I love Ireland

After a delightful flight on Aer Lingus (their seat cushions have words printed all over them) I was greeted in the Dublin airport by Sammi, holding a sign with "Carter" written on it (I felt special!). We took a bus to City Center and walked back to her flat.

Although illegal, I stayed on her couch (if she gets caught, it's an 80 euro fine. which is incredibly more expensive than staying in a hostel.) She has 3 room mates (one of whom is french) and her program provides them with a computer (which i'm using now) and a tv. YES. All of that. TV with american shows (we're gonna watch the OC). They have a washer and dryer (it's an all-in-one kinda thing).

On Monday we walked around all the shops in City Centre. Dublin has some really cool stores. In a way, it's good I don't have the capacity to transport lots of stuff back to Italy and back home because it curbs my spending, but there's definitely not a lack of cute potential purchases here.

I've been most obsessed with the supermarket/drug stores. They are big. There's lots of food and it all looks so normal. I've made ham & cheese sandwiches (with mayo, mind you) and cool ranch chips (not dorito brand though). So delicious!!

Monday night we saw an independent film near Temple Sqaure called "Melinda and Melinda" with Chloe Sevigny, Will Ferrel (he was great)and this one woman who had lesbian tendencies in "Mulholland Drive". It was a story within a story. And that short man with the weird voice from "Princess Bride" was sitting at a cafe with friend debating whether life is a comedy or a tragedy. Proponents of each side tell how they see a story, and this is where all the people come in. Some people are in each version, while parallel characters also appear. I personally liked the comedic version with Will Ferrel much better than the tragedy (but that's because Chloe Sevigny was on the tragedy side and she just annoyes me).

Tuesday we slept in (something I haven't done is very long) and then took the subway to Dundrum shopping center. It's brand new and some stores aren't even open yet. It has big dept. stores (Penneys, Marks & Spencer, Zara, H&M). They had tons of clothes, but they were of the skimpy hoochie mamma variety... so I passed on the short skirts and skimpy tank tops. But I did get a cool multicolored bracelet and fun dangly earrings.

I've continued my unhealthy obsession with chocolate on this trip. Even though my Rocher candy bars are far from me, I've become addicted to Cadbury chocolate bars. They're just so creamy!! Cadbury vending machines were even set up in the underground stations in London! I can't wait for food in Paris (like crepes!) although I hear it's incredibly expensive.

Wednesday we went to the National Museum and National Gallery. The gallery had tons of very pretty portraits and interesting art (although sammi pointed out ireland isn't known for too much artwork, so anyone with an irish connection is put on display despite a lack of true irishness). We had delicious chocolate muffins and ice cream at a fast food place called Supermacs. I stocked up on snacks for my trip to Paris Thursday. Now my backpack is really heavy but i will not go hungry.

Sammi's French roommate Auralie (i apologize if i've completely butchered her name) made crepes for us today. Homemade crepes from a frenchwoman. Fabulous!!! She made the largest stack I have ever seen...so I tried crepes with raspberry jam, nutella (chocolate and hazelnuts), lemon juice and sugar... they were all delicious. She doesn't make them very often because it takes awhile, so I feel very special she made the lovely treat.

Tonight we're headed to an Irish pub. I will pass on the Guniness. I tried some last night and it was revolting.