Full Circle

I'm back in Dublin and it's wonderful. Too bad I'm only here for one day. Regardless, with my unusually large one-day budget of €43 (after conversion [by the way, don't utilize the services of currency exchange offices in airports... They rip you off), I planned on having an amazing day. Actually, I guess €8 of that went to my room, so I had 35 total euro to spend. When you've been budget traveling for over two months, spending extra money can be a hard thing to actually bring yourself to do. This difficulty was compounded by the fact that it's Sunday, and everything is closed on Sunday except supermarkets. 

I found a market and went sooooo big! I got fruit scones WITH JELLY, a hot chocolate, and a bottle of water. It set me back €4. Damn, I'm bad at this. Okay, whatever. I'll just keep spending on things as I see them, I thought. 

The only problem is that I can only fit so much I my stomach at one time. I got a soda which I threw away halfway through, a bag of M&Ms, another bottle of water because I lost the first two of the day... 

I got bored looking for things to buy and saw a mountain off in the distance to the south of Dublin where the sun looked like it might come out, so, looking for one last bit of adventure, I started walking and didn't stop for four hours. And I saw the most incredible stuff. Dublin might be my favorite large city in terms of aesthetic appeal. Also, the people are super nice and the food is good and cheap. What's not to like other than the gross dirty river in the middle and the unbelieavably expensive alcohol? 

Apparently, Dublin goes through this weird phase of springtime autumn winter where it's cold, but not as cold as London, and not cold enough to kill all the plants, but just cold enough to bring on autumn in half the plant life... It's really strange. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Dublin is also good at Christmas.

I took nearly two hundred photos today. I wish I could share them all with you right now but you'll have to wait until they're up on my Facebook page. I started running into a lot of colorful flowers and stuff and started a miniature adventure (a side-quest, if you will) to get something from each of the colors of the rainbow. I succeeded in finding every color except blue within five minutes, walking down a residential street and awkwardly taking close-up pictures of some plants on various people's lawns. 

So I kept walking, and walking, and walking... Eventually I left Dublin proper and got into some of the suburbs. There was an amazing trail that ran along a stream running east. I had given up on finding the mountain because it had disappeared behind a bunch of residential areas and turned out to be much, much farther away than I thought. The trail was too amazing to leave anyway. 

Do you guys remember what we do with leaves?

THAT'S RIGHT. WE KICK THEM. 

FEEL THE WRATH OF MY SWEATPANTS, LEAVES! Muahahaha! ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ=3=3=3

After a really long, really epically beautiful walk, I made it to the end of the trail. I felt cheated for a second, walking up a hill to re-emerge at a residential street, but the I saw it. The universe had left my blue plant at the very end for me to find and complete my gay side quest. 

Congratulations! You've earned twelve exp and the power of rainbow DEATH LASERS. 

A local directed me to a train I could take back into the city, and on the way back to the hostel there was an awesome street performer standing on a ladder juggling flaming sticks and a knife. Also, there was an incredibly hot guy from the audience helping him at one point: 

Now all I've got to do is make it back to Kirksville alive. Currently I'm sitting here charging all my stuff for the long flights and layovers I have to sit through tomorrow. Reflections post will be written on the plane ride back to the states most likely, but we'll see. I'll definitely miss Dublin, at any rate. 

I still have €20 to spend, after my bus ride to the airport tomorrow and I already have groceries to survive on for two days. What do I spend this money on?!