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Published: March 8th 2011
River Liffy
This river flows thru the center of Dublin.The above is an Irish saying that basically sums up my trip to Ireland, but more on that in a minute. Just a quick note on what happened during the weekdays of last week.
Last week I went to two plays....and classes and my internship. however the latter two aren't that important.
Just a side note to the family members that have been on my case lately: I am doing more than just going to plays and traveling! I promise! So, on Tuesday, my older brother, Nick, came to visit for a few days. This was a very last minute thing. He basically told me on Saturday/Sunday that he would be coming. Thank god I have awesome flatmates that did not mind the late notice. However, I was a little worried because I had already made a good number of plans for the different nights and of course I was leaving for Ireland on Thursday afternoon, so I was worried that there wouldn't be much visiting in this visit.
However, that was not the case! Nick found the park right outside our school. We had lunch in between my two
Dublin Castle
The Record Tower. The walls are about 20 feet thick....I think classes. He already knew that I had tickets to go see Legally Blonde the Musical that evening, so during my next class he went to the theatre to see if they had any more tickets. After class we went back to the flats and just chilled for a little while. We talked, I made dinner, then we left for the theatre. All of our tickets got upgraded to be a little closer since they didn't sell out. The seats were amazing! We were on the second level, a little off centre, but we could see perfectly! Nick was a little farther up then us, but everyone could see and hear perfectly! The play itself was amazing. I caved and bought the playbill. It's something that will easily fit in my suitcase and not take up much space or add too much poundage. The guy who played Emmett, Elle's final love interest, was the understudy, but he was amazing! And personally, comparing head shots, he was much cuter then the main person. It was definitely interesting to listen to the actors, mainly because they needed to have American accents, and sometimes their other accents would come out. I can't say British
Guinness Brewery
I poured this pint...the perfect pint! because there was one or two that were from Canada...Another great moment at the play was when they sang the song, "There Right There." This is one of my favorite songs from the musical. The song is when they are trying to figure out if the pool boy is gay...the song's chorus asks if he is gay or European. This was amazing to see some of the reactions of the audience. The whole theatre broke out into laughter when the song says that the French can go either way...oh the British and the French...
Anyway, the next night, after my internship, we had our first play to go to as part of the theatre class. The play we went to see was Season's Greetings and was at the National Theatre. The play centers around a family during the Christmas holidays. Belinda is the sister that is hosting the gathering at her house with her husband. Her sisters, their husbands, and her uncle are there. The youngest sister has invited a writer, who she has been on two dates to spend the holiday with...Let's just say that this family is pretty realistic. The one sister, who cooks the dinner, is
Bray "Hill"
The hill that was actually a mountain! We walked around it... usually drinking all of the time. Her husband is a doctor, a very bad one at that, and he hosts a puppet show for the children every year. The puppet show is always hours long and overly extravagant. The husbands of two of the sisters and the uncle are always making remarks about how too it needs to be only a few minutes long. When the writer shows up, it gets even more interesting. Belinda is attracted to him...Things kind of go down hill from there. Belinda and the writer get caught trying to sex it up under the Christmas tree. The uncle is adamant that the writer is a thief and when the writer tries to leave early one morning (which everyone knew about) he gets shot by the uncle because he thought he was trying to sneak out...The doctor misdiagnoses him dead...and the play ends...The ending is really the only thing that I didn't like in the play. But, it was bloody brilliant as a whole!
So, onto the main focus of this blog post! Sorry for the rant about the plays!
IRELAND! The land of green, leprechauns, and Guinness. We (Jenna, Mary Kate, and I)
The Ireland Group
The girls (Jenna, Mary Kate, and I) on the cliff walk from Bray to Greystones landed in Ireland in the evening. We got to our hostel (Globetrotters Hostel Dublin), and checked in. We were in a room with five other people, though we were the only ones there so far. We ended up going to dinner across the road at O'Shea's, a pub and hotel. The food was AMAZING! The other girls got chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. Supposedly it was the best meal they have had since they got to London...I just had an Irish stew. It was pretty baller. We spent a good amount of the night just trying to figure out what we wanted to do. We only planned how we would get from London to Ireland and back, and where we were staying...We ended up deciding to do a free 3 hour walking tour of Dublin the next day, and then a day trip somewhere on Saturday. Mary Kate wanted to go to Galway because her family is from there...However, it would be about 4-6 hours on a bus or train, total. The guy working the front desk advised against it. We met this other guy who lived around Ireland all of his life and he said a good day
Newest Pop Sensation
We attempted a 'boy band cover' picture trip was to go to Bray, which is about an hour by train outside of Dublin. We ended up trusting him.
