Dublin

Arrived in Dublin Wednesday morning. It was hard saying goodbye to London. Such a great place. Had a Ryanair flight that was pretty short. When we got off the plane we were warned to be careful getting off the plane because it was so windy. No exaggeration I almost got blown back into the plane getting off of it. Dublin was freezing cold and windy. Immediate hate. Found our way out and some guy at the airport helped up find the bus we needed. He was really nice and helpful. Got to the hostel but it wasn't ready yet so we went to the Dublin castle. It was reallly cold out. The city is really pretty though. Its really fun hearing all of accents. Some people it's barely noticeable others have really thick accents. And the saying they use here are so funny. There's a hilarious old man that works at the front desk. He's short and has pointy ears. He has the strangest sayings including "I wouldn't trust that fucker as far as I can throw a baby elephant". He's very entertaining. Anyways we went to the Dublin castle since it is free the first Wednesday of every month. The free tours were full so we walked around. We snuck into one of the tours and thought we were so slick until the guy said "so for our last stop..". A little too late. We went back to the hostel and took a much needed nap. We went to the grocery store and bought stuff to make burritos. It was overly exciting having a kitchen to use. We made burritos with beans, avocado, salsa, cheese, pepper, lemon, and lettuce. They were delicious. Then we starting drinking downstairs in the kitchen area. We decided to do an experiment to see who would get drunker if we all drank the same. I knew who'd be losing that one. It actually didn't turn out fair because just like how my friends always finish my "Danielle droppings" whenever we eat (because I pick apart my food and don't finish it) they do the same with my booze. It was still fairly even. Anyways, we just hung out being loud and obnoxious Americans and making each other laugh. We also made a pact that if any two of us fail at life after we graduate (aka don't get a job) we're all going to work in that hostel in London together. We ventured out into Dublin really drunk after having split a bottle of vodka. We stopped in a little bar and listened to music for a few minutes. Then made a stop at the grocery store for chips. I got salt and vinegar chips I guess, Nicole got a chocolate mint lamb, and Sarah just begged the cashier to give her the Cadbury egg for free because it was already open. Didn't work. We headed towards some area called temple bar that's supposed to be fun. Well we'll never know because we were drunkenly navigating our way. As we headed towards the main street we saw a building that said "COME STOP IN!" lit up in huge red writing on the side. Well okay! So we went in and it turned out to be a casino. A sketchy casino where the Irish mob was chillin. So we went and peed and for some reason took lots of pictures. Then we kept walking. We stopped in a bar and got pints of hard cider and made friends with the bartender, Lennie. He was a really silly looking Irishman. I've gotta say Irish people are not attractive. The teeth on these people!! They're so bad. And the pointy ears and saggy faces - creepy. They're all nice though. I've also seen two little people here. That's two more than I've seen in the rest of Europe. I definitely believe in leprechauns. Anyways we left there and passed a strip of food places with McDonald, Burger King, and Quiznos!!!! Love Quiznos. So we walked in the door and out the other, through every single place. Just admiring. We stopped at another bar to pee.  It was filled with weird biker people and was really creepy.  Nicole wrote our names on the wall for some reason, and we fought over who's was bolder.  Also took lots of pictures in this bathroom for some reason.  I found a broom and rode it around like a witch while Sarah peed. All in the little bathroom.  We then went to a real Irish pub with live irish music and everything! It was so cool. So cultural of us. To continue the cultural experience we say down and got some Guinness. Well we sat in the corner dying, and Sarah talked to some guys who bought us all Guinness. I don't even think they speak English and Nicole and I didn't say a word to them. But okay. I didn't think I liked Guinness but this was like a delicious foamy fountain of dark chocolate and coffee in my mouth. We were just kinda chillin listening to the music for a while. Nicole at some point gave me French braids. I was fighting off attacks of hiccups that kept coming. Nothing was working, when all of a sudden I heard the first three notes of the YMCA! The music just hit me and I had no choice but to get up and dance. I dont think anyone else was dancing but I didnt care. And, the dancing cured my hiccups! They kept rolling out the hits so I continued dancing.  Nicole and I were taking swigs of hot sauce- I'd really missed it. Sarah was being stealthy and making a plan of escape to get away from the guys who ordered us drinks. I'm pretty sure they're plan was to pay, if they hadn't already. But she ended up shooing us out of the bar anyways. Right in front of us when we got outside was a food place. We really had no choice since it was right there. Sarah and I split garlic cheese fries.. From heaven. They were incredible. We ate them like savages then headed back to our hostel.  Peed on the street pretty much in plain sight. We should probably check out the laws about peeing on streets in different countries before we go drinking there because if they're anything like America's well, that's not good. We got back to the hostel and headed to our room. For some reason we stopped on the stairs. I have no idea exactly what we were doing, but we were leaning on each other rambling things and sliding down the stairs. We didn't remember exactly what was going on but after further review of the video Nicole took, I have absolutely no idea. All I know is we were huge messes. Also that Sarah won. She was the drunkest.  The next day we got off to a slow start. Ate breakfast at the hostel. It was very impressive. They had toast and cereal but also yogurt, fruit and hard boiled eggs. Exciting. We laid back down after and struggled getting up. We finally did and headed to the Guinness factory. We had bundled up so much that we actually got hot. So even though it was freezing it was bearable. Te Guinness factory was really cool. There are seven floors. The first shows you what actually goes into the beer. It's set up really cool. There was a big pool of barley, a waterfall, hops hanging down the wall, and it explained everything as you went along. Throughout the other floors it showed the oldest bottles of Guinness that they've found, old commercials, advertisements, etc.  After we went up top to the gravity bar which has windows all around and there's a really pretty view of the city. Got our complementary guinnesses and hung out there for a while. After we stopped at a little restaurant and got food. I got a veggie burger that was really good and some fries. Hadnt had a veggie burger in so long. After we walked around and went to see St. Patrick's cathedral. You could only see the inside if you were attending mass, so we did. Can't even remember the last time I went to church. The inside was really pretty and it was interesting to see mass. Religion is strange to me. I believe in God but the whole process of church just seems weird to me. When we went up to get communion you kneel on the altar and the priest brings it to you. Sarah has never been to this kind of church and didn't know what to do. She was kneeling next to me and the priest went to her first. She didn't know what to do so she grabbed the communion from his hands. I started cracking up right when the priest was standing in front of me. Needless to he didn't love that. Church was about an hour long and then we headed back to the hostel. Made burritos for dinner again and just hung out. Friday we booked a trip to Wicklow so we could see real Ireland - the countryside. It was a perfect tour. We left at 945 and got back a little after 5. The older lady running the tour was like an Irish fairy god mother. She was so sweet and really funny. We drove along admiring the country side and she'd chime in with comments every once in a while. We stopped about four times to take pictures and hang out. We saw an old cemetery that was cool and went to a weaving mill. Saw little lambs that we're sooo cute! And saw where PS I Love You was shot. That's what I wanted when I came to Ireland. We stopped and got food at a grocery store. I got a tuna sandwich that was delicious. We've been eating really cheap and I've been totally satisfied with it all. Went back, hung out, packed, and went to bed. Ireland wasn't as eventful but it was hard because A. we were exhausted and B. it was good Friday so no where served alcohol from 12am-12am on Friday. That means no bars Thursday night and our flight Saturday was at 640 - woke up at 330, so no drinking that night either.