and get some traditional Irish food so with the help of the front desk we ended up at Oliver St. Jon Gogarty’s and ended up on the second floor of a 3 story establishment. The first floor was a crowded pub that was super loud and we both wanted to go somewhere a bit more mellow to get some food so the second floor was just that. A band was coming on with a banjo, guitar and fiddle in about 20 minutes so we sat down, grabbed a pint and ordered some traditional Irish grub.

I ordered Beef and Guinness Casserole which was beef, mushrooms, carrots onions all in what was almost like a Guinness based gravy served with some Guinness bread...it was more like a stew than a casserole and it was SO good! Matt got traditional Irish Coddle which was almost like a chowder with sausage carrots and potatoes in it...I think we both like the Guinness Casserole a bit more and we both ate a little of each.

While we were enjoying our food and a few of the local beverages the band started playing. They were really good! The banjo player was insane! He was playing this super complicated double time riff while having a side conversation with the fiddle player...it was almost as if they were talking about what they had for lunch while he was shredding his banjo. We stayed a bit longer than we planned because we were having fun so we just hung out drinking beers and watching music and then we were visited by a local friend by the name of Peter Noone.

Who is Peter Noone one might ask...well, he is the Irish local gay man that decided to talk to us without being invited and provided the answer to what a gay Irish accent sounds like...hahaha. Now mind you Peter was drunk as a skunk and was about 45-50 years old. His opening line to get into our conversation was “ hey der fellas Eye don’t you geve me your camra der and lets me take a photo of the two of yous” we let him and then he took a picture and 30 seconds later asked the same question...since the last one was blurry and we didn’t mind a free photographer and good laugh we let him try again. This time he decided it was appropriate to brush my bangs over ...before i realized what he was doing he was done and snapping the picture. Then he set down the camera leaned in and whispered “ da you twos smoke grace” with a big grin then let out a huge WHOOOOOEEEEEEEEE while grabbing the table and almost doing a backbend to the floor then didn’t even care if we answered and started to dance and nearly crashed into the band. Oh peter noone! The best is yet to come...when he was done dancing and about to leave he walked back over and said such a profound statement that I don’t think matt or I will ever forget it. “If I don’t see ya in the spring...I’ll see you in the mountains” and then Peter noone stumbled out of our live just as fast as he came into it!

Shortly after that we decided to head home and get to bed around 12:30. All in all it was a good night with good food and good people. Now matt is sitting at the computer next to me and is typing up our blog about today and I will be posting it shortly. I hear that its raining over there pretty bad so I hope everyone is safe and staying dry!

This is Scott out from Dublin.