Vikings and Celts

Monday night, as usual, was spent at Fitz. There were some new Americans there, and I thought it was funny when the Canadians were complaining about nobody smiling at you on the street here and one of the American girls said, “Really? I thought people are so friendly here!” I’m stereotyping, true, but it was amusing nonetheless. We were invited out on Friday or Saturday as well, but after going out with Julie and Stu and also working, we decided to give ourselves and our wallets a break. On Tuesday Julie and Stu came back late from Cork, so we stayed in and spent a relaxing, though late night in a comfortable sleepover-type atmosphere, just telling stories and laughing.

Grrrrrrr!!

Although Dale had to go to work on Wednesday, I had the day off and so I took Julie and Stu into town. We wandered around Dublin, where I gave a tour similar to the one Niall gave me when I first arrived. This time it wasn’t boiling hot though. The cobblestones and pavements slabs were wet as we wandered through crowds of people doing their shopping, but the skies cooperated even as we made our way to a café by O’Connell Bridge. Before long it was time for our Viking Splash Tour! We were the first to hop onboard the big yellow vehicle and immediately donned our Viking helmets with horns. The bus driver was hilarious. As Vikings, he instructed us that one of our targets would be “Lost Celts,” who could usually be seen standing on corners looking for street signs, or reading maps. We eagerly anticipated roaring at people before being whisked away, and had the perfect opportunity when a white-haired gentleman and his lady friend were pouring over their map soon after we got rolling. The shocked looks on their faces were amazing. The best part was that we found them again later on, and the bus driver hooted, “They’re probably looking for Christ Church Cathedral!” which they were standing right in front of. On the count of three we roared again and the couple’s heads snapped up in amazement, before turning to each other and bursting out laughing. Eventually we got

The Viking Splash Tour

life-jacketed up and drove into the canal, where the bus driver let some of the kids onboard drive the boat. But there were more adults than kids on the bus/boat, and a good chunk of them were even Dubliners! Once out of the water we continued with the fun facts and interesting history. At one such point on the voyage, when we were minding our own business, we were surprised by a truck driver going in the opposite direction who was suddenly roaring at us! When we looked up to see him, it was to find that he was wearing a Viking helmet and brandishing his fist out the window with a huge grin on his face. Julie’s favourite part was when we passed a large class of plaid-skirted school girls walking down the road, and when we growled several of them jumped with shock before returning the growl right back! And seconds later we caught up to their classmates, who hadn’t heard a thing, and repeated the experience!

Ready for floating

Just as the tour ended, the rain started to pour, so we had break out the umbrellas. But we were lucky and it didn’t last long. After examining the statue of Daniel O’Connell and the post office for bullet holes left during the Rebellion, we did a little shopping, then met Dale in the Temple Bar area. We went to the Porterhouse for dinner, which we had heard good things about. The food was surprisingly good for a pub, and Julie and I tried samplers of the different beers available, but we were stuck eating under some dusty stairs. Afterwards we went to St. John O’Gogarty’s, where Niall and Leonie took us to “hear some fiddly music and see some Irish dancing.” Julie enjoyed hearing the deep Irish tenor, and the band of three played homage to the Canadians in the room with a song about Nova Scotia. The dancing wasn’t starting until later, so we decided to head over to O’Neill’s. Again, a different band was playing from the one Dale and I first saw. They were very enjoyable, however, singing the classic favourites. We eventually managed to get a seat right in front of them, and when the Irish dancing guy came out for a short performance, I knew what was coming. He grabbed Julie’s hands and pulled her on stage, twirling her around and stomping their feet together, all with Julie in her new purple Wellington boots! I don’t think there could have been a more perfect last day in Ireland.

The following day was an early one. Julie and Stu had to get to the ferry by eight (or something equally as ridiculous), I had to get to work by 8:30, and Dale had to head to work shortly after me. Julie and Stu had noticed our hand-made coasters (cardboard) and had sneakily bought us Irish replacements, wine, and two wine glasses, which they gave to us before saying goodbye!

The White Pepper Café

The rest of the week was quite uneventful. I became a Celt rather than a Viking and worked five days in a row. I was happy to have my lunch break at exactly the same time as Dale stopped by for lunch one day, though. There was another new girl, also from Korea, named Alice. And later, Kevin, for the kitchen. All I really know about Kevin is that he’s Muslim and he thinks there are a lot of Muslims in Canada, which I suppose is true. On his very first day he had a customer compliment him on the Broccoli soup, which he had never made before. I also found out from Hazel that the two of our former coworkers who were let go actually weren’t fired/sacked. We had been on trial, which is common in Ireland, and we were just lucky that these particular owners like to pay their on-trial employees. So I guess I passed a test I didn’t know I was involved in. But today I was very unhappy with work. The instep of my left foot has been feeling increasingly more painful when I put pressure on it, and when I walked out of the house for the last of my five days, I almost turned around and went right back in. I should have listened to my foot, because the day only got worse from there. I stayed on my feet for nine hours. Nine crazy busy, understaffed, only 15-minute-break-ed hours. I worked virtually alone since the only other person working was cooking, and when Amy finally arrived we were having to catch up on everything from coffee to taking orders to cleaning tables. I was happy when Anna and Richard showed up and Anna got to work doing the mounds of dishes in the kitchen. I think they needed to see the chaos. I felt like quitting. And if it keeps up I doubt I will be staying, especially if my foot doesn't get better (which adds more scary questions). Then, with only a few hours left, it suddenly went dead, and the minutes crawled by. Needless to say, this counted as an unusual week, and Dale and I didn’t go to Fitzgerald’s.  I put my feet up and haven’t moved since.

Working away on a quieter day (and yes, that shirt is ginormous on me!)