It is crazy to think that I have been here for over a week now.  The time has gone by so fast. It is just a glimpse of how fast this whole trip will go by.  I feel like I have seen so much of Dublin but then I look at one of my guide books and realize how much I still have to see.  It is  going to be hard balancing what I want to see in Dublin with all that there is to see outside of Dublin as well

I think I have picked out two day tours to do.  One of them is to Belfast and Giants Causeway.  The other is over on the west coast. I choose these tours because they seem like the cheapest and easiest way to see a lot.   Giants Causeway seems complicated to get to without a car and a train ticket to Northern Ireland is not that cheap.  Plus I want to learn about the Causeway and what formed it and I think that is where guides are so important to have.  The other tour is only thirty five euros and is run by a small family company who takes you to their farm where they have baby sheep! They also take you to Galway and on hikes and to the cliffs.  A round trip ticket to Galway is twenty euros so I feel like this is a really good deal.  Another exciting thing I want to do is ride horses through Wicklow park.  It looks like so much fun!!   I wish I did not have to work saturday because it looks like it is supposed to be gorgeous out and 70! At least it is only 12-4.

Something I am learning about myself here is that I am not a fan of working 9-5 or 10 - 5:30 in my case. I just feel like I miss out on life with this schedule. I am up at 7:30 to get to work at 10 (stupid busses, as unreliable as the weather) and don't get home till 6:30 or 7.  By that time I need to cook dinner and recover from the day.  Then I need to be in bed by 11 so that I can do it all again the next day.  I k now most people have a work schedule like this and they live quite happy lives but I feel like I still have time to find a different path.  I forgot that that was one of the original reasons I go into photography in the first place. I'm not saying I don't like working in a gallery, I do and I am still going to do more visual arts management classes but if I were to own a gallery I would have to approach it from a less traditional way.

 I wrote this yesterday (oops) in the cafe I go to before work each morning when I have a bit of time.  I get a tea for $1.75 and it comes with a little square of chocolate.  It is a nice quiet place to start off my day, which can get hectic at times.  Today I only have to work for two hours in the afternoon to learn about the other gallery I will be working at this weekend. I am eating an early lunch of noodles in a cup then I am going to go out and explore for a bit.  Hopefully I will make it to the museum of modern art today!

xoxo

Alli