back from dublin. all in all the trip was pretty forgettable. this was the third time i've been to
dublin in about as many years, and it hasn't changed much, so it's kind of like i've seen everything i'm interested in. it would probably be different if i knew somebody there who could show me some cool areas locals go to or something, but if you're just a dude on his own, all you're really left with (at least in the short time i had) is the touristy-stuff - drink in Temple Bar, shop on Grafton Street, blah blah. by the end of the week, if i heard 'when irish eyes are smiling' in hold music one more time i thought i'd hang myself.
having said that, the local people that i met there were all pretty friendly, witty and down to earth. i've generally had positive experiences with people from ireland. it's refreshing to go somewhere in europe where i'm not sneered at for being american or given the umpteen-billionth lecture on how all americans are evil. my theory is that irish people are used to being shit on, so they're a bit more sympathetic to americans.
most of the trip was just seemingly endless blur of pain-in-the-ass logistics - navigating airports, catching cabs, checking in and out of hotels, dealing with a million dumb details ... i wasted my free time on the first day just re-stocking all the stuff i'd forgotten to pack like underwear. like who forgets underwear? i'm an idiot. so i got some cheap boxers on grafton street at a marks & spencers, which is kind of a UK equivalent of like walmart meets jc penney or something. the underwear was too big.
at least i scored this cool jacket:
i find good deals on leather in the UK. i stayed in two hotels there - one was kind of a shithole (because i had to make that particular arrangement absolutely last minute), and one was really nice. i took some video of the nice one, but for some reason the sound didn't work. maybe i'll try to do something with it in editing, but that might take a while because i've come back to find that my laptop with the video editing software on it is on the blink. in fact just about everything that's happened in the few hours i've been back has been a big shit sandwich. everything i've touched has broken, and everything i've tried to do has failed.
on top of that, i think i've come to the realization that i may have to leave my job, at least temporarily i've got a mountain of legal and financial problems that i don't write about here that i can't put off dealing with anymore. i just don't see how i can keep the pace of my job and at the same time deal with all these other matters in a thorough way. i think i'll ask my boss if i can take some sort of two-month payless sabbatical. if he can't do that, i may just have to quit altogether. which is a shame, because i love my current gig, and there's no way i'm going to ever be able to get as good a deal as this again. but, yeah, i really think this has to be done.
anyway, yeah, here's the famous Temple Bar, in the
neighborhood of, um, yeah, Temple Bar:
the view from my dodgy hotel room:
this is what most of dublin looks like:
dublin in about as many years, and it hasn't changed much, so it's kind of like i've seen everything i'm interested in. it would probably be different if i knew somebody there who could show me some cool areas locals go to or something, but if you're just a dude on his own, all you're really left with (at least in the short time i had) is the touristy-stuff - drink in Temple Bar, shop on Grafton Street, blah blah. by the end of the week, if i heard 'when irish eyes are smiling' in hold music one more time i thought i'd hang myself.
having said that, the local people that i met there were all pretty friendly, witty and down to earth. i've generally had positive experiences with people from ireland. it's refreshing to go somewhere in europe where i'm not sneered at for being american or given the umpteen-billionth lecture on how all americans are evil. my theory is that irish people are used to being shit on, so they're a bit more sympathetic to americans.
most of the trip was just seemingly endless blur of pain-in-the-ass logistics - navigating airports, catching cabs, checking in and out of hotels, dealing with a million dumb details ... i wasted my free time on the first day just re-stocking all the stuff i'd forgotten to pack like underwear. like who forgets underwear? i'm an idiot. so i got some cheap boxers on grafton street at a marks & spencers, which is kind of a UK equivalent of like walmart meets jc penney or something. the underwear was too big.
at least i scored this cool jacket:
i find good deals on leather in the UK. i stayed in two hotels there - one was kind of a shithole (because i had to make that particular arrangement absolutely last minute), and one was really nice. i took some video of the nice one, but for some reason the sound didn't work. maybe i'll try to do something with it in editing, but that might take a while because i've come back to find that my laptop with the video editing software on it is on the blink. in fact just about everything that's happened in the few hours i've been back has been a big shit sandwich. everything i've touched has broken, and everything i've tried to do has failed.
on top of that, i think i've come to the realization that i may have to leave my job, at least temporarily i've got a mountain of legal and financial problems that i don't write about here that i can't put off dealing with anymore. i just don't see how i can keep the pace of my job and at the same time deal with all these other matters in a thorough way. i think i'll ask my boss if i can take some sort of two-month payless sabbatical. if he can't do that, i may just have to quit altogether. which is a shame, because i love my current gig, and there's no way i'm going to ever be able to get as good a deal as this again. but, yeah, i really think this has to be done.
anyway, yeah, here's the famous Temple Bar, in the
neighborhood of, um, yeah, Temple Bar:
the view from my dodgy hotel room:
this is what most of dublin looks like:
PS Glad you are back.....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15134529/