Double the man power, double the speed (Day 9)

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So apparently the whole room of 213 at Barnacles hostel slept in a little too long today. The four of us (Josh, me and our bunk mates from Oz) woke up a little after noon not realizing how long we had slept and that breakfast was no longer an option. As it was our last day in Dublin and we had already checked out most of the city it wasn't too big of a deal but it was still pretty pathetic. Not knowing what to do for the day we went down to the commons room and looked at a list of business cards of all these things to do in Dublin. We saw one for renting bikes in Phoenix Park (largest in Europe, twice the size of Central Park) so we decided that was an option. Then we flipped the card over and saw we could rent tandem bikes so we knew we had to do it at that point.

Got to the park after a long walk and got a brief lesson from the owner of how to operate these beasts. "You need power the back man and confidence from the steer man. Remember lads, this is serious stuff here!" So with that great advice we set off in unison on the tandem bike through the park. The place is absolutely immense. It looks like you have left the city entirely. Of course, a bunch of the other park visitors laughed at the sight we made but that didn't deter us much. The only thing that stopped us was the steep hill we attempted to ride up to check out some ruins. Made it about halfway before losing all momentum and falling off the bike to the side. After continuing our ride around the park we rent off-roading a bit. We came around this turn and out of nowhere is this beautiful white manor with this pedicured lawn. We see an American flag and realize this is probably the house of the American ambassador. Sure enough out strolls my man, Dan Rooney! (owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and recently appointed US Ambassador to Ireland). Took a few pics before secret service made us feel awkward and we pedaled on.

Walked back pretty tired and sore to make another batch of carbonara (3rd in 3 nights). Ran into the two Canadian girls from Galway and after a little convincing got them to join us on tonight's pub crawl which should be pretty entertaining. I won't go into too much detail on the actual crawl but we ended up going to 4 pubs and finishing at a night club and of course by then the 15-20 of us, all from Barnacles hostel, were pretty drunk and having an amazing time. Definitely the best night I've had out here. Made some good friends and drank a few too many tasty Irish beers. That's all for now folks.

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Photos

pub crawl
pub crawl

tandem bike
tandem bike

dan rooneys place
dan rooneys place

kevin
it's ok. he's canadian

oh kevin
oh kevin