Wednesday, 4th of May

I can still taste it in my mouth... The most perfect, --- the best --- taste in the world... Melted cheese, warm ham and white bread... Yeah, I just made the most perfect sandwich and I melted it in a pan:) I can't stop thinking about it... Well, that basically described my day so far. Right now I'm at the reception desk, trying to look busy;) I'm about to sell loads of pub crawls, so I get a little extra pocket-money.

Everytime we sell a tour or a pubcrawl we get a little commision. Which is nice, since I don't get paid here. That's why I'm really persuasive towards the guests to buy tickets for the pubcrawl or a tour:)

Wow, imagine this... My work consist of watching football right now:)

Tuesday, 3rd of May

I didn't plan to do something today, I suddenly stumbled upon it. I had a nice chat at the reception with my colleague Ray and Shannon, an American girl. She said that she wanted to go to the Leprechaun Museum. I didn't even know that existed, but the moment I heard the word leprechaun I was all ears. She noticed that and asked me if I wanted to come with her to that famous museum:)

It was soooooo much fun. The guides tell a couple of amazing fairy-tales about leprechauns and fairies and they tell it in such a way that it looks like they actually believe in them. The guide we had was an extremely talented storyteller and she kept us agitated the whole time. Besides the nice storytelling they had a room which made you feel like a leprechaun yourself. It had extremely large furniture, you actually had to CLIMB the chair to get on it. I have to say that that takes some practise...

Sunday, 1st of May

It got pretty late last night. We went home from the pub at a reasonable time, but Margot and I were hungry, so we stayed in the common-room for a long time after we were back from the pub. Margot had to work this morning and we decided to get up at 7.30 so we could have a quite breakfast and start our day slowly. I wanted to go to the church anyway this morning. The first service on Sunday starts at eleven, which is a perfect time:)

The service was great, although I missed the choir that they had last Sunday. Last Sunday there were loads of people attending because it was Easter. Today it was only half full. The services are totally different from what I'm used to. In Dublin there are no 'real' protestant services, but they have Roman-Catholic services or Anglican services. I always go to the Anglican service in the Christ Church Cathedral. But Anglican is a lot like Roman-Catholic, they don't have the pope as church leader and they don't have confessions. Other than that the services look a lot like Roman-Catholic services. They have bishops and they wear those fancy Roman-Catholic dresses. They even have women who are bishops! Amazing...

During the service they always perform the sacrament of the Eucharist, which is 'Avondmaal' in Dutch. It is different than we are used to in the PKN in Barneveld. Everybody can attend, old and young. The priests encourage everybody to come forward and attend the feast of bread and wine. Almost everybody hurries forward to join the feast. A few people, including me, stay put.

I had made plans go to Croke Park and watch a game of Hurling (look it up on youtube!) in the afternoon. I thought Croke Park would be a nice park and that a couple of amateurs would play a game of Hurling. Turned out that that I was a little misinformed. Croke Park is not a park but a very big stadium with a capacity for 82,300 people. Besides that it wouldn't be a game played by amateurs, but the FINAL between Dublin and Kilkenny. Hmmm, just a 'little' misinformed, I blame it on my blond hair...

The game was LEGENDARY! Dublin won spectacularly from Kilkenny with a score of 22-10. According to the Irish Independent it is the first time in 72 years that a national hurling crown is in Dublin's possession. I've never seen such a crazy sport. Hurling is a combination of Hockey, Rugby and Football. The men behave like cave-people with clubs. Only the toughest boys make it through and even they endure serious injuries. I LOOOOOOVE IT:) If you ever get the chance of attending a match of Hurling, don't hesitate!

If you want to read an article about the match CLICK HERE:)

Saturday, 30th of April

It turned out that Margot's bed was double booked at Barnacles and that she had to get a bed at the Four Courts Hostel! So we decided to go out to the pub on Saturday night with some friends she made at Barnacles. The pub had fantastic live music, a guy on a guitar played covers. I made one big mistake though...

Halfway there I had to go to the ladies room. The pub was pretty big, but I found the toilets eventually. I had to walk a couple of stairs down, but when I went back to find Margot I wasn't paying attention at how many stairs I took...

When I found door which leaded to the bar I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a band playing lame songs and the bar was on the other side of the room. It looked like I was in a totally different pub! I tried the stairs again and once again I was in a totally different room. "Did I drink too much?", I thought. I only had one pint, that couldn't be it... I walked across the room and saw more stairs. There was some kind of balcony and I could not believe my eyes for the second time that night. There were stairs leading to at least five floors... I was lost in a pub...

I know I have the sense of direction of a potato, but that I was able to get lost in a pub was beyond my expectations. A man pulled me out of my reverie. "You don't look Irish, where are you from?" I politely answered his question and told him that I got lost and that I couldn't find my friends any more. I told him I needed to find the ground floor. Fortunately the man showed me the ground floor and asked me if I could bring my friends over to where he was. I thanked him and said I would think about it. I found Margot and her Barnacles friends soon enough and I never got back to the nice man who helped me find my way.