Luck of the Irish (Friday the 13th)

After another day in Ireland I am completely exhausted. Fortunately last night I was able to get a lot of sleep (despite crazy neighbors) so I had the energy to do a lot of amazing things today. The hostel provided a deluxe breakfast of toast and corn flakes this morning, so I am quite fortunate I had a mini package of Nutella packed away in my backpack. These hostels really are quite the experience. Our little group of nine all got together after breakfast and went over to the Gaiety Theatre to get tickets for Riverdance. We managed to get tickets for all of us for €25! We were all so stoked! More on that adventure later!

Originally we were going to take a bus tour through town again, but we decided that we wanted to see if we could find a bus to takes out into the countryside. After we recovered Maddie from getting her eyebrows plucked (random) we hopped on a bus that took us to a little town about thirty minutes east of Dublin called Howth. It is located on a peninsula and was so much fun. The countryside was so green and felt great to breathe air that wasn't completely covered in smoke. We went exploring and went down to a lighthouse by the sea, visited a cathedral, a castle, got Irish soup at a Cafe, entered a graveyard (where I befriended a graveyard dog), visited with a nice lady about literature in her bookstore and enjoyed the Irish rain. I am really glad that I got to see this other side of Ireland. I have been really enjoying Dublin, but this was a fun change.

We made our way back to Dublin in the afternoon and split up to do different things. My group visited the Gardens of Remembrance, a site dedicated to those that fought for Irish independence. We then went to a museum that our new bookstore friend recommended to us as well as a museum about the great writers from Ireland (you would have loved it mom). We then hopped on another bus tour guided this time by a very musical driver who kept singing a mix of show tunes and Irish folk songs. 'twas very entertaining.
At 5:00 we went to St. Patrick's cathedral to participate in Evensong. They let us into the cathedral for free to take part in their evening ceremony. A choir sang songs and the ministers read scriptures and it was all very fascinating. I was surprised because even though there were little things that were off, I was still able to feel the spirit speaking softly. We also got to sing to some songs and join them in kneeling for prayer. It was a great experience in a gorgeous cathedral!
After the Evensong we spent a little time going around shops to burn time before our show. We walked through Temple Bar (the shopping district) and I went back to get a hot chocolate at my new favorite chocolate store. We also found another American candy shop selling things from home at ridiculous prices. Almost €3 for a Hershey bar! Why would anyone buy a Hershey HERE?!? It baffles me.

Just before the show we all met up again. We were about to go into the theatre when the man taking our tickets told us to go to the Box office. We were all really nervous at first, but when we got there they told us that they were upgrading our tickets! Our original seats wherein the top balcony towards the back, but they had moved us to the second row of the ground floor for free! That's a €65 ticket that we got for €25! We don't quite know why that happened, but we weren't going to argue. I think it's because I lit a candle at the cathedral for charity. We watched the show from our great new seats and it was absolutely amazing. It was a two hour performance but it just flew by!The music and the dancing were the awesome. We were all smiling the whole time. We got to see Riverdance in Ireland!

The day seemed perfect already, but as we were walking home we stopped by a market to get some last minute snacks and I found a can of Rootbeer. Those don't exist in Europe, at least not at a normal price. I drank it all and the day was officially fantastic.