Clam Chowder- shell and all! And don´t forget the butter!

Today was laid back for the most part. I woke up late and had to transform my daybag into an overnight bag. I am staying with Christof from CS. He lives just out of Dublin and on the way to Howth, which is where I went today.

This morning, I wandered town to explore. I was really disoriented yesterday, so it was good to see town. I found a Mark & Spencers, which is a big department store with clothes but also with a grocery in the basement. I found a sandwich, crisps (potatoe chips) and drink (cola, sparkling or still water) for €3.95 which is about $5.30 and a good price for Dublin. I also got an Orange Juice with ´juicy bits´, or pulp. That cost more, but juice sounded good.

Later in my strolls, I found a small street (really alley) market and bought an apple called a Delisdor. It looks like an asian pear and kind of tastes like one, but is certainly an apple. The guy gave me a sample and it turned out he was from New Jersey. Go figure. We chatted for a while and then I went on my way.

I took my sandwich to eat in front of the Book of Kells in Trinity College and got a phone call from Elana, from CS, asking if she and Daniella could join me for Howth. We met and headed out there. Note there are no toilets in the DART train station nor on the DART itself. We learned that the hard way. For €4.20 we got roundtrip tickets to Howth and once on, we sat next to a gentleman, Sean, who told us all about Howth and Dublin. He showed me just where my next host´s home was and gave plenty of suggestions. In Howth, we walked along the harbour. There were seals, islands, a lighthouse and plenty of fishing boats. We found a place with €3 clam chowder takeaway that we planned on returning to on our way out of town to eat on the DART. It smelled really good but they didn´t give us spoons. Elana and Daniella asked for one but they didn´t have any. She said usually the locals just drink it from the bowl and then pick out the shells with their fingers! Turns out the clam chowder is made with a buttery broth and the clams (small) are put in with the shells so you drink the buttery broth and then pick out the shells with meat in them still (most fall out) and eat them kind of like oysters. A good deal of meat sinks to the bottom so that´s a treat, too. Yummy, buttery, fresh clams. Neither Elana nor Daniella finished theres, so I boldly offered the three French guys from Brittany who were in the booth across from ours if they wanted it. The guy who took it (sorry if you are reading this, I´ve forgotten you´re name!) was the one who asked us if the train we were on went to Dublin, the bolder of the three. They seemed like nice guys. It always pays to be bold- you may get free soup out of it!

I got off at the DART station maybe 15 or 20 minute walk to Christof´s house. We had salad with lettuce, tomatoe, cucumber, blue cheese and a yummy yougurt and balsamic dressing. It was a good finish to the clam chowder. Christof is now off in town with some friends and I will be going to bed soon, possibly to not see him tonight nor tomorrow, but that is ok with him. Tomorrow he leaves for New York City and Niagara Falls.

Tomorrow I will go with Elana and Daniella (and a bus load of tourists) to Bru Na Boinne, or Newgrange, and Hill of Tara. Newgrange is a neolithic burial tomb and Hill of Tara has old land carving in it (ditches, mounds, other land formations). The tour is 6 hours, so it should be a lot of information.

tTomorrow night I will return to Ibrahim´s house and back to my computer and I won´t have to retype so much- I´m on Christof´s computer now and he is German so his Z and Y are switched, he has extra keys for Ä, Ö, µ, € and other buttons which throws off my typing. Of course, it doesn´t help that I´m about to fall asleep.