Friday dawned bright and early...We had two Germans in the room with us, father and son, Big and Little John. (That is how they introduced themselves later.) We went to the breakfast, which was provided and was a FULL Irish breakfast. Besides the tomatoes, it was amazing! We ended up getting to the tour meeting point about 45 minutes before it was set to start, so we walked around some, and hoped we could find out way back in time. Thank god I'm good with directions and a sense of direction, because the other two are hopeless (but I love them, so no hating Mary Kate and Jenna!). The walking tour was a little over 3 hours long. We went to Dublin Castle, Christ Church, Temple Bar, City Council, Trinity College, Parliament, some museums, and a few parks. Our tour guide, David, was very interesting. He really mixed history with popular culture. He talked of everything from the Vikings and Romans, to Star Wars and Bruno Mars (an international singer right now for those of you reading this
Horses
These three horses somehow got into the path that was fenced off, and were just chillin' in the way that might now know). All of it was very interesting. Later that night, the same group was hosting a pub crawl for 11 euros. We decided to do it. They offered a free drink, free shots with every full priced drink you buy after that, and entrance into a club at the end. We went to five different pubs, and got a coaster from each one...The club was interesting. Irish people dancing was great to watch. They had live music and people just jumping around. It was soooo much fun! However, I did lose one of my 2 pound scarves that I bought at Portobello Market a few weeks ago. I had it over my arm with my jacket, since it was really hot in the pub and really cold outside, and somehow it fell off. I didn't notice it at first, but tried to find it even though I knew it was a lost cause. Oh well.
After we left the club, Jenna had been wanting a burger ALL night. So, when walking back to the hostel, we came across a burger and kebab place. I didn't get a burger, but I've been told by both my friends
Sex and the City
Now we needed to try a Sex and the City pose... that it was the best burgers they've ever had! Better then Cook Out! I know, BLASPHEMY! But the kebab was amazing too, so I'll take their word for it.
Later that night we had decided that we were going to go to Brey and possibly walk the cliff path to Greystones...but we would be able to see cliffs and beach, so it should be great!
The next morning was rough...between the time of the tour and the pub crawl we had gone to the writers museum and found the bus station, so we kind of knew where we were going to get to Bray.
We ended up getting a day pass for the DART...which is kind of like the overground tube/train in London. We took the train to Bray and got there about 11am-ish. It was beautiful! We had to go through some of the countryside and could see the Irish Sea. We walked out onto the beach, climbed on some rocks, and just sat out in the sea (on the rocks, not in the water). The sun was shining. The guy that told us about Bray, told us about a hill that was there that you
Cliffs
The cliffs we walked along. could climb. There would be a cross at the top, and it would give you a beautiful view of Bray, Dublin, the bay, and the countryside of Ireland. Note: it was not a hill, but a freakin' mountain! We kind of said 'to hell with it!' and made our way towards the mountain. We thought we were on the right path, but apparently we were on the 5.5km path to Greystones. So, we decided to walk the path, along the cliffside to Greystones. It took about 2 hours. It was a beautiful walk with lots of picture breaks. It was amazing to see how fast it went from mountain to fields. However, once we were about 2 km from Greystones, the path narrowed. They had fenced off a lot of the seaside due to construction and 'unsafe' conditions, so they had a fenced in path go through this field. There were three horses just chillin' on the path. They were just standing there...There were two people in front of us at the time, and when they tried to pass, one of the horses moved to block the way. It was funny. Then, when we got up there, the horse just had to poop....oh well. One of the guys told us it was a present....hardy har har...soooo funny!
Anyway, once we got to Greystones, we were really hungry. We went to this restaurant/pub called the Beach House and got some lunch. Then wondered over to the train station. We missed the train by about 5 minutes...so we wondered around the town some and ended up at Costa Coffee...mainly to use the toilets...The train ride back was good. We ended up getting back into Dublin about 6:30 and went to the market to get some drinks and food, then back to the hostel to play some cards and figure out what to do that night. We ended up going to Temple Bar. We really wanted to find live, preferably Irish, music. We found live music...though it was a mixture of songs. It was a lot of fun! After the pub, we stopped back at the burger/kebab place then went back to the hostel!
Our last day went by too fast for my liking...The plan was to wake up, have our last Irish breakfast, check out but leave our bags in a room there, go to the Guinness Brewery, attend the service at Christ Church (our guide had said that the choir was amazing, so even if you weren't a part of that church, which we weren't it would be amazing to go), do a little souvenir shopping, go back to the hostel and pick up our bags, then catch the bus to the airport...The other girls didn't really want to go to the brewery, so I went by myself and met them at Christ church, after the service since it took me a while to find the brewery...I got to pour myself the perfect pint and some things for some people...
We thought we had missed the bus, but in good Irish fashion, it was late, so we were good!
Overall, this was probably the best weekend SO FAR. We met some awesome people from the Germans at the hostel, the French boy on the pub crawl, the Irish guys at the club and the pubs...
If anything, I learned that you just have to wing it and be happy with everything that happens in life. We just winged it for our stay in Ireland and had the best time. A light heart lives longest!
PS. I went to see Wicked last night, but that will be a part of this weeks blog post...so you just have to wait until this weekend to find out about it!
Cheers!
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