Luckily Located

On my way to Leonardo's flat, I talk with the taxi driver about tomorrow's festivities and where I should go.  He suggests a few places and then tells me that the place I am going to is all but directly on the parade route for St. Patrick's day.  This is right before he tells the American mom and daughter that I shared the cab with that their place is out in BFE no where near the city center.  Awesome. Lucky me. Not only am I staying for free, whereas they are paying over 50 Euros per night, I'm also in prime parade real estate as well.

The mom and daughter asked about my sleeping arrangements, whether it was a hostel, hotel, etc.  I explained that I would be couch surfing, and I got basically the same reaction that my mother gave me.  I reassured them that I had had a BALLER stay in London and had never felt threatened.  I could only have the same expectations for this host, especially since Leonardo had waaay more positive references than Soner had had. 

We finally find the flat, after having called Leonardo so he could direct the driver, and I snuck into the key protected lobby of the building.  He met me there in the lobby, and right as I stuck out my hand to shake his, he came at me.

Oh right, forgot about the kissing on the cheek thing.

Luckily, I sort of knew how many times you duck, dodge, and kiss, or else that could have been super awkward. (two times in most places if you're not really good friends, three times in Poland)

I'm really glad Leonardo was not my first host, or else I would have been completely spoiled.  Not only was his flat immaculate, but I had my own room with a real bed! He let me know that I could take a shower if I liked, for which at this point I was very grateful.  Afterwards we made dinner consisting of Ikea meatballs (which are actually pretty awesome), fish sticks, and garlic bread.  Not much, but I was very thankful that he would share his food, as I did not want to run to Tesco after the long journey.

Then, just as with my last host, we just sat and talked in his living room.  Once I got used to his Brazilian accent (odd that I have yet to stay with anyone actually from that country) it was much easier to understand him.  His English itself was actually very good, it was the pronunciation that was just a bit off.  However, he asked me to repeat myself as many times as I asked him, so I didn't feel so rude. When he noticed me nodding off mid conversation (I literally slept all the way from London, I don't understand) he told me to go to bed and we'd get up and go to the parade tomorrow.

Meaning we'd walk half a block to see THE St. Patty's Day Parade.

Slaínte from Dublin
Tegs