This is Places Productions, signing off (May 28th)

Alright, quite clearly I have started tailing off with posting new blogs.  It's been a combination of lack of desire and nothing interesting to write about, so I'll sum up the last bit of my trip.

Friday, Nath and I rented a car so we could explore a bit of Ireland.  We got an insanely good deal and I was very excited to drive on the wrong side of the car and on the wrong side of the road.

It took a little time to get used to, but by the end I got pretty used to it.  The hardest part of driving was remembering how much car I had to the left of me.  I mentally kept thinking, "I have to hug the left side of the road"....all of which made Nath terrified as he sat in the passenger seat of the car, which came dangerously close some parked cars and shrubs.

And I'm glad to say, I only drove down the completely wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic ONCE!

It turns out though, that the rental car only got one day of use.  Our plan was to head to Galway, so we rented the car....we did this BEFORE checking to see if there were any hostels open...which there weren't.

We ended up going to Kilkenny the first day, where the Whalens of old hail from.  Though I didn't go see any old gravestones or anything, I had a sense of nostalgia being so near where my family came from.

Kilkenny was also where Smithwicks is brewed, so we made sure to have one at dinner.  It was pretty good, but honestly it tastes the same as back home.

Saturday and Sunday we didn't do anything because Turdo McGoo (Nath) didn't want to go anywhere.  Sunday, we did go get some groceries though, so that was pretty cool...NOT!

I took the car back on Monday.  A 15 minute drive took an hour because I couldn't find ONE street sign to point me in the right direction...how do people find their way around in Dublin???  Seriously...not ONE street sign!

The rest of my time here was spent trying to get out of Dublin for the day, but ultimately, I didn't want to spend 6 hours of travel time for 4 hours in whatever city I would end up in.  I was sick of staying in hostels and moreover PAYING for them, so I didn't want to stay overnight anywhere to turn it into a two day trip.

Oh well.

My time in Dublin and Europe has now come to an end.  I thoroughly enjoyed ever second of my trip, but it'll definitely be great to get home.  Has it really been two months?  Doesn't feel like it AT ALL!

Thank you to the thousands of people for reading this...I hope you enjoyed it.  It's been fun to write it, at times.  Other times, it felt like homework.  But in the end, it was about updating people on our trip and to help us remember the little things that will undoubtedly be lost from our minds over time.

Well, this ends Places Production's blog, "Places Productions goes to Europe."

Coming soon:  Places Productions flunks out of grad school AND Places Productions Wonder Emporium.

The Red Jumpsuit who? (May 22nd)

Nath, Aidan, and I all woke up the next morning not feeling all that well from the night before.  So the only natural thing to do was to sit around all morning (and afternoon) watching TV and just chillin'.

Finally, at 2, I showered and headed out to Howth, which is about a 30 minute train ride from Dublin.  It was supposed to have about 4 hours of seaside trails, making for a pretty nice walk.  I must've been a moron cause I saw no such trails.

However, I did spend close to 4 hours walking up the hill and subsequently down the hill through the town looking for a good view of the Irish Sea.

I preferred going down the hill.

Once I got back down, I found a road that went nearish the sea and I followed that.  But I had lost all my drive for walking and I didn't really want to do it.

I looked at my watch at it was about 6:30.  I saw on a poster that a band I like, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, was playing at The Hub, in Temple Bar at 8 so I decided to catch the next train and go to the that (I seriously had about twice as many commas in that last sentence before I trimmed them down).

I got to The Hub and hopped in line amongst all the Gothic attired fans and got in and grabbed a Guinness and a seat.  The place was pretty small and there ended up only being about a hundred people there by the end of the night.  There were two bands opening up before the main act was coming on, which was kind of annoying cause I've seen a lot of crappy opening acts.

But honestly both of these bands were pretty good, especially the second one. They have a dumb name, Sherwood, but they sounded pretty good and I was actually able to get a deal on a couple of CD's because the band was from California and hadn't run into any Americans yet....and I only had 4 euro, not the 5 that it actually cost...which was actually a lie cause I did have another 5, but I was saving that for another Guinness.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus was about to come on next, so I went to the bathroom right before they were supposed to go on.  When I was in there, two punk kids noticed the guy that was washing his hands at the sink...it was the lead singer.  I'm glad they were there otherwise I would've had no idea who he was as I'm not a REALLY big fan or anything...but nevertheless it was pretty cool to see him.

I followed him out and watched him meet up with the rest of the band and I saw their ritualistic "Let's have a good show!!" group hug before they went on stage.

The show was pretty darn good, albeit very short.  I just realized that it was probably so short because the 8 or 9 songs they played compromised about 90% of their released tracks.

When the show got done, I had about 15 minutes to catch my bus, but I waited just off stage, camera in hand, so I could meet the band and grab a picture.  It was about a minute later that I realized what I had become...a 17 year old girl, eagerly waiting to grab a picture of the band she just saw.  Granted, it wasn't as bad as wearing a shirt of the band to one of their concerts, but I said screw it and left.

I REALLY didn't want to have to pay 10 euro for a cab, so I sprinted through Temple Bar and got to my bus stop with just a few minutes to spare before the bus was supposed to come.

Well about 18 minutes later that bus finally showed up and I headed home.  Time well spent today.