June 29 – Dublin, Ireland

“Haunted castles, haunted castles, haunted castles,” we chant over and over again. I can see that our repetition is starting to get on the driver’s nerves, but Ania and I are having too much fun to care. “Haunted castles, haunted castles, haunted -,” and Ania cuts off a few words earlier than me, making me sound stupid as I chant by myself.

The climate is temperate here, and there is plenty of green all around us. It is really a pretty city.

“Wait a minute,” she demands to the driver, who takes her words literally and stops in the middle of a green light. Luckily, everybody swerves around him and we manage to not get hit. He hesitates for a second or two before pushing the pedal again, and the car drives on.

Ania and I are temporarily stunned, but we regain ourselves quickly. “Are there any haunted castles?” she asks. “Or rather, are the castles here actually haunted?”

Though I cannot see his face from the angle I am sitting in, I can imagine that he looks rather confused as he replies back, “Erm… I’m not actually quite sure about haunted. I just know that the castles are a rather popular tourist place.” I adore his accent, so I must question him about it…

“Do you speak another language?” And he answers that he speaks Irish, which surprises me as I did not know there was such a language. I wonder what it sounds like, but before I can ask, Ania butts in.

“Can you tell us something interesting about Ireland?” asks Ania. “Like… oh, I don’t know. Just anything cool.”

He thinks over it for a minute before replying, “We were once under British control. But we gained our independence.”

Ania scoffs. I hear the telepathic message she is sending me: That’s not interesting at all! So I decide to step in before she says something rude, and I ask what the people of Dublin are called. That should be fairly interesting, right?

“We’re called Dubs,” is his answer, and we promptly crack up. He seems a little offended at our laughing, but manages to tolerate it without saying a nasty word to us. I feel bad for laughing so hard, so I apologize, but his tone indicates that he is still not happy.

We get off the car and into the Dublin Castle. It is a very dull tour, so Ania and I get away as soon as we can.

“Well, that was fun,” she mutters sarcastically. “What should we do now?”

“If you think about it,” I say, “This is a good end to our trip. We can just go shopping and… and eating. I guess. I heard they have a good shopping center here.”

Ania’s eyes gleam, and before she even says the words, I know already.

“Oh god,” I groan as she exclaims, “And we can party! They better have good nightlife!”

Fortunately, they do. Or so everybody says.

Signed out,

Erin Wei Woolf

Author's Note: This was a rather short ending, wasn't it? I felt as if the last day of staying in Europe should be the most relaxing, and Ireland definitely sounded like an ideal place to spend the rest of the last day of vacation in. Plus... I have some relation to Ireland. Forgive me if I sound stupid and lame, but it's like an unspoken bond has always existed between the country and I. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the entries! This is the end.