You know you're Irish when you get sunburned... in Ireland

Melissa here! I finally got the girls (Maria and Samantha) to start posting updates to their blog, which is exciting! Currently I am watching Samantha fight with her bed. Apparently our beds in this hostel are part sleeping bag, part sheets. Good times.

So today was interesting... we found Maria around 10 AM near the quay, thus completing the European trifecta. We walked around St. Stephen's park, which is absolutely GORGEOUS. It's definitely comparable to the gardens in Madrid I saw, except a bit smaller. Either way, there were tons of beautiful flowers, and we also saw a monument dedicated to those who died in the Great Famine in Ireland. Pictures to come ;)

This morning I woke up feeling pretty sick, so one of our stops was at the doctors. Funny story about that... apparently, people here in Ireland sometimes refer to doctors as 'surgeons.' I walked into one pharmacy to see if there was a doctor on duty, and the pharmacist explained that, unfortunately, that pharmacy did not have a doctor, but that if I went around the corner, 'there are surgeons and other pharmacies that may be more helpful.'

I was taken aback by this, because I didn't think my sickness warranted a visit to the SURGEON, for goodness' sakes. What type of illness did this pharmacist think I had???

Anyway, after about an hour of wandering around, we finally did find an appropriate doctor and pharmacy that could help me out. The doctor I went to was a very pleasant Chinese woman, and was extremely helpful and nice about the whole ordeal. However, at the very end, she asked me, 'Is your mother Chinese?' Once again with the Asian questions!! People! I told her no, my mother was not Chinese but that I get that a lot. She looked disappointed.

Sometimes I wish I COULD lie and say yes, my family (one side or the other) is Asian, but then I have this fear that they will ask me what my last name is, or that of my mother, and I'm not good at making up names on the spot. I could always switch it up... Korean one day, Vietnamese the next.

Next time I'll take advantage of the situation!

Anyway, for the rest of the day, we visited the National Library of Ireland for family genealogy research, had a picnic in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and did the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl (very fun!!!)

Tomorrow we're off to gorgeous Wicklow to see the lakes and mountains. I can't wait for our car adventure!