Good thing I have an umbrella.

I am about 98% sure I just saw Gabriel Byrne walking down the street. Although, a lot of Irish people look alike and they tend to have big families...so it could have been like his brother or something. In any case, I just saw someone that looks exactly like Gabriel Byrne.

Last night I went to this restaurant that you see on the left. My tourist map suggested it and the description included the words "cheap" and "vegetarian" so I jumped at the opportunity. It was delicious and all the decorations were pink. My map and I seem to disagree a little about what "cheap" means though. I used my highly advanced Excel chart to calculate how much money I have left in my food budget and as of last night I had 4 euros left. I don't know that I can stretch 4 euros over a week in Dublin...especially considering I've already spent about 6.50 on food today...maybe I should have asked Gabriel Byrne for a meal.

I had a bunch of things planned for the day, but most of them involved wandering the streets taking in the sunshine. The sun stood me up though. It's been pouring all day long. I sought out indoor activities such as visiting the National Museum. They have lots of really impressive artifacts there, but you're not allowed to take pictures of anything. I was finding it very hard to abide by such a rule but the one time I tried to sneak my camera out of my purse a very angry guard appeared. They have one room in the museum that has four "bog bodies," as in people that died about 2000 years ago but their bodies were preserved in Irish bogs only to be discovered several hundred years later by archaeologists. It's one of those instances where something that should be totally disgusting becomes strangely intriguing. All of the descriptions were kind of oddly frank as well. It would say, for example, "This is the body of a 25 year old man from around 200 A.D. He stood about 5'9", his last meal appears to have been grains and dairy, and he died from several heavy blows to the head by an axe. He was also disemboweled."

I needed a book to read so a few days ago I purchased McCarthy's Bar. It's a comedy travel memoir thing that a guy wrote about his travels through Ireland. It kind of reminds me of my blog only it's funnier and better written. I can certainly relate very closely to a lot of his anecdotes. One thing he got right was when he said "The Irish aren't after your money, they just want to know everything about you."
I purchased the book in the "Irish Interest" section of a little used bookstore in Limerick. One thing I have observed about bookstores here is that without fail the first section you see in every bookstore you walk into is the Irish section. That usually gets divided into "Irish Literature" "Irish Poetry" "Irish Travel" "Irish History" and basically any other book genre that you can attach the word "Irish" to. They have other sections too, but usually, if say, you go to the "Classics" section it's all James Joyce and Oscar Wilde and Jonathan Swift. At first I thought the stores were just really catering to tourists, but then I realized that they actually just really like to read about Ireland.

Nicole is a very whiny person and she complained that I haven't been posting pictures lately. Just for her, here are a few shots from Dublin and Limerick.

Lest you forget what country you are in amidst the hustle and bustle of metropolitan Dublin, they have this helpful statue (on the right) to remind you where you really are.

My hostel is right next to St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral. It's a nice building. It's especially nice when there is a seagull perched on top of St. Mary's head.

These ones are from Limerick a few days ago.

Here is the University of Limerick. I tried to walk there and it ended up taking like 2 hours. I was then too exhausted to walk around the campus very long so I just got the bus back.

This sculpture in Limerick troubled me. It is a "Broken Heart" in memorial to the lives lost during the Great Famine. Did the artist have to be that literal?

Where's Waldo? No seriously...where is he and who is this Wally person?

A testament to how much they love hurling and rugby in Limerick.

And may I just say...If my 50 cent/ballet/Gershwin dream can't yield comments from you people then I don't know what will.