Dublin sort of needs its own post. . .

OK. . . first thing. . . I just have to say this. . . Do I look WAY better ungroomed? The entirety of the above trips, I was too tired to make an effort and wore NO make-up and was more or less (in my opinion) gross-looking, yet I got hit on a LOT (and by not creepy people 1/2 the time)? I had attributed this to being in not London where I don't get hit on at all except by annoying creepy guys who call out "Ni Hou" and "Konnichiwa" to me. I'M NOT CHINESE! This actually really offends me now. It didn't so much before, but now it does. Within the UK, it ironically only seems to happen in London. Anyways, my point is that I went around the first 2 days in Dublin as whatever and I got a lot of attention as usual (usual in Ireland that is), but the last day, I actually decided to make an effort since I planned on going out that night to Temple Bar and. . . I'd get stared at a lot, but it was as if I had a disease or something?!?!?! It just puzzles and confuses me is all. By the way, people told me Temple Bar would be fun even if I was by myself and they were wrong. The live music in Derry was a lot better in my opinion. They used the Irish flute and whistle.

Aaaaaaaanyways, weirdly, Dublin was kind of a spiritual experience for me. First of all, I didn't really actually want to go to Dublin that badly. I don't like beer (Guinness was everywhere) and I'm not much of a "go out" person (though it's fun every once in awhile of course!). The ONLY reason why I decided to go was because the flights were so cheap that I couldn't resist.

So when I woke up that morning, I remembered my flight was at 9:30 am, so my coach was at 7:00 am (to go to Stansted Airport). So I woke up at around 5:30 am. . . to look at my ticket and realize - MY COACH WAS AT 6:00 AM! It takes 30 minutes by the tube to get from Mile End (where I live) to Victoria Coach Station. So I RAN out. . . and missed the coach. Now at this point, I was tired and flipping out and panicking (as usual) and I decided I would wait for the next coach that came, but if they wouldn't accept my old ticket, I would be OK with not going. . .

. . . but the driver said it was OK! Now I know that the drivers are really lax, but I was shocked, I was really prepared to just relax in London! So I just kind of had this weird feeling, like I was meant to go to Dublin for some reason. I just don't understand why things just kept working out like that?

Anyways, so I got there and did the tourist-y things and met people in the hostel - a lot of them were French (and at least one was Quebecois)! So cute! They were really nice! No one seemed up for going out, so I played "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" the board game with 2 South Africans (coolest accent ever btw)! The game was weird and had a lot of questions only British people would know the answer to. The easy questions for me were the higher ones - but I rarely got there since the easy ones were impossible!

So I went to Windmill Lane, which is where U2 recorded a lot of their hits and there is a lot of graffiti. The quote above caught my eye. I don't know I know there are jokes about this quote but I really like it. . . I've always been more driven by anger than anything else.

OK the spiritual part (no, all of the above was not it, though it was part of it). I kept wondering why I was there - I mean I was having fun and all, but I couldn't stop thinking that for some reason I HAD to be there. . . so I went- unintentionally, mind you- to the Irish Museum of Modern Art and saw this:
If you can see, it's a temporary exhibition that had just started containing visual artwork by Hans Christian Anderson. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I had NO IDEA he was a visual artist! His visual works are not well known at all (of course, not NEARLY as well known as 'The Little Mermaid' or 'The Ugly Duckling') but they exist! So I went in. He did a lot of work with cutting paper and drawing. Actually I was kind of weirded out about the fact that he and I have way more in common than I thought. I used to draw a LOT and be pretty good at it too. He also intended to be a singer when he was 14 (in case you apparently don't know me at all, I want to be a singer). He also believed in the importance of dreams (reason why I'm so interested in psychology, and the weird things that have happened with me and dreams) and traveled a lot. When I got to a room that contained this screen (what he considers to be his greatest visual work):

I cried. I don't know. I can't explain it, but it's as if I know what I'm meant to do in life. Of course there's no way to be sure of it - but I think I understand my purpose in life, and at the same time, am more confused.

Anyways the other revolutionary part of my trip to Dublin was in yet another museum - The Chester Beatty Library, which also I had never heard of, but saw an ad saying they had guided tours Wednesdays at 1 pm and that it had won an award for best museum in Europe. So I decided to go in. The 1st floor was closed, and the only part you could see was the religion collection on the 2nd floor. Apparently Chester Beatty is extremely famous for housing 1 particular book: the earliest known copy of the Bible in codex form, dated to the 2nd century AD. It's not quite in the same order in which we use it today, but it puts together the same 4 gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - which was believed to have been put together under the rule of Constantine in 4th century AD. Basically all the stuff you learned in the Da Vinci Code about Constantine is disproved.

This kind of changes my perspective on everything. It doesn't change what I believe but it bothers/confuses me. But the cool thing is that part of it is actually at Michigan! When the tour guide said that, I went AH! OMG! THAT'S MY SCHOOL!

One of the French people I met learned to play the guitar 2 years ago and is AMAZING at it now. I need to go home and practice. . .

Yes. . . so. . . anyways. . . I hope that wasn't really weird. . . It's incidents like these that restore my faith in God. . . but anyways, that was my trip to Dublin!