Exploration

So today was a "free day." During the first half of the day I ate breakfast, bought some alkaline batteries because my charger died, and went back to the hotel to upload pictures, the blog from yesterday, etc. During the second half I ate a power bar for "lunch" and went out on my own. I wandered around for a good 4 hours. Sure it was pretty much stuff we'd passed or gone through a half dozen times already, but I was exploring it on my own! Anyway, I went up and down O'Connell St. and went off into some of the little shopping areas. After a while of wandering aimlessly down O'Connell I found myself all the way by the river. Once I'd gone that far I started to make my way back, popping in and out of little shopping areas. At first I was wandering around aimlessly, but then I stopped to ask a couple of ladies where the fashion stores like Next and things were. Now I know that they are on Henry St. So I spent a great deal of time in that shopping area. For the most part, when I walked around I tried to fit in like a real Dubliner. The reason I was wandering aimlessly was that I was walking quickly and going with the flow of people rather than taking my time and looking like a tourist. I really tried to go incognito for a while... Then there were statues and guys performing in front of department stores and girls making sand sculptures to take pictures of, so I got out my camera. Also, when I went into the stores I asked the salespeople what size I should be looking for. I'm so obviously from America. They essentially said that I should try to look for the smallest thing available and try on everything. I only ended up trying things on in one store, and I didn't buy anything. On my way back to the hotel it finally started raining, after all that internet weather telling me it was going to. It was refreshing and annoying all at once. It was barely sprinkling or drizzling. It was getting my glasses all wet, but it was refreshing because I was so hot from walking all over the place. I stopped at "SuperMac's" on the way back to grab something to eat and got a 350 ml (12 oz) bottle of coke for a euro at a Londi's. That is I think it was a Londi's. I don't remember which store I actually got it at, but I'd been good all week and thought I deserved just one coke. With SuperMac's I was expecting a carbon copy of McDonald's (though there are those, too, as well as Burger Kings, which are both way overpriced... "euro saver menu 6 chicken nuggets for 2 euros?" [yeah, right, that's like 5 bucks American, a whole meal at In n Out!] and there are ads for Burger King everywhere claiming they have really cheap food... hah). Anyway, I got some chicken nuggets and fries at Supermac's. The restaurant itself essentially looked like it was meant to accommodate tourists with children who wouldn't eat anything besides Americanized fastfood. There were meals with burgers and fries, chicken in various fried forms, pizza, sandwiches, etc. I brought my food back to the hotel and ate it. One of my roommates got back not too long after I did. I've just been sitting here updating and iming with Daniel. I miss him. Anyway, I'll probably go to bed soon since it just actually got dark (10:30).