Don't let the bedbugs bite!

Ha! To all those who doubted me, I'd like to say "I told you so!" Hehe, everything is working out perfectly here. Allison (the aforementioned friend I'm staying with) is fantastic, she took me around the city yesterday and bought me my first pint of Guinness. Her flat is gorgeous, with amazing views of Dublin from all sides and an awesome rooftop patio area. Her roommates Julien and Mattheu are awesome too. I'm parting ways with them for the next few days, to travel over to the west coast of Ireland but hopefully we'll meet up again this weekend.

Before meeting up with her, I took a day trip to a nearby town called Howth. I was planning on doing all that other stuff I mentioned, but I made a last minute change of plans. (I think from now on I'll only write about stuff after I do it, considering I have a tendency to change my mind.)

Back to the point - Howth is a tiny little fishing town at the end of the DART line (Dublin Area Rapid Transit! I kept accidentely calling it "BART" which resulted in lots of funny looks....) Haha, I spent the morning walking around the piers, laughing at the cooky sea lions while enjoying the smell of the salty air and the sight of the fishing boats (and of course the crazy irishmen driving them).




I stumbled into a small cafe which turned out to be owned by two italian guys, and frequented by dozens of italian regulars. They all thought I was pretty cool - an American girl, traveling alone in Ireland, speaking Italian. Anyway, I stayed there for several hours and made a lot of friends. They bought me lunch and a glass of wine, and gave me tons of advice about what to do/see/eat once I arrive in Italy. I felt really comfortable talking with everyone, which makes me feel less nervous about the next year.

One particularly crazy old italian man named Daniele offered to give me a ride back to Dublin in his unmarked white van and didn't seem to understand why I thought that was a bad idea. He finally gave in and settled for walking me back to the DART station, haha. Crazy italians. I'm sure he was nice enough but if he didn't kill me, my mom would for accepting a ride from him, so I decided to play it safe!

Oh, the craziest part of my trip so far, not to mention the grossest: I stayed in the cheapest hostel I could find on my first night in Dublin, and it wasn't exactly a picture of cleanliness. The next day I had all these little bug bites all over my feet and legs, and I couldn't figure out for the life of me how I'd gotten them, since I was under the covers. I figured they were just mosquito bites (but smaller and itchier) until Allison informed me that she knows several people who have been attacked by bedbugs in Dublin hostels.

Bedbugs. I didn't even think they existed! Warn your children! It's not just a myth!

Anyway, I bought some anti-itch cream and I'll be sleeping in my sleeping bag from now on. Lesson learned.