hyde park shanana's and dublin excitingness!

the fruits of my labours in hyde park are now over... becuase today it's RAININ! that's crap in'it? it is! anyway i have some photos from the 10 June which was the day i was meant to go to dublin but actually didn't because there were no hostels available. that is also the day that James Joyce first met his future wife Nora Barnacle... i can't remember if that is actually her last name or not. anyway right outside of Finn's hotel... which you will see in a bit. anyway i'll also explain that later.

it might not actually have been the 10 that we were in the park becuase thea was no longer in Leeds on the 10... so maybe it was the 9th. or the 8th. oh anyway.

i met thea, elva and leah and faruq at the park after my sad sad goodbye meeting with griselda. then thea and i decided we wanted to find jamie and get a diet coke so we went on an adventure walk
here is thea at the hyde park picture house


and here we are at the international super market filling our sugar free caffine fix


then we went to jamie's house - she has a very attractive front door

we were waiting for awhile becuase she couldn't find her key to oepn the door (jamie that is) she told us through the window



here is thea, tom (jamie's bf) and jamie in their really cute studenty hyde park livingy kitchen


we stayed forever talking about stuff then thea and i took the radio and american football and went on our jolley way.
here are some foxgloves for mom


here is some random stuff on the sidewalk!


and here is a photo thea took of me taking the photo of the random stuff oooo complex!


now back at the park elva, leah and faruq chillin in the lovely sun (from left to right)


then thea and i went to the flies a go go toilet ewwww stinky and fly-y!


ooo clouds with sun rays!


then thea went to yoga and we stayed in the park. here is a football, elva's feet an a bbq ... bbq's a go go what did i tell you!


i developed a mild facination with elva's sunglasses... because i could see everybody in them! we had a big discussion about who could she see in mine and who i could see in hers


on the 9th thea came over for dinner after the park.. yes this was the ninth this day. we made chessy aubergene rice casserole and broke into max's room to use the balcony for dinner
here she is trying on my bling bling sunglasses


and making a weird face


i miss thea :( yes i do! miss thea of essex! GOLD HOT PANTS!
har hope you are reading this thea!!

anyway oh anyway ...! yes i decided i should marry him for his name. but it would help if i knew him better. anyway. now on to dublin. sorry for that minor sidetrack.

p.s. thea send me elva's number i want to invite her to dinner at clock with my friends tomorrow cheers luv xx ;)

DUBLIN! i flew into dublin from leeds bradford (crappiest airport ever! i think that one is actually worse than the swedish one i was at. BLEACH! i sat next to a lovely dubliner and we chatted for the 40 min flight (i think shortest flight ever!) and then the pilot mucked up our landing and i thought the ryanair plane might actually tip over and crash! well that might be a little dramatic but it certainly was bumpy.
my hostel was in a priiiiiiiime location. for any of you who have been to dublin it was right by the o'connell bridge... down a slightly ghetto alley way called litton lane... i like to think it was lifton though. aww lifton. anyway.

they were really into andy warhol-esque art but no marilyns!


first i went off in search of cheesy gifts and postcards and found this shop!


eww!?

this is some street where the james joyce statue is... and that spike is the millenium spike which represents hope for the milennium


here is the view from oconnel bridge of the liffey river


then i passed by trinity college, on my way to find finn's hotel... and low and behold here it is.

this is where nora barnacle worked. she was standing outside when they locked eyes. they agreed to meet here...

the corner of merrion square just down the road the next day but she didn't show up. when they did meet it was 16 june the day i fly back to canada which is now bloomsday - a celebrated literary day from ulysses and also the wedding day of sylvia plath and ted hughes. phew!
also finn's hotel was where the title finnegan's wake came from!
here is sweney's chemist... another james joyce landmakr though i dont' know why




and a random graf i found :)


also a cool glass bit on the side of a house by merrion square


and oscar wilde's house


merrion square was quite lovely. i had a great time wandering around here.
here is oscar wilde's monument. not sure if his expression will come out on this image but it was HILARIOUS!


here are some bits of merrion square. really lovely park




spot the statue!


this guy needed my shades


statue


and this was written below


hallu mi names maeve iam from leeds!


