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For my last day in Ireland, I decided I needed an official full Irish breakfast, you know, to compare the similar breakfasts they do in England and Scotland.  I went to the Stage door cafe

Which had nice ambiance

And interesting decorations

The Irish coffee wasn’t as good as Jameson’s but the breakfast was better than the toast and cereal at the hostel!

Yes.  There was black pudding.  Which was neither black or what I know to be pudding.  It was spicy and flavorful and I tried not to think about what it was while I ate it.

A couple of weeks ago I saw my favorite host family from Italy posting pictures of Ireland on Facebook.  I messaged Luca (my host dad) saying that I would be in Ireland in a couple of weeks.  He said they were only there for the weekend, but their daughter Silvia would be in Ireland for the next month.  Silivia and I connected and made arrangements to meet.  The last time I was with Silvia she was just starting high school.  Now it was 5 years later.  I was really looking forward to seeing how she had grown up.

At noon at the Ha’penny bridge Silvia and her friend walked up and we started walking through the streets to meet another girl.  Silvia was working as an au pair for the summer in a town about an hour’s ride by bus outside of Dublin.  Her Czech friend was au pairing at the neighbor’s house.  The other girl we met up with was an au pair closer to Dublin and she was from Barcelona.  We got to talking about my travels in Barcelona and it turns out that she is actually from Terrassa where my friend Joanna lives.  She was so excited that I had been to her little town where no tourists go— another synchronistic coincidence!
We decided to go see the book of Kells.  Ben had seen it the day before while Carly and I were at the Jameson tour and he said the library was awesome.

We walked throughTrinity College in search of the Old Trinity Library.  We glanced at the book of Kells exhibition and made our way upstairs.

Do you recognize it?
Harry Potter was filmed here
It has two stories
And the book cases are lined with busts
I tried to imagine how long it would take to read all of these books
The harp is the symbol of Ireland and is on every container of Guinness.
I liked this sculpture


I had such a great time listening to the girls talk shop– talking about their families, joys and grimaces, giving each other support and advice.  I love other people’s workplace drama even when I don’t know the other characters.

But most of all I enjoyed wandering the streets of Dublin talking with Silvia.  We wandered through the castle, St Patrick’s cathedral and Temple Bar. Her Italian accent had developed the Irish emphasis and musicality.  We talked about politics, racism and cultural differences between countries, our passions and our travels.  It’s always nice when you’re so deep in great conversation that the hours fly by.

Dublin with Silvia

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