Hello, Dublin! I haven't been here since 2010, during the epic trip I took from Koolwal's wedding -> several days stranded in DC by the Icelandic volcano -> London -> Paris (where I seemed to have some form of whooping cough) -> Dublin. So far I haven't noticed many changes, but that could be because the cabbie smelled more like a pig farm than anything I've smelled since a pig farm, which made for a rather awful ride. Or maybe I'm the one who smells, since I still seem to smell it, but that could be because I'm tired and hallucinating. Or it's possible I'm getting sick - everything feels vaguely fuzzy, which doesn't bode well...
...but today was a good day despite it. I got nineish hours of sleep, did an hour of work for the day job, showered, had breakfast (a worse choice than yesterday - scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, since I was trying to be healthier than french toast, but the salmon was too oily for my tastes; hopefully it's not food poisoning that's making me feel woozy), and packed everything so I could check out by noon. Then I spent a delightful, wonderful, awesome three hours at the V&A Museum - I adore that place more than possibly any other museum in the world, since they have a lot of cool information about how furnishings, textiles, ceramics, etc. are made, all of which is v. inspiring to my writing. So I took a ton of pictures, read a ton of placards, bought an awesome necklace to commemorate my trip, and had a quick lunch in their cafe to keep myself from fainting. All in all, it was great!
Then I went back to the hotel, had a quick pot of tea and a bit of chocolate while scribbling in my journal, and then took a taxi to the airport. The taxi was supposed to obviate the need to walk a lot since I wasn't feeling well (otherwise I would have taken the substantially cheaper Underground, but that would have involved walking two blocks + carrying my suitcase up and down a bunch of stairs). And the taxi driver was nice - but then he dropped me off at Terminal 5, and I didn't realize it until I was already inside. This was annoying, since I needed to be in Terminal 2 (and had told him that twice). So I ended up on the Underground after all, since that was the best way between terminals. Ha.
But I was still early enough that when I checked in, they bumped me to a flight that left an hour earlier. That was all entirely uneventful, and I didn't get threatened with deportation in Ireland, so that was a plus. I got to my hotel without incident (and after having burned out my sense of smell), checked in, and discovered that it's more quaint than any hotel I've ever stayed in (well, maybe not, but considering I feel that way after staying in a castle last week, you can guess that it's pretty fucking quaint). I grabbed dinner in the restaurant downstairs, which was one of my old favorites when I lived here, but they appear to have remodeled and it doesn't feel the same (although it may perhaps be better).
And now I should sleep - I have to go to the office in the morning and try to remember how to be a contributing, functioning member of the team after what was essentially a ten-day non-working junket of fun and regret. Goodnight!
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