9 September 2008: Dublin, Ireland

I woke up after a full night's sleep. That's the good news.

The better news? I had a full night's sleep for free. In my old bed, without anyone downstairs knowing.

I left the hostel immediately, before someone came to check who was around and discovered I was there, and went immediately to Tesco to get a Ham and Baguette Super Deluxe Supreme. A H'n'B SDS is different from the Deluxe Supreme because you have the higher quality ham and the higher quality bread that you get with the Deluxe but you pay for the lower quality bread that you get with the Deluxe Supreme because you pay at the self-scan but can't scan bread. Thus giving you the Super Deluxe Supreme.

I went back to Trinity to see if I could use the internet at the library, but was told that it's for students only and you need to present a student ID card simply to enter the library. Odd.

Riley had given me an orange the previous day in addition to the feast he served, so I had it. But it was a bitch to peal, and while I was struggling with it Elizabeth, the cute red-head American from the day before, saw me and said hello. I went with her to the same computer lab as the day before and, bam, that was all I needed. Before I left I also made plans to meet them at 9:00 at one of the literary pub crawl spots from the night before.

After I had gotten my fix of the internet I went back to the information booth to find out more information about the bus. What they said is that the early bus to Belfast at 7:00am costs €10 and the bus from Galway is around €13. Not terrible.

But in order for those two buses to work I needed to get from Belfast to Galway, so I went to the Northern Ireland information place to find out. They said it was €24. Not terrible by any means, but a bit more than I would have liked.

After this I walked around a bit more, but I was thinking about Belfast and Galway and wanted to look some more things up in order to maybe leave the next day. The Trinity computer lab was out of the question, but there was a public library in the center of town which I went to instead.

And, wouldn't you know, I'm now a member of the Dublin Public Library! Hot damn, what more could I possibly need?

Well, what I found when I checked this very account of my Life of Saturdays was a message from some guy named Tomm who works for a radio station in Carlow. He said he saw my blog post about Carlow-- although I'm not sure how he found it-- and asked if I would be willing to do an interview for his station.

(It's not like you needed me to tell you that. It's still there.)

Well, I was pretty pumped by this, but to be perfectly honest I wasn't really sure how much I could say about Carlow. I mean, I had had two lovely days, but I wasn't exactly a wealth of information. So I e-mailed Tomm and said that, if the radio station would sponsor me to go back-- just minimal food and hostel money-- then I would be happy to do a more extensive report. I then quickly wrote a new post for my second day in Carlow, since he had only read the first, and e-mailed him that as well. And prayed.

In the meantime, what I discovered is that the Queen's University is in Belfast and the National University of Ireland is in Galway. Both big schools.

Though I couldn't find the start date for their fall terms, what I also discovered was that Thursday and Friday of this week was open house at Queen's University for prospective students. Fucking jackpot.

Not only would there be loads of free food, but there would be lots of students milling about and talking. All I would need to do, then, was find the student who looked chill and confess that I wasn't an 18 year old prospective student but a 23 year old college graduate who needed a place to sleep for a couple nights. It couldn't be any easier.

Right before I left the library I saw that Tomm had replied to me, saying "I will see what I can drum up from this part of the country! I will e mail you tomorrow afternoon to see what can be done...." Seemed like there was a possibility there, but it meant I wasn't going anywhere the next morning.

Walking back to the hostel I got two apples from a girl handing them out, which were delicious, and when I arrived Joel was in the middle of possibly securing a job. He was talking to an older dude and, I guessed, another employee, but the old dude was being dodgy as hell and whispering to Joel from behind a sheet of paper. He told Joel to "take a walk" with him, and off they went. Boy was it weird.

When Joel left, the guy at the desk, who I had never seen before, asked if I was staying there. Emboldened by the previous night, I said "no but I'm storing my things upstairs" and just walked up. I was clear.

When Joel came back he said that he had been offered a job working the front desk of some other hostel. He said he would be paid €300/week and get a bed for free in exchange for working five night shifts each week. Not a bad deal, except for that Joel said the hostel he would be working at was even dodgier than I would have guessed from the dodginess of the conversation I witnessed. I'm not sure how I feel about all that, but it's good pay and a free bed. So why turn it down?

(Incidentally, though, I think it's pretty funny that Joel got the kind of job I was looking for without even having to try. Guess I missed the boat.)

Before heading out for the night, Joel and I stopped by Isaacs Hostel, which was down a side street near us, because we had heard it was nice and wanted to see. Well, let me tell you, this place was a palace compared to ours. We didn't see too much, but there was a really nice kitchen as well as a common area, which is standard in every single hostel around the world-- except Citi Hostel. This place would have been heaven on earth. Now we knew better.

(It should be mentioned, solely in the name of truth and honesty, that Joel and I tried to cozy up to a couple of, well, big girls. We were shot down. It was the single-most demoralizing experience of my life.)

After a few drinks at this hostel Joel and I headed to the Aussie bar, of course, because €9.50 jugs of beer never get old. We arrived during the middle of a trivia thing, and we didn't get in but helped out a table of girls next to us. They ended up winning €50 and gave us €10, so our beer turned out to be free. Gotta love how that works.

When the Aussie bar closed we went down to Temple Bar-- which, if I haven't mentioned it before, is the main district of downtown bars. Joel knew of a place with €2 drinks, but it had a €10 cover and I wasn't planning on drinking enough to make it worth the money. Every other place down there either had the same cheap drink/high cover deal or just had really expensive drinks, so we called it a night and went back to the hostel.

Where I slept for free. Again.