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Published: February 2nd 2009
Happy February! I can’t believe I’ve already been here for FOUR weeks! I only have four months left..crazy!
Okay so DUBLIN was AWESOMEEEE! We took a 4.5 hour bus ride Thursday night(no worries, I took Dramamine to help me sleep/help me not get motion sickness ew) with a pit stop halfway through. The rest stop we stopped at have a convenience store with like A MILLION candy bars..so we decided to try a bunch. Cadbury chocolate is fantastic. I’m definitely going to bring home a suitcase full of it! So, anyway, we arrived in Dublin around 10pm and the hostel was literally a 2 minute walk from the bus station so that was very convenient. After checking in we headed up to our 10 person mixed bedroom. We figured there would be no guys in it since it was more expensive than the men’s room but cheaper than the women’s room. Needless to say..when you assume…well, you know how the saying goes. Basically, we lived with 4 other 30+ year old MEN for the weekend. We were freaking out when we first arrived cause their laundry was everywhere and they took over the bathroom, but once we met them we realized they weren’t creepers or anything. Frankie, originally from Nigeria but now lives in Manchester, UK, was extremely nice. He’s been living in the hostel for a month! The 3 other men were from different areas of Spain and only one of them spoke good English. They were there for 2 weeks I believe, hence why there was laundry everywhere and there was no room in the bathroom for any of our belongings.
We finally got to sleep and woke up bright and early for our complimentary breakfast of tea, coffee, toast, and OJ (aka TANG) between 7:30am and 9:30am. Yea, we were up that early. Shockingly, the toast was quite filling and I didn’t have to eat until around 1 or 2pm. On Friday, after breakfast, there was a free walking tour at 10:20am from the hostel. Although it was 3.5 hours, it was totally worth enduring the freezing cold to learn so much about Dublin and just Irish history in general. We saw SO MUCH STUFF! I couldn’t even list it all. A quick summary: City Hall, Dublin Castle, Trinity College, General Post Office, Spire, Temple Bar, U2 Stuff…and so much more. Once I post and organize my pictures, you’ll be able to check it all out 😊 Our tour guide was AWESOME too. His name was Ali and he’s lived in Dublin for 4 years and he was just SO into the tour and was so knowledgeable. Basically, a lovely Irish guy who I think all four of us fell in love with haha. After the tour, we went to a pub called Cassidy’s that apparently Bill Clinton loves. He got their soda bread recipe sent to the White House because he loved it so much! I ordered Traditional Irish Stew with soda bread. Probably the best meal I’ve had here thus far. The Stew was made with Lamb, celery, carrots, and potatoes and they were all huge delicious chunks. I wish I could eat that every day..it was THAT good (Dad, you better find that recipe!)!!! Our waiter at Cassidy’s was so nice and he recommended a bunch of pubs the “locals” go to. It was about time that everyone gets out of work, so he told us some pubs to check out that would be hoppin’ with locals. He was right, but the locals were old Irish men in suits drinking pints who definitely didn’t want to talk to 20 year old American girls haha. We went to a pub called Foley’s that apparently Sarah Jessica Parker went to. It was a traditional Irish pub and they even had a waitress walking around handing out free cocktail appetizers..it was so cute! After Foley’s we headed to the Porterhouse Brewery which is famous for its own beers. We heard about a strawberry beer (they don’t brew it themselves) from Belgium that they have on tap there and it was AMAZING. It’s called Fruli and it’s a white beer, hence why it hardly tastes like beer. They only have it at that pub and in London, and I’m guessing in Belgium. Anyway, we met some Italian guy there and headed out to listen to some Live Music with him. However, he turned out to be a total creep so we left that bar ASAP. As we were walking home, I heard one of our favorite songs, “Galway Girl” (it’s in P.S. I Love You), playing in the distance. We quickly got our IDs out and rushed into “Fitzsimmon’s” to hear the very end of the song. Although we were disappointed, we decided we would go there again the next night and hopefully hear the entire song.
We finally went to bed but I could barely sleep because I felt sick all night on top of my cold. It wasn’t the alcohol! I think I was just freaked out by the concept of the hostel and started hearing things and then I probably ate something bad…one of those situations. Needless to say, I finally fell asleep right before we went to breakfast Saturday morning(great timing, I know) and then I took a nap immediately after. Then we all got ready and ventured out to the Luas (or Tram…basically an above ground subway) to go to the Guinness Storehouse. We ended up touring that 7 story pint glass for FOUR HOURS. I have no idea why, but we were there THAT long haha. When we finally got to the gravity bar, it was totally worth it to check out the BEST view of Dublin. We finally went back to the hostel and got some pizza down the street and definitely ate waaay too much! Because of our full stomachs, we just hung out in the hostel’s common room and attempted to play European pool. It was pretty difficult due to the tight quarters, the different style of play, oh and the broken pool stick! It was “movie night” so we watched “Something’s Gotta Give” with some Dutch guys and then headed out for the night. We tried to get back into Fitzsimmon’s but they said they were at capacity (liars) and then we decided to go back to the Porterhouse for more strawberry beer! We met some Italian and Spanish guys who called me “Hoolia”…I know all you Beach kids love that 😉…and “Julieta”, my fave nickname haha. We left there once we were down with our pints since the live music wasn’t that great and since some Irish girl wanted to fight me (she was “Pissed” and thought I gave her a dirty look..sorry I don’t want your vomit all over me!). We tried Fitzsimmon’s again and after some nagging, they let us in. There were two acoustic guitar players who were playing a great variety of American “Sing-a-Longs” and they played “GALWAY GIRL”! Hooray! We met some lovely lads there who were from Dublin AND one of them studied at Harvard as an exchange student…so cool! They were super smart..either that or we were really drunk (just kidding!)..and they could sing, too. Too bad they live 4 hours from us? Oh and then an ocean away once June rolls around…lol. Saturday night turned into a spontaneously late night and we ended up sleeping through breakfast and had to wake up to check out by 11am. Our bus left at 12 and we got back to Cork around 5pm due to rain and traffic. All in all Dublin was AMAZING and I want to go back…now! 😊
I’m going to post a separate entry for the past week so this post isn’t ridiculously long!
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HappyMonday83
non-member comment
Oh dear god the wash!
It's a truly awful AWFUL pub. You should try the oval.