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Published: March 19th 2011
We got into Dublin Ireland on the 14th of March at about 9am. Everything that we have tried to do has been one adventure after another. We took the train one station to far because we couldn't figure out how to open the door from the inside of the train. Shelly pushed the button, then Rachael pushed the button, we both stared blankly at eachother wondering what to do, then the train started moving and we were on our way to the next stop. We found a man at the next station who had "short man syndrome" pretty bad. He was walking around at warp speed talking jibberish and looking at us like we were absolute morons. About an hour later we were finally the 5 minute train ride back to where we needed to be.
We took the bus from the airport to the hotel that Kate (Rachael's friend from highschool) and her mother (Cathy) had booked for all of us. It was located perfect distance from great pub crawling and tourist attractions. The room was really nice, had 2 bedrooms, livingroom and kitchen. Kate, Ty, and Cathy's flight didn't get in until later that night so after we got our bags tucked in we went to grab some lunch and do a little exploring. The place we stopped for lunch was a cute sandwich shop that had a woman who barely spoke english working in it. After we filled up our tummies with a plane jane tuna sandwich we went for a walk around the town. The architecture is amazing. Lots of old buildings. Everything is made of stone or brick, the streets are a cobblestone and people drive like maniacs. Everyone here has blue eyes.... EVERYONE, but unfortunately, there are no lephrachans, at least not in clear sight. After we tired out our legs we rode the "hop on hop off" bus around town and got to see the next 5 towns after Dublin, ending us in Liffey Valley. We finally got back to the hotel around 3pm (when we were allowed to check in) and decided to do a load of laundry. After about 45 minutes and 10 phone calls to the front desk we finally got someone up to the room to help us out. Turns out it wasn't just us, after 2 of the houskeepers couldn't get it working they decided we weren't just stupid Americans and gave us a new room with a working washer. 2 hoursish went by and our clothes were still spinning away in the washer/dryer in the room. We were a little scared considering both of our clothes for the entire trip were in there. We crossed our fingers, and cleaned ourselves up just in time for Kate, Ty, and Cathy to come in to the room. We all grabbed some dinner and went down to the famous "Temple Bar" where they have live bands and beer taps at the tables. It was alot of fun, we got to listen to a local band, drink a pint of Smithwycks or Carlsburgh and then headed out. We went to a local pub later that night where we were warned we would be looked at funny for invading the locals space being tourists. We ended up having the akward moment that we were warned about for about 20 minutes and then everyone started to warm up to us. We met all "the locals" Rachael's favorite, a 72 year old man named Richard was the star of the show. He was a short grey haired man with a thick Irish accent. He drank stiff vodka drinks and never let a quiet moment happen. Exactly the type of Leprachaun man we were hoping to meet. Everyone was very sweet, helpful, and full of great wisdom. Richard told Rachael that "as long as you think of yourself as an open book, willing to let your experiences and people you meet help to write each chapter you will fully live your life" As the night went on we had all the locals chatting with us and making fun of us, everyone had a great time and it was the perfect ending to our first day in Ireland
Day 2
We were exhausted from day 1 but rallied anyways. We checked our laundry in the morning as we had forgotten about it later that night and found that the washer/dryer had basically eaten or discolored all of our clothes. Pants were now colorless, shirts were stained and socks had been eaten. Thankfully Rachael had a few more shirts to share with Shelly for a few days until we could get ourselves some new clothes. Thankfully our jeans made it out alive! Looks like a laundry mat is in store for our next load of laundry. After we got ready for the day we walked down to Grafton street. A pedestrian street full of performers, shops, and tons of people. Everyone was just starting to get geared up for Patties day. We had a great day of getting lost in the streets of Dublin, buying gifts, visiting gardens, seeing but not touring things like the Dublin castle, the Guiness factory, Trinity College, Jameson distillery, St Patricks Cathedral, and the Christchurch Cathedral. It was a ton of fun just wandering around with everyone and getting to see all that Dublin has to offer. Later that night we went back to OUR local pub 😊 and met up with the locals for one last pint before we left. We all got to try the famous Guiness beer and got to introduce the Irish locals to the American "Irish Car Bomb" drink. It was another fantastic evening with our local chums which ended in a walk home in the rain. Fortunately, we new our way home this time so it only took about 10 minutes to get there. Dublin is amazing but we can't wait to see the beautiful sceneries, landscapes, and venture out of the city life for a bit. Galway Ireland is next on the list of our 7 nights in Ireland....
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clara
non-member comment
soundslike you arehaving the time of your life.keepit up loveyou grammy