i love WY!!! guess what that means! so far thea and i and eleni and i and dani and lou and rafi and i have come up with these!
i love wet yoke
i love watery yoghurt
i love willy yuck
(none of those actually make sense anyway!)
i love women's youth
i love women yoddlers
i love wild yancy! ha ha :)

anyway THEY HAVE GREEN POSTBOXES IN DUBLIN!


the thing about dublin was it was just like england but not. i felt so homesick for england it was really strange!
really beautiful doors though


then i went to st. stephen's green which was soooooooooo beautiful! i love it there


entrance to st. stephen's green


reportedly my grandparents remarked that st. stephen's green is a beautiful park - they were right. it's great for napping in too! you'll hear about this later!

now i'm at grafton st fancy street for shopping and eating


look at these amazing spider web shoes! if i had room in my luggage and an extra 65 euros i would have bought them!
RED + SPIDERWEBS = TOTALLY WICKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


another james joyce landmark. this is davy byrne's pub where he stopped to have a snack one day. not very good snake options anymore but good guinness!


i found this in the back of 'to the lighthouse' which i was reading

and that is one of my dorkiest postcards i have EVAR found!

by the way i found in my notes the other day that baudrillard is the biggest piffle evar... just in case you didn't know this already. not sure who decided that!

this was in the toilet at a random pub in temple bar


HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
then i had fish and chips at fiddleheads or some place like that where they had live music it was really great. and fish and chips mmmm just what i had wanted!

and then by that point it was 10pm so i went back to the hostel


look how light out it is!


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz i was so tired!


but had a terrible night sleep thanks to a room full of stinky loud snoring gross boys. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW sometimes hostels really suck!

the next day i found this cool house!


and discovered that tanja has a coffee shop in dublin! how knew!


another james joyce bit... the dead house. the dead is one of his most famous stories. and this is the house it was set in


but it's super cheese as you can see.
here's a lovely but very impractical bridge. it looks really short but it's actually not and you can't see over it just through the bits! not good!


then i went to the medival and viking bit to see some cathedrals
oh first here is the river again


by the river


meeeeeeeeeeeeee feet on irish soil!


this was by christ's church cathedral which i thought was the old city walls for some bizarre reason and walked down to st. stephens' park different from st. stephens' green where i promptly fell asleep for an hour!

first though here is (fill in here)'s arch


at st. stepehn's park


that is st. stephen's cathedral behind
being super cheap i didn't go into either of the cathedrals.
this is at christ church cathedral

foxgloves again

then i went back to st. stephen's green - here is a flower stand on grafton


grafton street!


once in st. stephen's green i promptly fell asleep again for an hour!
here is the hostel lane...




that day i also went shopping on henry street where i met a cornish boy who told me a very british joke. not sure you guys will like it but here it goes:

(*please note the british humour)
why was the washing machine laughing?
because it was taking the piss out of the knickers!
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! if you don't know the phrase taking the piss... then it might not make sense. (it means making fun of)

*cough* ... anyway... so anyway back to dublin! on the last day i went to the irish MOMA which was in the middle of nowhere even past the guinness brewery!
here are some funny signs i saw on my way there

american leisure wear!!! that is just what i want!!!


size 16 that's some biiiiiiiiig feets! (this reminds of me of jess and highschool!)

here's christ's church cathedral from far away


very mighty ferns growing on the river wall


GUINNESS IF GOOD FOR YOU!


the entrance to the museum was quite grand!


and it was a very stately place


the best part was the magnum ireland exhibit which was photographs of ireland by irish artists. one of which is a woman who i HAD heard of thanks to my endless reserach that my tutor's didn't appreciate *ahem* (yah!)
anyway her name is martine franck.



great photographs as well
here i am sitting watching a random video of a tightrope walker falling over and over with this strange whistling soundtrack
i thought this looked cool


here is the river again
notice the cloud cover :(


and a street... one of the quay's


then i hurried back to catch the 16a to the airport and it was there when i got there but then... he left really rudely and i had to wait another half hour for another one! that was not cool and there is no queueing system for buses... people just don't get queueing for buses here. or there. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT'S OUTRAGEOUS!

lastly these are phtoos of my dying shoes that i want to bring home. please let me know what you think




i know they look terrible but i love them!!!! i love them so :)
bye for now!!! squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!