Days 59-65: DUBLIN! And a bit more…

I’m becoming slack at updating. I just have so much work to do. Boo. But I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. The Irish are just so damn nice.

Now what have I been up to? Let’s see…

Wednesday: Class from 10-12 of course, Library, HW… you know the gist. And at night I went to Woody’s (the parkwood pub) with Cathrin, Alex, Sonja, Lucy, Jackaby, and some of Alex’s friends. We just had a few drinks and they headed off to the Venue. I’m broke so I headed home… boo. But it was a good night. I really wish we had pubs in Columbia- not the disgusting bars we have in Five Points.

Thursday: Class from 11-12, came home and packed and got ready for the weekend and caught the bus into town around 3. Went to the Post Office to exchange money to Euros then headed to McDonald’s for a quick bit to eat. Took the bus to London around 4:30 and got to our hostel around 7.

We had a really early start on Friday so we wanted to head to bed early and have a quiet night. So we went to this beef pasta buffet at our hostel with yummy garlic bread and sangria (which was absolutely delicious). We met a nice girl from Brazil who had travel plans that matched ours… almost identically. Weird! She had just come from Dublin (which was where we were going.) And she’s going to be in Amsterdam and Barcelona the same weekends we’ll be there. That’s pretty odd! Haha, anyways… Steph and I went upstairs and played card games for a while and had an intense argument with our moron roommate about probability. Then we went to bed.

I was woken up RIGHT away by a French man snoring in our room. Gross. BTW this was SUPPOSED to be a Youth Hostel (meaning it’s for travelers under 35…) this guy was mid 40’s. So I didn’t get too much sleep. And we had to leave our hostel by 4:45 to catch our bus to Stansted Airport.

Our flight ran smoothly and everything. When we got in, we took the bus into Dublin and got off at a stop WAY after we were supposed to. So we had to get on another bus and ask more directions… But we eventually got there. Haha. Our hostel was really really nice. But they charged for luggage storage, so we had to hold on to our stuff until check-in.

We took the Dublin tram down to the AWESOME old jail on the sketchy part of town. It was really interesting. There was so much history there- with the emergence of the Republic of Ireland. The Political Leaders from the Republican side were all held at the jail and executed there. (Keep in mind, it was also Friday the 13th, so this was realllllly spooky.)

Afterwards we got lunch at a cute little Irish pub. Then we headed to the Guinness Factory. The museum was AWESOME. I think it was about 11 stories high. We learned all about the history of the beer, how to brew it, pretty much everything you’d want to know about Guinness. We even got samples! We ended up on the top story- which was a really cool bar that had glass windows in every direction- allowing you to see ALL of Dublin. We cashed in on our free beer and relaxed up there for a while. I could’ve stayed there all night.

When we left it was raining (boo…). We jumped back on the tram and made a quick stop at the Jameson Factory (so Stephanie could mail some Whiskey back to her dad). Then we headed back to our hostel and showered and got ready for the evening.

We ate dinner at our hostel (a beer and a burger for 5 Euros) then we made some friends with a bunch of Aussies and some Irish boys and we played drinking games with them for a while. Then we all headed out to the Temple Bar (the amazing Dublin nightlife area) and went to a great Irish pub with live music. It was so much fun but so damn expensive. The cheapest beer they had was 6 Euros (that’s about 10 US dollars). Afterwards we went to an even more expensive place- a 5 story nightclub with the cheapest drink being 8 Euros. Great… But it was still so much fun!

We left around 2 and made a few pit stops to fast food places on the way home. My junior whopper from BK was 4 Euros…. About $6.50 for a JR WHOPPER!!! WHAT THE HECK?! Apparently Dublin is in the top three of the most expensive cities in Europe.
We woke up Saturday and went down to our free breakfast of toast and OJ then started Day#2. We walked over to Trinity College, which has an impressive list of alumni. The campus was so pretty… Stephanie said it’s a lot like Harvard. Afterwards we went to see Temple Bar during the day. We walked and shopped there for a while… it’s such a cute area. Then we ate lunch at this Italian/Mexican Place… haha. I got a steak with potatoes and garlic bread for an appetizer…. Weird combo but delicious!

After lunch we went to see Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, which is stunning from the outside. But the inside was closed for a service, so we weren’t able to go inside. Then we walked to the castle and took a great tour of the inside. Unlike other castles we’ve seen, the modern part is still in use at least 2 times a week. Then we went underground to the ancient remains of the older castle. That was my favorite part… it was really spooky down there.

We left the castle and walked back to our hostel for a nice two-hour nap. When we woke up around 7, we went to dinner at a great Irish Pub. There was a huge football game on that night between Ireland and France so the place was PACKED. It was a really fun atmosphere. Plus the food was to-die-for. I got a bowl of Irish stew… yumyumyum!

After dinner, we went back to the hostel, played a few more card games and then headed out again. This time we went to a huge pub off the main street in Dublin. Once again, it was a really fun night!

We had to wake up really early on Sunday to catch our flight. We left our hostel around 6 and didn’t get home to Canterbury til around 2. A long day of travelling… When we got home we went to the grocery store and picked up stuff for the week.

Then I went home and relaxed. I got caught up on all of my favorite American TV shows and skyped with my parents then passed out.

Monday I had class from 11-12, went to the library, did HW… ate. Blah blah. That night I went on a really fun bar crawl with Amy and Sonja and the sailing society… lol. I’m so glad I went cause we went to all of these great bars in Canterbury that I’d never even seen before. Man, I don’t want to leave this place. Then we met up with Alexis and ended the night at the works. Wonderful evening.

Tuesday I had class from 11-1, went home and ate lunch, went to the library for a while then walked into town with Cathrin and Lauren. We ate our great meal deal again at Café Des Amis then walked home.

I’m so sad that I’m on the downward spiral towards going home. It’s going to fly by too. This weekend Amsterdam. Next- Marty’ll be here. Next- Barcelona. Next- Last weekend in Canterbury. Next- parents will be here. I love this place. Mom, can I please stay?!