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Published: February 27th 2008
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I left London on the night of Thursday the 21st to visit an old family friend Huw at University College Dublin in Ireland. I bought Ryanair flights for ten pounds return including taxes, which is incredible. Actually the train to and from the airport cost more than double that. One of Huw's flatmates was in Paris for four of the five nights i was staying, so i had my own room and bed which was really nice.
I arrived at Huw's at about 11:30pm on Thursday night, met some of his friends and we hung out in an apartment.
On Friday morning we slept in, had some breakfast and Huw and I got on the bus and he showed me around the city centre. We had a pint of Guinness and some lunch. On Friday evening we went and watched a lacrosse game with Huw's Canadian flatmate Dan, went to someone's house nearby for a while and then headed to a pub in the city with the lacrosse team.
Saturday a group of us had planned to do a big day trip to Glendalough, but we all overslept a bit and missed the bus, so instead we went
to Malahide Castle and had a wander and a bit of a picnic.
On Saturday night we went to what is apparently the biggest shopping mall in Europe and had a good meal at a pizza restaurant with
Huw and three of his friends. We got out a movie called Disturbia (which was crap) and watched that in one of Huw's friends rooms and went to bed. All the Irish kids go home on the weekends which is a little strange, so UCD was pretty deserted.
On Sunday Huw and I had decided we were going to have a kick of a rugby ball or a gaelic football, but we couldn't find one; the sports shop was closed and there were no kids around to lend us one because they were all at home. After trying and failing to have a kick, we decided to go to the Guinness factory instead. The self guided tour was not that great but they have a bar at the top where you get a free pint and there is a 360 degree view of Dublin through the glass panes, which was really good. Dublin is a really old city. It reminds
me of Boston a little bit, although obviously much older.
We had a quiet night on Sunday and I tried to do some work, but only succeeded in playing Huw's roommates guitar.
On Monday Huw and the others all had classes, so i did what we had planned to do on Saturday and took a day trip to Glendalough, which is a little over an hour bus trip from the centre of Dublin. Glendalough was amazing, the scenery was spectacular. It's a valley in the Wicklow mountains with a thousand year old monastic city, as well as waterfalls and some really beautiful natural landscape. The only problem was that it was raining and windy and really cold, and i got saturated because i didn't bring an umbrella or rainjacket from London (I was travelling light...).
I got back from Glendalough on Monday evening and Huw and i went to one of his friend's flat to meet up with some people before going out. Apparently Monday is a big night at UCD because all of the Irish kids are back after the weekend. We got a big group together and headed to a club in the city centre.
The club was not very full but it was a really good night anyway. We got back at about 4am, which was not too good because i had to be up at 5am to catch the coach to the airport for my flight home. i got about 45 minutes sleep on Huw's couch, and then caught an hour sleep on the plane. I did ok in class today with the help of a little caffeine. It is actually 8pm on Monday as i type this and i'm still wide awake. You'll understand if my writing doesn't make much sense. I think i'll sleep well tonight.
It was a great weekend, Huw and i still get along really well after all these years. My next step is to plan my Easter travels, which is only three weeks away now. I think I'll do some tripping in Western Europe, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, I might even make it to Northern Italy or Belgium as well. I'm not sure whether I'll go by train or plane yet, I have to look into it. If anyone has any advice for me it would be appreciated.
Hope everyone is doing well at home,
The view from the top
The gravity bar at the Guinness Storehouse miss you all.
Renan.
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