Friday, Sep 8, 2023 at 6:15 a.m.

Started off by waking up at 5:30am. Still jet lagging a bit. Packed everything down into the one backpack and moved hostels. I'd booked the other one separately because I had originally only planned to stay in Dublin for two days. After dropping my bag off at the new hostel I went down to the spire (it is exactly what it sounds like) for a walking tour. The tour took us through a lot of the important landmarks and history of Dublin. Statues, churches, castles etc. Boiling hot the whole time. Met an Italian guy during the tour and we got Guinnesses and Irish grub at a fairly touristy Irish pub and wandered a bit after.

Went up to Guinness storehouse a couple hours later. On the way I stopped into a church. Up at the front, there was a man playing the violin. I complimented his playing and he told me a story about how he was self taught because no teacher would accept him as a student. When I told him I would be visiting Galway and Belfast, he says "Belfast's a shithole I tell you. You go there and tell me - you'll say, 'John was right. Belfast is a right shithole.'" Lots of cursing in God's house.

It was buuuuusy at the Guinness storehouse. Hordes of tourists brought in by busses. I hadn't booked in advance so the next tour available to me was in an hour. At €26 (~\$40 CAD) it was already a bit of a stretch so I decided to head back and check in instead. I sat in front of a couple girls on the way back. Eavesdropping on them, they were complaining about how Dublin is only nice if you just look at the buildings and thirsting over guys on the streets who was "tan". My favourite quote from them was "You can tell they're american can't you? White socks with black Nike's - I'd spit on him"

New hostel was quite nice. Big outdoor area. Large kitchen facility as well. I was staying in "chapel 19". It really looked like it had been a chapel at one point. The room was less nice. 19 beds. Quite hot. No privacy like the previous hostel's pods - all bunk beds in the open. Since my bag didn't fit in my locker I locked it to my bedframe. Crashed out for a bit.

Headed to trinity bar to catch the France v nz rugby game with a group from the hostel. I'd bought pub crawl tickets earlier so headed over there after a bit to get my wristband and free drinks. Met an Aussie I'd seen at Trinity earlier and we plotted how to take advantage of the pub crawl while also watching the game. Problem was solved when it turns out the next spot on the crawl was the bar we started at. Met up with the big group again and bar crawled until late.