Howth and Immigration and Once, oh my!!!!!

I feel like I’ve been failing a little at this whole blogging thing, so we’ll see if I can’t get something short up tonight.

Classes are going well enough. Travel and life in Dublin is much more exciting. Last weekend some friends and I took the DART (think metro or BART) train out to Howth (which rhymes with “both” according to my guidebook). Howth is a coastal town located on a peninsula and used to be a big port city. Walking trails span across the entire peninsula. The four of us, being of the adventurous sort, decided to take the longest of the suggested walks. This took us first along the coastal cliffs. The views were spectacular. The sun glittered off the water at the horizon, but in addition there was one spectacular glowing disk on the water closer to us. It was almost too perfect and stunning to be a natural occurrence, so I think it was probably a leprechaun’s home. Unfortunately we had good weather, which meant no rainbow to carry us across the water and, thus, no pot of gold. A bummer, I know, but I think I preferred clear weather on a hiking day.

We followed the cliffs around until we reached a lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. Up to this point, the path had been clear, clean, and comfortable. It now became a little more…messy. We turned in slightly from following the cliffs and found ourselves forced to cross big muddy patches. This was especially fun since none of us had hiking boots. I think I personally had the best situation with my 100% white tennis shoes. Needless to say, they are no longer pristine white. Instead they are nicely colored in at least 3 different shades of brown. We probably could have made a nice analysis of the different types of soil, based on the varying hues of mud still clinging to my shoes. The scenery was incredible, and I don’t regret the walk at all. Though we were sometimes hiking through foliage, we still followed close to the cliffs. At one point, we even took a slight detour to walk down to a beach. It wasn’t quite a southern California beach, but we did find striped rocks, which were pretty cool. (I should probably post a picture of one so this comment doesn’t seem crazy.)

Eventually the path turned away from the water’s edge to cut across the peninsula and bring us back to the center of town. This was quite an adventure. We forged our way through forest and field, navigated through still more patches of mud, and even snuck across a golf course careful to avoid flying balls stuck by golfers enjoying their day in a much different way than us. Personally, I’d take a hike and awesome scenery over golf any day. Of course, I’ve never actually been golfing…

In other news I am now legally permitted to reside in Ireland through June 30! I opened my bank account, located all the necessary paperwork, waited at the Garda for two hours, and now have my official immigration card. This would be exciting (and relieving!) by itself, but I feel especially glad to have everything in order since I have my first out-of-Ireland trip planned this weekend. I’m flying to Italy to visit my best forever friend and can’t wait! A word of caution to any planning European travel: while Ryanair is very affordable, it won’t organize any flight connections for you. However, after an absurd amount of time researching flights, I have connections booked through London to Milan. I leave Friday and come back Monday and am prepared to have an incredible weekend. Italy here I come!

In keeping with the theme of this blog, I feel like I should mention some white experiences. Now that my bank account is fully functioning I can use my new “chip and pin” debit card (because not everywhere accepts swipe cards) since white people love not having cash. I also had a very white night tonight watching an independent film, Once. (Independent film, singer/songwriters, it was a win on so many white levels!) I’d never seen it, but I would now recommend it to everyone. Of course, I’d be the first to admit that my enjoyment was definitely augmented since I recognized so many scenes in the movie! You know when he’s playing his guitar on the street? Well, that’s Grafton Street and I walk on it every time I have to go to the grocery store. And when he follows the thief into the park? Well, that’s St. Stephens Green at the head of Grafton. And when she goes to the music store to play the piano? I’m pretty sure I walked through that same area on my quest to rent a viola yesterday. Yep, Once is most definitely better once you’ve been to Dublin. This means of course, if you saw the movie and didn’t like it, you just need to come visit Dublin before seeing it again. Only then can you enjoy the movie as it deserves.

Well, I guess now I’ve tweaked the meaning of “something short”…