hey all! i returned today from my trip to dublin with allison and ashley! our flight was at 8 AM so we were up at 5:30. needless to say, i'm pretty tired.

day one: leave campus at 11:15, catch bus into town, get on train to victoria station, at victoria station, take gatwick express to london gatwick airport, and then fly to dublin!

we landed in dublin after a very brief flight, took a bus to o'connell street in the heart of dublin, and walked a mere two blocks to our hostel, but not before picking up some tasty beer (leffe blond, trappist chimay, and of course some guinness). we checked into the hostel, made ourselves presentable after our disheveling day of journey, and then ventured downstairs to the communal kitchen/dining area to enjoy our beers before we headed out to the famous temple bar area. oh yes, let me also add in that we were in a hostel room with 5 bunk beds, and at 9 PM when we finally got inside our room, there was a creepy middle-aged man sound asleep in a bed in the corner. whaaaaat? weird. so downstairs, a large group of people were cooking and served a communal dinner - one of them was having a birthday. they invited us to join them we happily did. i met to a guy from rome who i had a conversation with in mixed spanish/english because spanish is close enough to italian that he understood generally what i was saying. allison, ashley, and i also met three guys from france that were heading to temple bar too so we decided to go with them.

temple bar was ridiculously close to the hostel. we walked one block, crossed the bridge over the river liffey, and we were there. we ended up just barely getting let in a bar called fitzsimons where there was a live band playing ONLY shania twain. ha?? okay so then i payed 5 euro for a drink just so i could say i had a drink at temple bar. we chilled at a table until allison, ashley, and i were sick of listening to the shania impersonater and we headed back to the hostel for some not-so-excellent sleep. the next morning i was awoken by two large spanish girls who were clomping around the room, talking loudly, and spraying air freshener everywhere. ugh.

allison decided to sleep in and ashley and i went downstairs for breakfast: cornflakes and toast. yaaay. we checked out and walked around the city for an hour, saw some very cool shops and cafes. we went in an awesome shop full of middle eastern art that really reminded me of tibet/nepal in davis. then we found a jewelry store with a 50% sale and we all got silver claddagh rings.


at 12, allison's friend maebh met us in the city and took us on a tour around dublin, through trinity college, a very cute park called st. stephen's green, and the national museum of ireland where we saw several bog bodies of murdered men from the 300s and 400s. at 2 pm saturday, we witnessed a huge protest by public sector workers over the irish economy. it was really cool to see.

after that, we headed to the guinness factory, of course, to do the tour. very cool, informative, and delicious. yay. then maebh's mom picked us up and took us back to her house in drogheda, where she cooked us a wonderful homemade dinner: boiled potatoes and monkfish with red pepper for me, and roasted lamb and potatoes for everyone else. nomnomnom.



then maebh took us to a local pub called mcphail's with live music. i saw firsthand irish people getting drunk and rowdy. they don't dance very well, haha. well then we were so tired we left at midnight and slept for 5 hours before getting up at 5:30 to head back home. what a trip!!!