Dublin on St. Patrick's Day

---

---

To Dublin
Rachel Elizabeth We flew into Dublin late on Saturday. It was raining and the cold bit right through the hat to my ears. It didn't help that one of my two travelling companions was not in the best of moods due to the fact that the wine he had bought at a gift shop earlier that day in Leeds had broken in his luggage and soaked all his clothes. The stewardess on the ryanair had also been a bit pissy and had made sure for the ten minutes that I was not asleep that I knew she was unhappy. The hotel staff didn't seem overly aggiated though. That is, until my aforementioned travelling companion made his laundry problem their problem. I'm not sure how many dry cleaners they called and how many house keepers they asked before the searched proved futile. I had to give them kudos though. The smile never faltered. I would have bitten off someone's head in their position.

Eventually we made it down to temple bar. Right away we met some guys from Leeds who could speak without tripping over their words. They became quick friends and we proceeded to the nearest bar that still had standing room. Most of the people we met that night were foreign, but that didn't deter the party. Finally my companion had enough drinks to stop pouting about his laundry and my other companion and I started to enjoy ourselves.

Most of the bars closed around 11. By twelve no one else was getting through the door. And there were also no taxis. That's not too much of a problem if you're staying in the city. My friends and I were staying at the airport hotel, however. By two we still didn't have a taxi and it had gotten much, much colder. By three, still no taxi and only drunkards on the streets. By four I finally convinced my party to take the bus and we were back to our hotel by 4:30am. Of course, we had to be checked out by ten.

Only slightly hung over, I managed to get everyone out of the room by 10:10am. We checked into a much cheaper hostel and decided to explore Dublin.

The city is magnificent. From the pubs to the college to the hundreds of things there are to do, even on bank holidays, I had an incredible time. Even while it started snowing when we were waiting in line to get into the guinness factory ( which was an hour wait), I was having a good time. Even the wait for the Book of Kells was worth it. I can's wait to go back to Dublin. If I was having this good of a time with all the pit falls, I can almost imagine how good of a time I'll have without the pit falls (i.e. without whiny travelling companion).

---

Photos

Browns
Brown's Hostel

Guinness Banner
Outside Guinness Factory

Snow
It started snowing while waiting to get into the guinness factory.