Dublin and Odds and Ends

First, a couple of random observations/thoughts:
1. George Costanza would be pleased to see that the Brits have the extra long doors on their bathroom (I'm sorry, toilet) stalls that he thought Yankee Stadium should have.
2. I just spent the equivalent of $4.16 on four rolls of toilet paper. I have been incredibly lackadaisical the past few days, and this afternoon is no different: I need to go to the supermarket for my week's shopping, but am too lazy to make the 15 minute walk there, so instead I went to the grocery store that's a 2 minute walk down the road, but is much more expensive. On the plus side, I discovered that they have tiramisu for $3.64. Maybe this is actually a downside, considering that contrary to the adage that if you have to cook for yourself, you don't eat much, I have found that if I have to shop for myself (ostensibly to have the materials to cook for myself), I buy a lot of desserts, which I then consume (with a glass of milk, Mom!) while watching The Office/Gossip Girl/Mad Men.
Aaannnyyyyway,
Dublin.
Eh.
Spent a lot of time wandering around lost in the dark and rain. We messed up the buses two of our three nights there and ended up walking back to the hostel at 23:30 on Friday night, which is the stupidest thing I've done in my life thus far. We ate a lot of Italian food (authentic Italian food, at least - there are Italian restaurants everywhere in downtown Dublin). We visited the National Gallery, saw Oscar Wilde's house and statue, the Book of Kells (so not worth 7 euros), and visited the Guinness Factory, where I avoided opening my mouth so that I would not be identified as yet another American student who would presumably see nothing else of Dublin but the Guinness Factory and the inside of pubs.
Proving that everything is relative, after London, the most expsensive city in Europe, we were delighted by the cheapness of everything in Dubin, which is the third most expensive city in Europe. I apparently was highly amusing to the British guy sitting behind me at breakfast as I read out loud from the paper about the bailout plan passing (finally) to my friend Kirsten, who is the reason I know I was amusing to said gentleman. Other than lunch at a cafeteria style place recommended to us by the woman who checked us in at the hostel, we didn't really get out of tourist Dublin, unfortunately.
In a nutshell, that was my weekend in Dublin.
In more recent news, yesterday I had the genuine Londoner experience of taking the tube at rush hour. My Age of Impressionism class met at the Tate Britain at 10:00 to look at the work of Constable, Turner, and the pre-Raphaelites (who influenced the Impressionists), so I had to take the Central Line at 9:00. When the first train pulled up filled to the gills, I thought, Oh, I'll just wait for the next one, it's only in a couple of minutes and there'll be fewer people getting on. So I waited for the next train, as the crowd once again grew on the platform, and then the next train pulled up, just as packed, and I tried to find a space to squeeze into, feared that my hand would be cut off by the closing door if I forced my way in, and so decided to wait for the next train, which would also be in only a couple of minutes. And guess how crowded that one was? Oh, and have I had occassion to mention yet that the tubes AREN'T AIR CONDITIONED?! I don't care that London doesn't get really hot, the effin tube does with so many people packed in.
Then, in the afternoon, another fried power adapter in hand, I journeyed out to Oxford Circus to return it (at least since this one lasted only 20 days the Apple store just gave me a new one, no trouble) and once more wandered around the area. I managed to wander into Soho, which has a reputation for being really sketchy. I knew that Soho was supposedly sketchy, but I thought it was like the Meatpacking District in New York: once sketchy, now gentrified. As I turned down street after sex shop/adult bookstore lined street, however, trying to get back to the designer stores of Oxford Circus, I realized that its sketchy repuation is still most deserved. I did find a place that served cheeseburgers for a pound 50 though, which is the cheapest food I've found thus far in London. And we all know my value system: for cheap food, any and all sketch will be tolerated.
Final note: my quest for the perfect trenchcoat was completed yesterday afternoon on Oxford St., where I found one more or less exactly like the one I've pictured in my mind for 25 pounds. Unfortunately I doubt that it's water resistant, but for 25 pounds what can I expect?
And so, shopping bag in hand, I got onto the Central Line at 17:30. A hot conclusion to a busy day.