Tuesday at Kilmainham, PwC, Manis, and Music

Yesterday was possibly one of the best days ever in Dublin, so, accordingly, I was far too busy to actually write about it.  I will start with one final update from Monday (which is fast becoming the most revised day of the week), and then proceed to document the adventures of Tuesday (the most neglected day of the week.)  I apologize profusely for not writing yesterday, especially for those of you who are not my parents, and who therefore did not get a comical and crazy Skype update.

So, firstly, Dublin is wonderful, and there are lots of foreign people here, either visiting or immigrated.  One of those groups, which I have already mentioned, is the large Polish population.  So, one last note on Monday; while Tanner, Dale, Toto, Lauren and I were walking back to the hostel before one of those sundry adventures from Monday, this swarm of Polish women was coming up the sidewalk toward us.  They were dressed in old fashioned costumes, so it must be a holiday or something right now.  We saw them mob these other people on the sidewalk, and they were bearing down on us fast.  It looked like they were prepping for a giant group hug, and indeed, they enveloped us.  We were caught tight in the bosoms of so many Polish women, and as we were breaking up, we saw a guy getting back into his taxi.

People, this man said to himself, "Oh my God, that's a group hug, I better tell my taxi driver to pull over so that I can join that group hug that's happening on the sidewalk."

And that is just what he did, ladies and gentlemen, and then he got back in his taxi, the Polish left to be Poles somewhere, and we continued on our merry way.

Happy Monday, everyone.

TUESDAY:  I got up quickly and dressed in my business clothes, because Todd had hired a taxi to take us (him, me, Alex, Dale, Marnie and Lauren) to the Kilmainham jail.  We stood around a while, because we got there a little early, and the Rick Steve's tour group showed up, and we were very certain that they were going to try to cut us in line, but they didn't.  Rick was unfortunately not with the tour, which is not terribly uncommon, apparently.

We stepped inside to wait for the tour to start, and looked at the exhibits on the 1916 uprising, and the history of the jail as a Georgian and then Victorian structure.  The tour was really cool, and I of course did not have my camera with me, but I think Facebook will help me out in the future.  It was honestly fairly standard old jail fare, with really narrow limestone walls and tiny cells, and horror stories of overcrowding with 5 or 7 people in a cell that was designed for one.  The west wing is the oldest section, from the 1700s?  I can't recall exactly.  The east wing is the newer section, featured in such films as Michael Collins, and an Italian gangster film.  The Victorians believed that the light of God would clean the souls of those who were criminally ill, so there were lots of big windows.

In the older section were the cells where the 1916 leaders were kept before they were executed, and the east wing is where Eamon de Valera (spoiler alert: he was spared execution in 1916, brought back to jail by his former comrade, Michael Collins, during the civil war in the 20's because he wanted an all-Irish state and no Protestant north colony, and then went on to be president of Ireland for the majority of the 20th century.  So, joke's on you Britain, you could have killed him but you didn't.) was kept during the civil war that I already mentioned parenthetically.

We didn't get to stay to see the room where the executions occurred, or the real letters that the rebels wrote home, because we had to make sure we got to Leta's hotel in time for the trip to PwC.  Pricewaterhouse Cooper is one of the big four accounting firms.  The office building was one of the tallest, all of seven stories, and it was very fresh and modern.  It was like being inside one of the new iPhones, all white and modern and sleek, and full of pops of very bright colors like hot pink and teal and lime green.  We got name badges (which we get to keep later), and they lead us up to the conference rooms for lunch.

There was a short presentation to talk about the company, then a tour of the building while they set up lunch.  Maeve, who took a subset of our group on a tour of the building.  They have a five star chef in house, and a gym that only costs 50 euro for a lifetime membership.  They also have a clinic that has posted hours in the office, and a beautician who comes in and does hair and nails.  People would never leave.  It was like Facebook in that way, but you had to buy your own food.

After that we had a lovely chat over lunch with a couple of employees, and it was nice to have a one-to-few conversation with someone.  Zara talked with Dale and me at length, and I think we convinced her to come visit us in Seattle.  If she does come, we will tour her around.  She was really fun and informative, and I was really glad to talk to her.

When we stepped out of PwC, someone had turned on the gale force fans, and we fought the wind to get back into our taxis.  Upon return to the hostel, I decided that I wanted to venture out and get a manicure, and pick up an SD card for my camera, so while many people headed out for Penney's with Leta, I ventured out alone.

My manicure was done by a Chinese woman, so not Vietnamese, but pretty close to home.  I got a shellac, so we'll see how it holds up in the rolling hills of Ireland.  So far so good.  I stopped and got 4 gigs, so I should be set for a good long time.  I took a nap in our hostel alone, which was fantastic.

At 5:30, we went to dinner in the upper room of this little Italian restaurant.

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I'll finish this later, we're piling onto the bus, and I don't want people to worry about me.  More later!