One Week - two capitals

As in this week, I spent four days in Dublin, only one in Limerick, and two in Belfast. And sat on buses for hours five days in a row. So here comes the post about my most adventurous week here in Ireland!

Monday - Guinness Storehouse

We got up fairly early in the morning, around 8am, but it took us about two hours to actually get out of bed as we both like just staring at the ceiling or out of the window and talking about everything that comes to our minds. (For those who lost track, my bf arrived two days prior to this day, on Saturday, to visit me in Ireland.) To have a great start to the week, we went to the Guinness Storehoue after breakfast. It is a really cool place, interactive and interesting, and you get a pint of Guinness at the end, not much after the tasting room. When we finished sipping our drinks at the top of the storehouse in a circular room with a panoramic view at Dublin, we headed for Phoenix Park, eating sandwiches on the bus for lunch. But, I have no idea why, I got really tired and it was cold and of course there was a light drizzle - at least not heavy rain - so we did not spend much time there but went back to the apartment and had a nice nap again. For dinner, we had a deepfrozen pizza and then some snacks to accompany the next BBT episode we watched. After a lot of just lying and talking we went for a short walk and then had more snacks and more talk in the evening.

This erection statue was in Phoenix Park

Adorable baby Guinness in the tasting room

Dublin is not a particularly nice city...

My pint and his coke :D

Tuesday - Irish breakfast and Botanic Garden

After getting up, we decided to head out and eat a proper traditional Irish breakfast instead of bagel or whatever we had in the apartment. After all, I have already spent almost three months in Ireland and have never actually tried Irish breakfast. So we went to the city centre, to a nice place we found online, and had an indeed very tasty Irish breakfast with some coffee and hot chocolate. Then, as the rain stopped, we took the bus to the National Botenic Gardens and spent some time there, just strolling around, looking at all the trees and flowers and squirrels and ducks.
When it started raining again we decided to go back to the centre, as I wanted to check out the Penneys they have on Henry Street. It was huge. I couldn't resist and bought some HP stuff but my bf was a gentleman and paid for it so I don't even have to feel bad about spending money on stuff I don't necessarily need, just want.
For a late lunch - after all, we had a late breakfast as well, - we had fish and chips. At least my bf did, and I had a hamburger, as I tried fish&chips only a few days earlier. By the time we finished he was so tired that we seriously contemplated just going home but, unlike me on Monday, he got his shit together and so we went to Temple Bar to have a very overpriced cider. I mean.... yeah, totally overpriced. But at least I can say I had a drink at Temple Bar.
When we finally got back to the apartment, my bf took a nap and I was just texting and scrolling on my phone. Once he woke up, we had dinner from some leftovers and eggs, and then watched Magyar Vándor, the best Hungarian movie ever. Which is not telling much because most Hungarian movies are pretty bad, in my opinion, but this one is actually awesome and I never get bored of it, even though I kinda know it by heart.

Delicious Irish breakfast

We even got lollipops at the brunch place!

Nice weird flower

Colours in the Botanic Gardens

Wednesday - from Dublin to Limerick

Early in the morning - around fucking 6am - we had to get up and leave the apartment to catch the coach we took from Dublin to Limerick as I had several exams that day. Actually, the first one started at 9 but there was NO WAY I could have gotten to UL that early by bus so I emailed the teacher that I was not going to be there and I still have no idea how I will get a grade for that module. Then I had a test from 11am, and an oral exam from 11:45, so I kinda had to rush through the test and then run to the main building for the oral exam, which was in Irish and it was pretty easy, just a dialogue we had written previously with Eszter and just had to read it to the teacher and then he asked a few questions and it was over. He actually said something like "You guys are a mystery to me. You just sit at the back every class, laughing, doing nothing at all. Then you come here and you know everything. How?" I can't even decide whether I should feel bad about not behaving at his classes and never printing a single page of tasks, or good because in spite all of this, we apparently knew the stuff.
After the exam we went to Stables with my bf and had lunch, at least he had lunch and I was just sitting there, not really hungry so not wanting to spend money on food. In the afternoon we had a meeting with the TESOL group for the peer-teaching next day, then walked home, stopping for snacks and some basic grocery shopping in SuperValu.
For dinner, my bf made pancakes and in the evening I spent some time in Eszter's room, trying to get ready for the peer-teaching on Thursday. Before going to bed, I packed my bf's luggage as some things he needed to leave here for me and some things I needed him to take home for me as there would be no place left in my luggage for them.

How horrible - this university is full of surprises...

Thursday - from Limerick to Dublin

Instead of walking back to the university with the luggage in the rain, I called a taxi in the morning. There was a bit of a chaos when, after borrowing the book from the Language Hub with Eszter, we tried to photocopy that fucking one page we needed for the teaching, as there was no photocopy machine in the Hub, we could not use the one in the library as it did not want to accept my card, in the Students Union they said they do not photocopy anymore, the printer place in the Courtyard said they do not photocopy books just notes, so they sent us back to the Students Union, where they sent us away again, so we ended up in the library again, where we could finally ask for help and I ended up buying a card for photocopying and we, after all the struggle, got to photocopy that fucking page. Then we had the TESOL class and did the peer-teaching and I could not really keep the 10-minute time frame as I did 12 minutes, but I don't even care anymore. Then we had lunch in Stables again, this time both of us eating, and took the bus back to Dublin.
There, we went to the hostel we were going to spend the night at, and then went out for a walk in spite of the fucking cold outside. Strolling along a nice shopping street we looked at stuff, had an amazing hot chocolate, found a few funny shops, and bought some sweets and small souvenirs. Before going to bed, we watched the first episode of Young Sheldon, deciding to give it a chance. I actually liked it, though many reviews online say it's not that good.

The best hot chocolate I have ever tasted

Friday - from Dublin to Limerick

Getting up kinda early, we had a quick coffe/OJ in the hostel and left for the airport. There, I watched as my bf checked in, said goodbye trying hard not to cry and took the bus to Red Cow LUAS, from where the coach goes to Limerick. This time it was even more weird being at the airport as I knew I had less than one month here in Ireland.
When getting home, I cooked lentil soup - it tastes SO good, I swear - and wrote a review on Airbnb for the apartment. Then I washed my clothes and vacuum cleaned my room before starting to watch the second season of Stranger Things with Veronika. We like that series so much.
In the evening, we went to the house where the main organizers of the Belfast trip live, as they held a small preparty before Stables. We actually ended up starting to walk over to Stables a bit late so we got there after 10:30 which means you have to pay, but Edward has some special superpowers so he got us in for free. There we had fun as usual, even though we knew we would need to get up early the next morning for the Belfast trip.

Ireland is still SO GREEN

Saturday - from Limerick to Belfast

I know the weekend is still part of the week so I am supposed to have it here, but I decided to handle the Belfast trip as a special occasion and write a separate post for it. As the first five days of the week were already busy and interesting enough, I feel it would totally ruin either Dublin or Belfast to have these two in the same post. Moreover, I really don't want to have THAT many words and pictures in one single post. So stay tuned for that post, coming soon.