I am going to say "today" meaning the 29th.
And so I begin: Today was quite an emotional rollercoaster. The only kind of rollercoaster I don't like. I am sure glad to be off that ride now.
They say that many adventures begin just as soon as you set foot past your doorstep. Well, ours today trumped that kind: It started even before we could get to the doorstep!
And yes, we had an inordinate amount of trouble just getting to the blasted doorstep. You see, we couldn't open Ruth and Robbie's front door. Even though we had the keys.
I know, that makes it sound like we are completely deficient human beings, but let me continue.
The front doors here don't have handles on the inside - only on the outside. There is a vertical mail slot just above the handle, which pushes inward and also cannot be opened from the inside. (We tried.) There are also 2 keyholes; one above the mail slot, and the other below the outside handle. Ruth had given us both keys, which are old-fashioned-looking and pretty; one is gold and the other silver. The instructions the previous night had seemed simple - use both keys to get out, and then lock both locks before heading off down the street. Sure, that should be easy... or not.
After we girls had finished our breakfast (or brunch) shortly after 1:00, we hurried to get our shoes, jackets, and purses and head into Dublin again via bus. (I had not slept well overnight - kept waking up for various reasons like a loose door slamming with a gust of wind, and I had a bloody nose around 8:30 a.m. Took a while to be rid of that, and I wrote a few postcards before going back to sleep. I finally got up at noon to Janis's beckoning. But then when I got in the shower, the water only reached a slight warmth and quickly became cold, so I had a rather miserable and short shower. That was the first downhill slope of the rollercoaster.)
Oops, I digress. Back to the front door. We were all ready to head out by 1:30, but then we tried to turn the keys in both of the door locks, and the door still wouldn't budge! We each took several turns jiggling the keys this way and that, yanking and pushing at the door (forgetting if it opened in- or outward) but to no avail. It seemed we were trapped. Trapped inside a house to which we had the keys! Ohhh, the irony...
We tried to think of other ways to get out. I pushed open the sliding glass door at the back of the house, to try and go around the outside of the house to the front, where there was actually a handle. But the back garden was completely surrounded by a wall, and there was another wall beyond that, and it would be hard to get over the first one anyway. So we gave up on that and tried to phone Ruth on her mobile. But the person who answered was not Ruth - apparently she had switched her number, and we didn't have the current one. So we felt pretty frustrated and annoyed, but we were also laughing at ourselves a good deal for not being able to perform the "simple" task of opening a door. It was ridiculous.
At last we decided we would have to climb out a front window. We found the key for the dining room one, but only Janis climbed through. We didn't want to just use the window and leave it unlocked while we were gone. So Janis took the keys and tried the door from outside - BUT... she still couldn't get it open!
Now our situation was getting slightly less funny. I couldn't believe this was happening.
Janis hollered to us through the door that she was going to ask a neighbor for help. (She's always the one who will march right up to a stranger and ask for directions or whatever.) So she went to a house across the street where a man and woman were emerging from their front door. Clearly they were fully proficient at the task, so they should be able to help us out.
The man came over and demonstrated how to properly insert a key into a lock. Apparently we hadn't been pushing the top (gold) key in far enough - it had to go through some kind of barrier that was in there. At last our contumacious portal swung open, and Janice and I were released from our prison and out into the chilly, drizzling, overcast day. We tumbled at last over the doorstop, and our laughter at ourselves did likewise.
We thanked our savior, Gary, and we giggled to ourselves all the way to the bus stop that we were going to have another crazy story to tell Ruth and Robbie tonight. What would they think about this little (mis)adventure? "Those loony Americans! They can't perform even simple tasks in our country! ... They should be kept under lock and key - which must surely not be a hard thing to do!" LOL! (Even if we had the key.)
So anyway. That was today's hysterical adventure.
We caught the bus to Dublin with no problems (further). This time we rode on the top deck - yay! We got off near Trinity College and entered it through a back way at a woman's direction. We walked to the building where the gift shop is and where the Book of Kells is on display. BUT, very unfortunately, it was expensive to get in, and the other girls weren't too keen to see it anyway. (Gasp! Inconceivable!) So instead we perused the crowded gift shop for quite a while. I bought a couple of small things, and once again J and J spent a ton of euros - like, maybe 100 each.
We left the shop and strolled through the rain (umbrellas up) across to the front of the college to exit - taking pictures of the beautiful old buildings on the way. Then we were back in downtown Dublin.
(people going in the door to the gift shop)
We got directions to Temple Bar, the big tourist district, which is a cool place. Janice hadn't been there before, but she liked it a lot. More shopping took place, until our stomachs growled at us to stop and eat.
Janice led us to an AWESOME place called the Bad Ass Cafe, where she had gone last time. [Edit: The Bad Ass Cafe is in Temple Bar, though Janice hadn't known it.] That place is HILARIOUS! (See, ass isn't really a bad word over here.) There were cartoon donkeys all over the place, doing various silly things, and puns on the word "ass" ran rampant. Even the menu was full of this - LOL! (We were able to keep copies... yess!) We all ordered the special Bad Ass burgers - and the food was delicious. Of course we had tea, and we each got our own cute little pot. Oh yeah, and the fries were thick, soft, and wonderful.
When we checked out and paid at the counter, we got some funny Bad Ass postcards - hee hee, which friends to send those to...?
Then we stepped back out into the still-drizzly day and continued our pursuit of good shopping places.
Bad Ass Cafe - notice that the donkey in the top right corner has clock hands instead of a tail
on his ass! ;)
the one in the blue trench coat is an assassin!