Chill and shake before drinking

Morning finds me in a somewhat better mood than last night. So far I have to say that I'm very unimpressed with Dublin. On my journey to find a new hotel, I was walking through the throngs of Irish and tourists in the middle of the city. I felt like I was in New York, but without the majestic skyscrapers or culture. It felt like a bunch of drunks and bland city building. No real color or art. The cabbie that took me from the hostel to the TravelLodge told me that there were over 50,000 cabs in Dublin. I know part of it is simply the pissed off nature of getting screwed by Abbey Court Hostel and I need to move past it and get myself settled.

I am wearing my last clean clothes, so I need to take a load down to the laundromat. On the way finding the place I wandered down further to get a bite to eat. I found the Irish equivalent to New Seasons. I got some herbal tea, apple and elderflower juice, double shot latte, chili on taters, and a sausage pastry for breakfast.I don't have the "beat" of the city yet and I might just make it a chill day of reading in my hotel suite. That's usually my best way of dealing with bullshit. Get away from people, read or take a long walk away from anyone, and just process. Once that's done, I'm ready to go back out again.

I actually decided to spend the time reading a new novel I downloaded. You see, I suffer from literacy. Its an affliction where I can get so caught up in a book that even being on a costly once-in-a-lifetime vacation becomes secondary. So I ended up spending way too much time reading and eventually left my hotel room to pick up my laundry at 6pm. This ended up causing this other thing I like doing, called Walking In Strange Places. So after dropping off my clothes, I started wal;king streets mostly at random. Which was a good thing considering there are street signs in Dublin, mostly at random.
I ended up walking through the Stephen's Green shopping complex, then out to the Grand Canal, and back up Aungier Street. I stopped at a gourmet restaurant on the way. I had a meal of crab cocktail, lamb with cabbage and bacon, wild mushrooms in garlic, battered and fried onions, a glass of French Merlot, and a weird cake thing with bananas and raspberry glaze.A good meal is one of the quickest ways to pick up my spirit.
I ended up back at the hotel around 11pm, so it was a nice walkabout. I still don't have the heartbeat of the city down yet though. Eventually I do and I feel as a native. I tired going in a couple grocery stores, but Dublin just seems a bit schizophrenic as a city - if that makes sense.
Anyways, I awoke late and will shortly head out on the open top tour bus to check out the city. I figure a nice two hour bus ride will point out what I want to check out, then I can stop at them tomorrow. Its a hop on/hop off bus with a two day pass. Plus I'll see if I can find some authentic Irish food made from some part of an animal that I was previously unaware of.