Weekend In Dublin

If you're in Ireland more than 90 days, then you have to register with the Garda National Immigration Bureau.  Unfortunately for me, I am here for 103 days.  The program staff here were supposed to get a group appointment for us in the evening, so as to not interfere with our classes.  However, I have learned that planning and preparing for the future is a lot more relaxed (read: nonexistent) than in the US; the Irish tend to face issues as they present themselves instead of predicting what negative outcomes may occur in the future.  This is not necessarily a wrong way of life; it's just very different than what me and my fellow Americans are used to.

Anyway, they failed to make an appointment ahead of time; the earliest group appointment is in December, which is too late.  So they told us to go on our own.  The GNIB is like the DMV, but a million times worse.  And the DMV is pretty bad.

We were told to get there at 7 am, an hour before it opens.  We got there at 6:30 am, and the line to get in way already nearly wrapped around the entire block.  I somehow ended up being the 304th person in line, and we barely made the cutoff to get a ticket.  I got my ticket a little before 9 am, and was told to come back after 1 pm.

So my friends and I decided to get food because we had been up since 5 am (much harder to wake up that early knowing I was going to immigration as opposed to last week when I got up that early to go to the Cliffs of Moher).  We found a pub that was serving breakfast, and I had an Irish breakfast for the first time.

I've noticed Irish food is very hearty and heavy.

It consisted of a fried egg, bacon (which is really just pork cooked like bacon, but tasty nonetheless), sausage, mushrooms, hash browns, white pudding, and black pudding.  It also came with tea and lots of toast.  I really liked the bacon, hash browns, egg, tea, and toast.  I did not know what white or black pudding was before I ate them, which in retrospect I am glad about.  The white pudding, which is pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into a sausage, was okay.  It tasted a little bit like kielbasa.  However, I did not like the aftertaste of the black pudding, which is similar to white pudding but is also made with pork blood.  I'm guessing that's why it's so much darker in color.

Afterwards, we went back to the GNIB, but they were nowhere near our numbers, so we went to a few stores around the City Centre, mainly window shopping.  We also went to the Temple Bar area, which is a cute spot mainly for tourists.  Locals know better than to drink there (especially late at night) for multiple reasons.  We checked back every hour to see how the numbers were progressing. Needless to say, 1 pm came and went and the GNIB were still on number 120 or so.

Don't worry, I didn't drink here.

Finally at about 5:30 pm I was served.  Fortunately for me, I was seen by a nice woman who decided she wasn't going to issue me a GNIB card because I am not here for very long- this also means I didn't get charged the ‎€300 fee!

After we were all done- it took about 12 hours total- we got some dinner at O'Neill's pub.  I got the fish and chips, which were pretty good.

The decor was eclectic.

And the food was tasty.

Normally in Dublin stores close at 6 pm every day (except Thursdays, when they stay open "late" until 9 pm), but Friday was Culture Night, so a lot of museums and exhibits around the city centre were open.  We saw some live music, sculptures, and exhibits.  We even saw some of the Gardai (police) walking around in horse suits!  They were joking around with the passerbys; it was kind os shocking to see police so relaxed and like they were having a good time.

Clearly not real horses.  They were hilarious.

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill for me; I did some food shopping and some homework. The posts here have been a little less frequent because I've had a cold for almost a week now and my workload has increased a bit.

I'm having lots of field trips this week, and have some fun stuff planned for this weekend, so more posts to come!