Lauren In London: First Full Day

Alana, Kevin, and me at the Jameson Distillery.

     Despite staying out quite late the night before I woke up at 5:20am. I had been planning on getting up decently early, but that was a but earlier than I had expected. Getting up I began preparing to go for a run. I had a breakfast of what I thought was oatmeal, but what turned out to be porridge, and so fruit. We have not had time to go grocery shopping, but it will need to happen soon. The sun rises rises about five and does not set until about two, so by the time I went out about six, it was very light out. I went down the main street toward the city centre and very few people were out. I actually got a few strange looks from people, and for a time I wondered if Irish people just do not run in the city, because in London there were runners everywhere. I made it to the city centre and I went down the main street, got distracted by a cool looking church and started going down that street. Before I knew it I was lost, and I had to ask directions. Once back on the road, I headed back towards Rathmines, and having not run my goal I decided to turn down a side street and run back towards the canal a bit. Fun fact: the streets in Dublin twist and turn in every direction, and what looks like it runs parallel to another road, doesn't. So I got lost again, and had to ask three more people for directions before making it home. Since the water heater needs at least thirty minutes to heat up before you use it, I had switched on the timer before I had left. But when I went to take my shower it was still ice cold. Not knowing what to do, I took a cold shower. Alana was awake once I got out and we went to investigate the water heater and though I had turned the timer on, I had not flip the on switch; so she and Kevin had hot showers, but I did not.
     At 9am we were supposed to meet Stephen outside, but since transit is unpredictable, he did not arrive till about 9:30. The day before had been really nice and sunny, but today was really cold and a bit rainy. We took the bus to the Arcadia Centre and they gave us tea and coffee to warm up and then we had orientation till 1PM. Apparently the Irish eat lunch later than Americans because lunch has consistently been at about 1-1:30 the past two days. They took us to an Italian restaurant, where the only think gluten free and vegetarian friendly I could order was grilled vegetables off the antipasti menu. The vegetables were good and everyone said their food was fabulous. Despite the cold and rain, we went off exploring, and actually found some cool stuff. We found Christ Church Cathedral, which is about a thousand years old, and the Dublania Museum, which is about viking era Dublin. We did not go inside other, but left them for another day. For a long time we just walked and eventually made it across the river where Kevin made us follow the signs to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery. Reluctantly I agreed to go on a tour and we bought tickets, but at the tour wasn't for another hour we walked around the era and then popped into a pub where they got something to drink. The tour was interesting and at the end they let us either try a Jameson whiskey or a Jameson whiskey with ginger ale. I got the one with ginger ale and it was actually pretty good.
     Exhausted and hungry we began the walk home. Once back in Rathmines we were starving and we found a pub to eat in as grocery shopping has still not happened. I might have to go on my own if they keep putting it off. After not having much to eat at lunch I was pretty ravenous and I got the salmon special and they got soup. The was amazing and came with homemade mashed potatoes and some vegetables. Now, after a long day my feet are aching and I am quite tired.

Christ Church Cathedral

Christ Church is officially claimed as the seat of both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin. In practice, it has been the cathedral of only the Church of Ireland's Archbishop of Dublin since the English Reformation.