L’ennui est contre-révolutionnaire.

I’m having a great time in Dublin, my only trouble is trying to find the time to catch up with my blog as by the end of most days I’m so tired it’s straight to sleep!

On Friday I went out an about for a bit, with the primary goal being to find a replacement for my poor broken suitcase. Lufthansa has a connection with a luggage shop in downtown Dublin and I was able to go down there with the old suitcase and trade it in for a new one! I actually think the new suitcase is even nicer than the old one, and it’s such a relief not to have the heart-break of looking at the old broken one. After that, Johanna and I wandered through Dublin for a while. I’d been searching high and low for an eggplant (they call them aubergines here)and I hadn’t had any luck- we ended up checking a specialty food store and found my eggplant at last! Now I just have to decide what to make with it. Perhaps baba ghanoush?

We spent most of the afternoon on and around Grafton Street, a pedestrian-only road lined with shops. Grafton has quite a few of the larger shops, such as Marks and Spencer, and other department stores- but the little roads that surround it have some especially adorable boutiques! One little shop in particular caught my attention, a tiny little shop that sells beautiful ribbons, lace and buttons. It’s called Rubanesque and going inside it reminded me of one of my  favorite films- Penelope. I think I’m going to have to avoid it in the future though- or I could up spending all my travel money on ribbon!

Friday night I was invited out with my roommate Johanna and a few of her friends, as a sort of bon voyage party before she leaves for India on Tuesday. We went to a fantastic Thai fusion restaurant in Dublin 2 called SaBa, which ended up being a tad rich for my student status but absolutely delicious. I had an appetizer of fresh prawns with a delicious salad of cashews, sprouts and watercress, wonderful!  And for dessert I had the banana ’spring roll’ with some very fresh and very delicious vanilla ice cream.

Following dinner we headed for one of Dublin’s more extravagant night clubs, Cafe en Seine. The club is 3 stories high and when I say extravagant, I mean it. The entire place is decked out with fantastic art nouveau details.There are giant glass chandeliers from morocco, stained glass skylights, huge ornate gilded mirrors and mosaic tile floors. I had a lot of fun chatting with Johanna and her friends, and soaking up the Parisian atmosphere. I think I will have to visit Cafe en Seine again- to check out the dance floor in the back!