A Week on No Sleep

After working seven shifts in a row, which included three and a half hours of sleep because of the Guinness work party, as well as other feats of exhaustive merit, I was, quite frankly, exhausted. But it was worth it. On Monday we went to Fitzgeralds, where we met Heather and Anne’s friend from back home, and I got to know Alysia, Gina, and Jillian better, all of whom are from BC. We made plans to go to a comedy show on Friday, which ended up being at The Laughter Lounge for 26 euros.

On Wednesday after work Katie and I went out for a drink at the Capital, and actually managed to just have one this time. Mine was a delicious blue-green Pacific for five euros, which was more than covered by my tips that day. On Thursday we went out again, starting with a sushi place she had told me about during work. We brought our own wine and ended up continuing to a pub with a good corner booth before getting an invite from Alison, also from work, who was celebrating an award. A few others from work were out, so Katie and I made a pit-stop at her place where I borrowed some clothes, then met up with everyone at an almost deserted pub. Harry and Yorick were there as well, the later of whom bought me a drink, and the former refused to turn in after everyone went home, which meant Katie and I were treated to a rainy walk to the Temple Bar area for some proper Irish music in another pub. I hadn’t been to any of these places before, and I can’t tell you their names. I’ll have to confer with Katie over the good ones.

After some late night pizza with the two of them, I ended up crashing at Katie’s. In the morning we were treated to a contractor walking right into the bedroom without knocking to grab her keys. The men proceeded to shut off the toilet, which they hadn’t bothered to tell Katie about. So with very little sleep we vacated the premises and headed to MacDonald’s for breakfast. With a bit of coffee we were soon laughing and continuing our good visit. Afterwards, I left her to deal with her contractors on a fun and only day off, I stopped in at Penneys to buy Dale a pair of one euro slippers.

The Laughter Lounge

That evening Dale and I headed into town to meet up with Gina and Alysia at The Laughter Lounge! We found two little round tables nearby each other, Gina and Alysia making friends with two Irish girls. Gina shouted out she was from Canada to the MC, who had a bit of a back-and-forth with her for the rest of the night, ending with a thank you and a hope that she would get laid by an Irish man soon. The funniest act was right in the middle, a clearly gay young man in a purple blazer who delivered some low-brow humour with energy. His name was Al Porter, and I actually thought he was better than the main man, Eric Lalor, though I have to admit some of Eric’s Ireland jokes went over my head, which could have been the problem. But the other two delivered great Dublin jokes in particular, and I was happy to find them hilarious rather than confusing, something that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t come to live in Dublin!

Lunch at Eno!

The view of St. Patrick's while we ate

The altar at St. Patrick's

After work on Sunday (a shift that I was wide awake for, and it seemed everyone else was too!) Dale and I went over to Heather and Anne’s for a Harry Potter movie, but three out of the four of us crashed in the middle of it. The walk over had been snowy, so I didn’t envy Dale his trip home; I had packed an overnight bag so the three of us who had the day off could do some kind of day trip on Monday. In the morning we slowly got our butts in gear and headed into town for a bus to Enniscorthy. Unfortunately we were too late so we took the next bus out of Dublin, which brought us to Dundalk. The first thing we did was find a toilet, then look for food. We walked, and hobbled, in the case of Anne’s gibbled ankle, into a nearby pub, Benny Brady’s. It smelled strongly of the type of soap you find in a public toilet, and all the occupants of the bar seats stared at us as we walked past. We sat down for about ten seconds, then got up and walked back out again.

Ye ol' mill

St. Joseph's Redemptorist Church

The altar in St. Joseph's

We ended up having a delicious meal in an Italian restaurant called Eno, which was a fancy little place that had a view of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We got to sit on a couch while we ate soup and sandwiches, and even tea and coffee, before venturing inside the cathedral. We really had no idea what was in Dundalk, so we found a tourist sign post and ended up doing a bit of a scavenger hunt as we located the notable places it listed. This included an old mill and St. Joseph's Redemptorist Church. There were also random chickens in the middle of town, and a big Aldi where we stocked up on cheap junk food. We got back on the bus just in time for the rain to come down, and headed back to their place for what’s quickly turning into a marathon of Harry Potter movies. The next one starts at our place tonight!

A neighbourhood in Dundalk