Today was all about James Joyce. We started by discussing parts of Dubliners in our class meeting this morning, then went straight to a walking tour to see important places both from his personal life and for the characters in his works. Before the tour started, we got to walk around the James Joyce Centre. After walking through the halls and seeing several photos and fun facts about Joyce and his work, I went outside to see the mural and door knocker from Number 7 Eccles Street. The mural was by far my favorite thing I saw all day. It was filled with paintings and quotes from Ulysses with all different colors and styles of art. I took a ton of pictures of individual quotes. I spent probably fifteen minutes trying to see every square inch of it because I thought it was so incredible.

After the tour, we went to Ireland’s Smallest Pub, where I met a lady named Edith from the US. She told me she was a speech therapist, and had been so overwhelmed by the year she just had that she up and bought tickets to London. She spent some time there, is here in Dublin now, then is planning on going to Barcelona. She was sitting at the bar alone and was having the time of her life talking to people and laughing. I had so much fun laughing with her. One of my favorite parts of this trip is all of the people I get to meet. I never know who I am going to sit next to or where they’ll be from.