Ireland, I am coming home

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So, I finally made it to Ireland and it was an amazing, amazing weekend. I went with Mandy, Nora, and Ashley and we stayed with Colleen Lynch (friend from high school) in her on campus apartment at University College Dublin. It was great to have a FREE place to stay for the weekend, although I’ve stayed at a hostel that was cleaner than her apartment. Sorry Colleen, but it’s true!! Anyways, we landed in Dublin and when got off the plane, it was absolutely FREEZING. I don’t think I’ve ever been in weather that cold…I thought I was literally going to freeze to death. Haha. Anyways, so we catch a bus to O’Connell Street and luckily enough, Colleen was just across the street from us. So, we met up with her and she took us to her apartment.

Goodness, UCD is huge but it was so much fun to be on a college campus again. I’ve missed that after being in Oxford, specifically St. Michael’s Hall, where we don’t actually have a campus, just a lovely building. Anyways, we got to her flat and freshened up a bit before heading out on the town. We started out at the student bar on campus, had a drink or two, and just talked. Then we hopped on the bus to go to the city center and find a cute little Irish pub. We ended up at Fitzgerald’s, where we ordered rounds upon rounds of drinks and had a great time. Eventually Colleen’s boyfriend Mark met up with us and we chatted it up with him for a while. There were two cute football (note: I’m in Europe so they play soccer) players sitting by the bar. Since I finished my drink first, it was up to me to get the next round, but I also had to ask the guys to help me carry the drinks in hopes that they would come sit with us. Sadly, although they were nice and carried the drinks, they went back to their seats and didn’t hang out with us. So, later on, Ashley and I went to the bar to get drinks and THEN they started talking to us. Mandy and Nora joined us shortly thereafter, and then we were having a ball. They were lots of fun and kept talking about how they’d both lived in the states for a little bit. They also attempted to teach us Gaelic, or Irish as it is referred to in Ireland, but naturally, we’d had a bit too much to drink to learn any new languages. 😊 But, it was still fun to try! I’m not quite sure what time it was, but we eventually decided that it was time to get food and go home. So, we found ourselves at Eddie Rockets (like that states’ Johnny Rockets, but not as good). Gosh, we were quite drunk. Haha. From there, Colleen had given me very specific directions in how to get back and helped us hail a cab. Colleen decided to stay at Mark’s apartment for the weekend so that we could have her bed. Thank you my dear, because your bed was very comfortable! Eventually, we made it back to UCD and even found her building, which was a feat, let me tell you. All in all, it was a pretty fantastic first night in Dublin.

Saturday morning, or should I say afternoon, we all woke up pretty exhausted. Ash had a hangover and the rest of us were still a little drunk. After some adventures in the bath tub and attempts in the shower (it was so disgusting, but I used it anyway), we made it out of the apartment. We headed back downtown and found a nice place for lunch. I had a great Irish stew and Irish coffee at 2pm. Thank you Ireland! As we ate, we also watched a lovely football game. After lunch, we went on a bus tour of Dublin and got to see all the sights. We sat on the top and basically froze to death again. Did you know that Arthor Guinness had 21 kids?!! That was one of the most interesting things we learned…well, that, and the fact that Dublin has quite a bit of Georgian architecture, which is actually really pretty. Our tour ended and dropped us off at this place called the Arlington Hotel, so we wandered in and found it to be a huge pub/bar. There was live Irish music, and later on, live Irish dancing. It was such a fun place to be at and have my first official Irish Guinness. And because of that place, I ADORE Guinness now. I had 4 pints on Saturday night and still didn’t feel full. Mmm…my goodness, my Guinness. Anyways, after the Arlington Hotel, we went to O’Connell Street and grabbed some cheap food for dinner. Then we headed to Temple Bar (it is both a section of Dublin with lots of bars, pubs, clubs, shopping, etc. and there is a specific bar called Temple Bar) to meet up with Colleen and Mark. Oh my, this place was sooo crowded!!! We could barely move, but eventually we made it to the back bar and ordered our drinks while we waited for Colleen and Mark to find us. While we waited, we talked to some random guys who were, of course, enthralled by the fact that were Americans. But, then again, who isn’t super excited when we go out? It’s true…haha. Eventually Colleen and Mark met up with us and got themselves a drink. So enough, we were all exhausted, a little drunk, and ready to go home. Mandy, Nora, Ashley, and I headed back to the apartment and went right to bed.

