I found the perfect cure to homesickness: airplane tickets & karaoke.
After pondering for a few days about Spring Break, Laura, Claire and I bought our airplane tickets. Jen is working out the details with her mom and Stacy & Stevie are still on the fence. While our proposed trip is budgeted to cost $800 for 10 days, which is using every cheap method of travel, my new philosophy is that I will work it out. Like I said to Momma, I mean, I'm going to start going to horse races every Sunday and trying to bet myself into wealth, but once in a lifetime opportunity, bite the bullet, rack up the debt, live on grilled cheese for 4 months, I'll make it happen. Not that my mom would ever be like No, Don't Go. It's more that justifying it to her makes me feel better. But this is my perspective, am I really not going to go because it's expensive? All my life I've taken experience over wealth... so rack up the debt, finish my last year, score a great job, and pay back all my adolescent adventures.
So ANYWAY, this is the PLAN. We leave Dublin on Saturday March 6th and fly to Berlin, Germany. We stay there for a few days, hit a concentration camp on our way out of Germany, and head to Prague, Czech Republic. Land of my ancestors. Spend a few days. Take a bus to Vienna, Austria. See the sights. Bus it to Budapest, Hungary. Then we fly out of Budapest to Dublin on Monday, March 15th. Just in time to get home for Irish St. Patrick's Day Celebrations.
It's going to be really amazing. I'm super excited. Four ridiculously awesome places, that I may never get to see again.
I'm going to try to figure out London, Paris, and Italy this week.
After booking our trips, we decided it was time to get of campus and live the Irish life a little more. We met up with Muriel, a new friend from San Francisco. Jen, Stacy, Claire, Muriel, and I took the bus to Blackrock which is where another campus of UCD is. We heard about this place called the Wicked Wolf that has Thursday Night Karaoke so we head there. The places was filled with regulars when we arrive... and a short Irish man who reminded me of a leprechaun was on stage performing a lyrical inaccurate version of Heartbreak Hotel.
We sat and enjoyed the karaoke for a while. The regulars did some interesting covers. Some were ridiculous. They played everything everything from Elvis, to Elton John, to Whitesnake (a crowd favorite), to U2 (for obviously reasons) to Michael Buble.
Some of our friends from Boston University that we met at the horseraces showed up. There were a lot of Americans in the audience. I also ran into Clara, one of the girls in my International Marketing group from Spain. One of my favorite moments from the night was when someone sang Bohemian Rhapsody. For some reason, that is the best song to hear mass amounts of people sing at the top of their lungs. Everyone in the pub was singing along and totally into it. I mean, fist pumping, head nodding, into it. Claire even added some Opera sounding effects to it.
It was totally wicked. Maybe that's why it's called the Wicked Wolf. Cause everyone is howling.
Some other guy sang Piano Man by Billy Joel. The announcer pronounced Joel like Jo-Elle. Like rhymes with Noel. The announcer was a trip. He was like a backup singer, back up dancer, announcer all in one. During one guy's performance he took the microphone stand and used it to play air guitar.
Then our friends Edith & Bridget sang Breakfast at Tiffany's. All the Americans sang along, I'm not sure about the locals. The place got pretty busy. The leprechaun performer from before came and tried to make conversation with us about 30 times. The problem was that it was so loud so it was like not suitable for conversation. He asked were we were from, Chicago, and he told us he was from Dublin. He was nice enough and cheers us about 12 times, but we were all kind of relieved when he left to go to his hotel. Strange since he lives in Dublin. Must be a story behind that somewhere.
Jen and Stacy made us proud when they got up and sang one moving rendition of "Total Eclipse of the Heart". The crowd was loving it and me and Claire were standing on our stools rocking out. There is something about Bonnie Tyler's moving ballad that makes everyone want to "Turn Around".
The announcer was loving it. He gave all of us Americans a shout out. And then a special shout out to Chicago when Taylor from BU got up. Some Irish local yelled "Oh yea Chi-town". Obviously we have fans.
Claire and I decided we were going to sing Lady
Marmalade but unfortunately the place was on last call.
Apparently, it closes at midnight. So we are going to have
to save our singing skills for next week. Time to practice,
work on our moves, etc.
The announcer took over and sang "I Believe in A Thing
Called Love" which we all rocked out to, it typical
American style. And then we ended with All Night
Long by Lionel Richie.
Taxis home and then time for bed.
Woke up with Total Eclipse of My Heart stuck in my head.
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