Rain, rain, go away

This morning I slept in until eleven. It was wonderful. Even after that coffee and tea last night I somehow managed to sleep like a rock. The free breakfast at the hostel was amazing, though. A scone and tea. 

I headed out to Dingle on the 11:30 bus and got there at about 1. It was raining pretty hard in Tralee and I was reaaalllly hoping it would be nice in Dingle, since I don’t have a raincoat because I’m dumb. Also, I don’t have an umbrella. I do have a tarp though. 
I met up with another fellow couchsurfer in Dingle– Kata. Kata is a teacher from New York who has traveled already to Iceland and some other places (I can’t remember the other places because I got too excited about Iceland). So we bonded over Iceland and traveling and whatnot, split the cost of a bunch of produce, soup, cheese and bread at a local supermarket and went to the pier to eat. It was a little windy and chilly, but not bad after the sun came out and lit up the emerald coast. 

 This is Kata. She’s awesome.
We went back to her hostel to drop off my stuff and charge my electronic whatnots (the last hostel I stayed in had no outlets). I met an Italian guy there named Giuseppe whose English wasn’t very good. I told him, “Non parlo Italiano ma posso capire in po perche parlo spagnolo” (I don’t speak Italian but can understand some because I speak Spanish). Well, for the first time I got to put it to the test. We actually *struck up a conversation* in two different languages and it was about the happiest moment of my life. Most of what I didn’t understand I just had him repeat and got it the second time, so it wasn’t entirely smooth but it blew my mind. Anyway, Kata and I decided to walk through town and down to the beach. 

There were traffic cones everywhere because of the marathon, but we still got to enjoy all the colorful buildings in the city and the landscape. Everything here is so cute. 

Also whiskey. Once we got to the beach, it was half covered by seaweed because of the low tide. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen seaweed before. It’s so strange… 
We headed back after reaching a dead end and I left Kata at her hostel. I booked one back in Annascaul, a town about 15km east of Dingle, and left a but early on the bus because it started to rain again. We planned on biking Slea Head again today (now it’s Sunday, keep up with me here) but Kata is feeling pretty sick so I’ll wait until tomorrow. Instead, she’s coming to Annascaul just to hang out and I think we’re going to go see Inch Beach, which is evidently world famous for surfing? 
One thing that I would like to do while I’m here is climb Brandon’s Peak, which is on the peninsula, j use to say that I have. I’ll update on that later. 
Wen I got back to the hostel yesterday I met what I thought was a couple from San Fran but they turned out to be half siblings. We struck up a conversation from either side of the hostel kitchen and ended up walking into town to hang out at a bar for a bit before coming back and watching that awful movie where Meghan Fox is a demon and kills people or something. I don’t know. I ended up going to bed around 3:30, and I’ve just woken up at 1pm. I’m not sure what to do for the moment so I’m just waiting until Kata gets here around 5. I’ve got a sore throat so I’m taking it a it easier today and I’ve had about four oranges to eat… Lets hope that staves off any kind of sickness that might keep me from enjoying my trip…
Things to know about Ireland so far: 
Good craíc (pronounced like ‘crack’) means good fun.
There are a lot of different types of Irish accents.
Do NOT even THINK about drinking your beer until the foam at the top has gone away. DO NOT under ANY circumstances drink off the foam before it settles.
Grass here looks like AstroTurf. 
To say someone is attractive, you say “You’re a ride.”
No one says “wee.”
No one EVER says “Top o’ the mornin’.”
Bread and produce are dirt cheap. Precooked or packaged food is not.
A pub is not a ‘bar.’
Rain. Lots of it. Also, the temperature fluctuates rapidly and wildly from area to area. 
There aren’t very many insects.
Their minimum wage is roughly $12 an hour, and things are generally more expensive here. 
If you pronounce their town names wrong, they’ll ask you to repeat it over and over again until you get it right because they think it’s hilarious. 

acorn

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