dublin day

A couple days ago, on a whim, I started playing Return of the Obra Dinn. Dante was like "I've been meaning to try that out forever" and suddenly he and newbie were playing it too. It's me, the trendsetter. I tuned into newbie's stream for a hot second and immediately exited because he was way ahead of me (they call him "master deducer" meisnewbie). Then I left for Ireland, so I have the whole trip to be bothered by the identity of Knifed, R. Witterel.

Anyway, nothing happened on the journey. I got four and a half hours of sleep (11:45 to 4:15), which is about as good as one might hope for.

We arrived in Dublin around 11:30 am local time and had a free day to blob around before our tour kicks in. We spent the time exploring the city center. Dublin is a gloriously patchwork city. Ancient brick and stone sits next to sleek modern glass and steel. A dilapidated slum-looking apartment block might be a block away from a fancy restaurant or hotel.

We walked to Trinity College, home of the historic Book of Kells, but we didn't get to see the Book of Kells because we didn't have a ticket. Herds of tourists (and only tourists) roamed the campus grounds. Well, it is summer. The quad was practically empty, no one napping or having lunch or playing frisbee. Maybe it's a disincentive to nap that you could wind up in the background of dozens of tourist photos.

After that, things got awkward. I suggested walking onward to see Christchurch Cathedral. I'm not inherently into cathedrals, but I wanted to walk more and see more of the city. No one had any objections. When we were halfway there, Mom whispered it might be too long of a walk for Dad (he didn't say anything though). Then, when we were a couple blocks away, Dad said to go on without him because he urgently had to find a restroom. We were like, let's stop for dinner instead and you can use the restroom there. We then retraced our steps for several blocks with Dad grumpily nixing every food place we passed. I got the vibe both of them were annoyed with me for suggesting the cathedral. It was just a suggestion! You could've said no! I don't even care about cathedrals!

We finally stopped at a burger place. Dad went out of his way not to get a burger: he initially ordered fish and chips, then when the server de-recommended it, he ordered a chicken sandwich. Then when it came he was like "guess there's not much beef in Ireland, they're serving chicken" ??? you didn't order the beef. my burger was great

So that was our drama for the day. Everyone was in a better mood after dinner and we walked back to the hotel without seeing any cathedrals.

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Pictured: The mid-stage boss of Trinity College. We didn't get to see the final boss, but with all the hype it's gotta be Kells wielding his book.