White pudding and Germans abound!

I'm writing early tonight because last night typing that whole post on
my phone took a couple hours, and since I'm recovering in my room
right now, why not get started early?

Today, I spent a large part of the day hiking around Dublin in search
of the mysterious Irish that supposedly inhabit the city. Now, call me
silly, loony, but don't call me a liar; Dublin seems to be inhabited
almost solely by German tourists. They say the Irish do live here, but
after 28 hours in the city, I am skeptical. Remember the polish
bartender in the Irish pub? Well, I popped in another deli today (NOT
for another baguette!) and the girl behind the counter seemed to
harbor at least a small chance of being Irish until she spoke: German,
undoubtedly. I was also asked directions by a German couple today, so
for anyone thinking of travelling to Dublin, invest in at least the
first part of the Rosetta Stone software for German.

While walking around the city today I fell upon several small and
pleasant parks, as well as the much larger St. Stephen's Green, where
I had a very relaxing stroll through the park admiring the ducks,
swans, pigeons, and people. St. Stephen's Green is a large green acre
or two with ponds throughout, and walkways cut through the patches of
green. While undoubtedly a family park, right next to small children
tossing absurdly large chunks of bread to confused ducks, one is quick
to notice that each patch of green lawn is packed with romantics of
all ages, most spread upon any available ground space at strange
angles, or stacked upon each other. Hands are prominently displayed in
not so public areas, and these couples engage in what must be a
long-kiss contest with all the other competitors in the park, often
not coming up for air for the better part of five minutes or more.
Meanwhile, spectators and the unaffected lounge within feet. I'd throw
my bet behind St. Stephen's possibly having more kisses per square
meter than any other place in the world.

I also visited a cathedral today, St. Patricks cathedral, which was a
remarkable structure that has been standing for the better part of 700
years. The stained glass and vaulted ceilings were quite spectacular,
as were all the memorials within the cathedral to the fallen, the most
memorable being a large, carefully handwritten memorial to a faithful
manservant to an obviously powerful man if the time who had enough
clout to have this hung inside the cathedral walls for all to see. The
manservant died in the 1730s, so I'd say he's gotten quite the tribute
to his service over the years from a solitary parchment hanging on a
wall for nearly 300 years now.

Now, I know I left you hanging earlier about the deli I wondered into
earlier, but after the German gal was unable to field my curious
inquiries about several items, and seeing too many components similar
to yesterday's baguette, I politely bowed out and wandered further,
settling for a chicken curry dish and watching tennis inside a pub.
It was quite good, but I felt like I was missing something, so on my
way back to the hostel I ducked back into the baguette deli of
yesterday and quickly eyed my prize: a single wafer shaped offering of
white pudding! Let's review the components of white pudding briefly:
white meat sausage(chicken, rabbit and pork are all common), parsley,
oatmeal oats, lard. All this is baked, kinda like a meatloaf, and the
end result almost looks like a section taken from a boudain link. The
texture was dry and chewy, the taste salty, and a certain aroma wafts
through your nose as you bite down, one which makes the uninitiated's
mind race with panic and the stomach do a small flip flop. After the
guys in my hostel confirmed that I hadn't died and didn't appear to be
in any real danger of dying, the remainder was passed around for
tasting and we collectively still cannot decide if we like it or not,
which sadly means that given a few more slivers, the taste for it
could probably become second nature.

On that note I'm out, more to follow tomorrow I'm sure.

-Bryan