So one interesting thing to note about Ireland is that when you order food somewhere, they reserve the right to change up the ingredients from what is listed as much as they want. Such as, I just went to a café with a guy and we both ordered the exact same sandwich, and it was made by the exact same person, yet he ended up with: a different sauce, different veggies on the sandwich, a different flavor of potato chips, and mashed peas instead of corn on the cob. And that is not the only instance of that either. It’s really very confusing. Good thing I don’t care TOO much what I get cause it could be a serious problem.
I find it very interesting that I am only willing to purchase brands that I don’t know if there are no options with brands that I do know. Like I can walk up to a section of the store filled with drink options and I will walk away with a Coke almost every time. There may be 30 different options present and there is a good chance that I would like some of them much more than coke (I don’t even like coke much! I’d get pepsi if they had it..). But still, I will go for the coke every time just cause it’s something I know. Same with candy. I always walk up to the candy counter and it’s like I really want to get some candy but there just aren’t any brands that I’ve heard of on the shelf so I end up walking away with my tooth unsatisfied. And I hate to have to do that to him because he really is my sweetest tooth. Hah cheesy. And actually, I shouldn’t say that I leave him unsatisfied. The one brand of candy that I know here is Haribo gummi bears and I have eaten a TON of them. Like I’m sure that everyone in my room with me is thinking I’m a huge FFA (future fat american) cause they can all just see me over there in my bunk every night watching an episode of the office, and they can all hear the work that I’m doing on the fantastic gummi ursus.
So to end that last paragraph, I used the word ursus instead of bears. That word is the general scientific name for the bears. Thus, I used it. However, I find myself wondering why I do things like that. Like I didn’t just know that. I took the time to get on google, search for “scientific bear name” and find what I was looking for. It just doesn’t make a ton of sense except that, at the same time, it does.
So I went by this coffee shop yesterday afternoon that is owned by some friends of my aunt and uncle’s. It was called An Tobar Nua which means “on the canal”. I was planning on just walking in, stating that I was related to the great Bunker and Penny Sessions, and having something awesome happen after that. Instead, I went in, ordered some food, sat down, ate it, played on my computer for about a hour, then got up to leave. As I was walking out, I decided I definitely needed to see if the owners were here. So I started a convo with the girl behind the counter and ended up, in a roundabout way, finding out that they are actually not in Ireland right now anyways. They are in the States. It was mildly anticlimactic. It was a really really cool coffee shop though. It felt like an american coffee shop. And if you’re wondering what the difference is between an american and a European coffee shop, it’s all about the space. For some reason, Europeans just don’t need as much personal space as Americans. It’s like they can be all up on each other and it’s no big deal. Americans, on the other hand, like to have quite a bit of space to call their own albeit temporarily. I definitely fit the mold in this area. It’s just weird. Like if you go to a restaurant with just two people, they may sit you at a 4 person table with another group of 2. And you’re not expected to eat with the two you don’t know or talk to them or anything. You’re just expected to coexist and be ok with eating your pizza while someone you don’t know is quite literally, all up on your business. It is kinda cool be feel free to get all up in someone else’s business though. I run a tight system of double standards.
Picture Christian, he’s walking through a bookstore, semi-looking for the book by James Joyce called “Dubliners” and also perfectly fine with finding a better alternative. As he’s walking past aisles of books, he glances at the title of a book. Wait, what was that title? (Double-take, pace has not slowed though) He walks about 2 steps past the aisle, comes to a dead stop, and thinks in his head “nooooo…I didn’t just see that did I?” When he cannot 100% confirm that he saw it, he chooses to turn around and go back to the aisle. He did see that. Wow. That is the most ridiculously titled book he’s ever seen. He doesn’t even look inside of it because he doesn’t even WANT to know what it is about. He simply takes a picture of the cover so that later on, when his future self is doubting the existence of the book, he can prove it to him that he really did see it.
Ah, I really want to add a picture here…I cant think what I should add a picture of though…hmmm…maybe I’ll just take a picture of myself real quick and put it up to remind you guys what I look like…I think I’ll title this picture “Christian Trying/Failing to Look Cool”:
And now, since that picture screams “tool-shed full of tool-bags and tool-belts!”, here is a picture of me being me. I’ll title this one “That’s More Like It”:
Ok fine. Here's the picture of the cover of the book:
I probably played that up too much...but is that not a ridiculous book?! I think so.So I am a little upset right now because I took an awesome video yesterday that I really wanted to show you guys except that I can’t because it is on my camera and I did not bring the cord to connect my camera to my computer. That actually is part of the reason that I haven’t taken many pictures. It’s like, if I can’t even show the pictures to people until like a month after I’ve lived them…I don’t know. It just seems like it would be annoying. Plus, people aren’t really going to be wanting to hear that much about my trip when I get back if they’ve read this blog cause I’m sure you’re getting way more than you asked for with this. Anyways though, the video was of this banjo player that was playing in the street here in Galway. He was insane on the banjo first of all. But then he was singing as well and his voice was pretty good as well. Then, on top of that, he was wearing tap shoes and he used his feet on the ground as precussion!! So in the video, he is dancing and playing the banjo and because he’s trying to make money, he’s being really theatrical and swinging his banjo all over the place. Remind me when I get back and I’ll show you the video. It was really impressive and reminded me of something that I would do in public if I had talent.