Sunday morning we woke up on the early side and decided to go on a bus tour of the northern coast of Dublin and Malahide Castle. It was lots of fun because we had a live guide who made it interesting. On the way back to Dublin, as we drove along the coast, the bus stopped a few times for us to get out and take pictures. And that means I got to sand on the beaches of Ireland….yay. It was so picturesque…and for me who hates sand, I loved this. There is something about Irish beaches that I couldn’t say no to. Anyways, the bus tour brought us back to O’Connell Street where we did some souvenir shopping. Then we hopped on to the city tour bus again and had it take us to the Guinness Storehouse. We were a bit crunched for time because Ashley was flying back to England on Sunday night, but we managed to see the Storehouse. We wandered through the first and second levels that explain how Guinness is made and a bit about the history of it. Then we jetted up to the seventh floor for our complimentary pint on Guinness in the Gravity Bar. This place was awesome. The Guinness was flowing like water, and the bar was a circular room with glass from floor to ceiling so there were some amazing views of the city. On the glass, there were descriptions of what we viewing so you could tell what monuments you were actually looking at. It reminded me of being on the top of Eiffel Tour…hehe…I love being able to say things like that!! Anyways, we drank our pints and had to haul ourselves back to O’Connell Street so Ash could get the bus to the airport on time. Well, it was raining a bit outside, so whipped out my umbrella to shield our stuff that happened to be in paper bags. Turns out that it was also super windy, and my umbrella was completely destroyed. Like, it turned inside out, bent in half, and then just broke. It was ridiculous, but since I didn’t pay for much it, I really didn’t care. Eventually we got back to the city centre and sent Ashley on her way back to London. And then there were three.

Mandy, Nora, and I headed to Grafton Street to find this jewelry store so Mandy could buy a new gold Claddaugh ring. I wasn’t going to buy anything, but then I saw a very simple, silver Celtic Knot necklace for only 20 Euro….so I bought it. I love having something so memorable from Ireland. It’s a little piece of my own trip with me all the time…when I wear it that is. After a bit of shopping, we went looking for a relatively cheap place to eat. We eventually found a restaurant that had a special: 14.95 for a starter and entrée. I got vegetable soup and a steak with peppercorn sauce. Oh my goodness, this peppercorn sauce tasted EXACTLY like the one my mom makes and the steak was cooked to perfection like my dad does. I’d been feeling homesick, with Thanksgiving coming up and everything, but this made me feel sooo much better. Leave it to Ireland to serve comforting meals. Aftter dinner we caught the bus back to Colleen’s apartment so that we could pack up our stuff and just crash since we were exhausted. Since Colleen’s suitemate Sarah was back, we couldn’t crash in her room anymore. Thus, we ended up putting three people on the floor of Colleen’s room with Colleen in her bed. It was very cozy. Before I knew it, Monday morning had arrived and we had to head to the airport to catch our flight back to London. It was our last flight on RyanAir and I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to think that I’d never fly an airline ever again. Haha. Next weekend: Madrid via EasyJet and I’m excited about the airline, but not so excited about the trip. I’m not really in the mood to go out of town again, but I do want to see Kelly. I’m also short on dinero and I hate asking my parents for money, even though they’ve been so gracious and generous.

Anyways, that was my trip to Dublin. Basically, it was spectacular and Madrid is going to have to work really hard to be even half as amazing!!

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