One Must Have Sunshine, Freedom, And A Little Flower.

Today I had no sunshine, no freedom, and weeds.
I waited outside in the cold, mist like rain for 30 minutes for a bus that never came. The girl at Daybreak (a little convience store) said it was coming, but guess what, no freaking bus.
I went back into the hotel feeling cold and wet and slightly miserable.
The receptionist tried to help me out. She looked online at the bus schedules and then called taxis. None of the taxis answered. So, she suggested a few other things. One was a valid, open option... Athlone Castle. I remembered seeing it in my travel book and thought eh, what the heck, all castles are cool.
35 euros later....
The castle looks like one on the outside, sure enough... on the inside there were a couple of spots that overlooked the city all from way back in the day. The River Shannon was right there, so that was about the only cool part. Not that the river itself was cool because it was just a river... but because I've heard of it before, haha. Also, there was a swam swimming around.
Back to the castle... I paid 6 euros to bore myself to death with videos (those of you who have been inside the Fort Stanwix visitors center and sat through the videos know what I'm talking about, although none of you have, I'm sure).
After that, and walking around the tiny lil area & by the river, I decided to at least walk around town a bit.
The buildings were kind of fun. Every foriegn looking. There was a nice church.
Some old nasty guy with a big beard started talking to me. At first he was nice, talking about his trip to CA. Then he asked me to go down to a bar and have a drink with him. I said no, I don't drink and I was heading back. Then he said 'you don't drink? that's no good. how's a guy supposed to get you drunk?' My answer: "he's not." Then he said something else I can't remember to which I replied "I didn't come to Ireland for guys." (yea yea - we joked about it but in all honesty I'm not.) He asked me if I was into girls then. O_o Riiight, time to go! I made my exit as soon as possible and found a taxi in the street.
Another 35 euros later...
One of the helpful women from this morning was like "you're back!!" hahaha I said yea there was nothing to see really because everything was closed. (true, but it was raining and it's a slightly boring town.) As I walked through the bar the nice guy from ast night said hello so I stopped and had a coke with him.
He offered to drive me to Mullingar tomorrow so I can see Belvedere House since I couldn't today! It's really nice of him but I feel a little guilty having him take me all the way out there... well he says it suits him so I'll go along with it.
I napped until 9 and then went down because we had to figure out a time to go. (settled on 10:30-11am) I chatted with them for a bit and then a drunk man started talking to me. He was alright, drunk, started hitting on me, proposed marriage, then he kissed my hand. I know he didn't mean anything by it but I was still slightly creeped out so when he went to the bathroom I made my exit.
I came back up and packed my suitcase up for tomorrow except the essentials.
Now, to bed I go...

Here's some pictures ...