But there are a ton of musicians in the streets here. I really like it actually. I could just walk around and listen to street musicians all day I think. And some of them are stinkin good too. The good one’s always make me think of the movie “Once”. Cause there are some real artists out here that probably won’t ever make more than just the euros tossed into their hat, instrument case, or in one instance, their pants…haha this one guy had tucked the legs of this oversized pair of pants he was wearing into his socks and whenever someone wanted to give him money, he would grab the elastic waist and pull it out and people would toss money into his pants! Haha he was legit.
But then I see the other people who are trying to showcase their talents on the streets for money. There are some dancers who are cool. I can respect that. But the ones I just don’t understand and who I will NEVER give money to are the people who dress up in some outfit and pretend to be a statue. Like really? Ok even if that was a real talent, how boring of a life must that be? Just to stand there all the time and then be able to brag about how still you can be…no fun at all. Like this girl for instance that I saw today:
Oh wait. That's NOT a girl. That's a guy!! What the heck is he doing with his life? and he honestly wasn't really that good at being still. Plus, it rains like half of each day here (on and off all day) so they have to pick up and run inside multiple times throughout the day. Meaning that when it's raining, this guy has to go sit in a restaurant or something dressed like that until it stops. Crazy. I do have to give this next guy some credit though cause he was pretty stinkin good at it:
Ok that guy is actually a real statue. I did see that guy though and I thought he might be fake so I spent like 30 seconds getting close to it and in the end, I got the courage to touch it. I'm still not 100 percent that it is fake but i'm like 98%. The 2% that I'm not sure comes from the fact that its just in such a random place for a stationary statue...I don't know..I'll never be fully sure.Today, we've had some great Irish weather (rain, cold, windy) so I decided to go for a walk and try to see something cool. Here are some pictures that I took on my walk:
This is the gate to a cool little cemetery that I found during my walk. I spent quite a while in here and had just a really sweet time with the Lord and some good fellowship with him. It was much needed and he definitely met me in a way that I needed. But these next few pictures are from the cemetary. And keep in mind, these are all just taken with my phone so quality isn't awesome. I took some with my camera as well but, as aforementioned, I cannot put those on my coputer til I get back to the states...
This was the biggest and coolest celtic cross. Almost all the graves had celtic crosses on them.
There were a few graves that were just big slabs of some kind of stone where the words were just barely and faintly etched into the top. This is one of those..
So anyways, that cemetery was a pretty cool place.
I feel like this little spot was made way cooler by how hard it was for me to get there. It's like a little walkway on top of a wall that was like...gosh it's just going to be too hard to explain. It was like a walkway that was up high but there were huge breaks in the wall so I had to actually climb up the wall to get here. Like it was basically two walls, like 10 feet apart from each other. And in between them is filled with dirt and now grows grass and these trees and stuff...if that makes any sense..
Just a fairly legit railway bridge.
Aston Martin Vanquish. Yeah, I touched it multiple times.
When I got out into the country a little bit, the walkways looked like this most of the time. It was really pretty!So that's all the pictures I've got for the moment. Obviously I've decided to start taking some with my phone so hopefully they'll keep coming.
Ah this is just going to be a beast of a post. That's good. Ok so definitely one thing that is different about irish guys than the guys in the rest of the world is that, for some reason, they just love to walk around arm in arm with their friends and sing loudly in public places. Or really anytime. Like you could be looking around in a store and two guys in the back will I guess say something that reminds them of a song and they'll just break into it. It's actually exactly how I wish everybody was...but I don't know how well that would go over in the US. Who cares though actually! Dudes, be ready to sing with me in public places when I get back. Especially Danny. ;)
So the biggest decision that I still need to make today is whether or not to buy this hat that I really want. I'm not doing incredibly awesome on my budget (no suprise there) and this hat is like 30 euro...I really like it though. It's one of those oldschool hats that you would expect to see on either a newsie or on a golfer who wears knickers. I want it. Let's just be honest, I will probably buy it.
So I'm really interested to know whether people other than my parents have actually read through all this...actually, I wouldn't even be suprised it one of my parents didn't feel like reading through ALL of this. I mean I know it gets pretty lengthy. But hey if you do read it, you should let me know...yup yup.
There are people that I miss a lot right now.
I'm done. I should have stopped long ago but I didn't and there's no sense in...gosh. Whatever. I'm done for now though. Ok bye. Dang it. No i'm not done. I forgot that I wanted to recomend that everyone get's a CD by a band called Coconut Records. I've been into them for a while now but I'm listening to them right now and they're really tight. It's Jason Schwartzman's band (drummer from Phantom Planet and actor in like every Wes Anderson movie). They have two cd's and if you really are going to get one, get the one called "Nighttiming". And if my parents are the only ones reading this, then this was probably a worthless blurb cause I don't really feel like you'd like this band that much...hah maybe you would though. haha
Ok now I really am done.
Crash Bandicoot
No comments:
Post a Comment