Saturday Night at Church

After taking our International Marketing and being somewhat fed up by the lackluster professor we had named Simon and his equally incompetent sidekick Qun Tan, we decided we deserved a few hours off from the library and the books. Jen and I laid in the grass in the sunshine for a bit, until the wind got too chilly (it still feels like March, not May here). We considered being productive, but then we decided to watch the beginning of Mulan. Which ended up turning into watching the whole movie. Surprise surprise.

I went home and showered and got ready to go out to dinner. None of us had really left the confines of UCD in a while and we were in the mood to get out on the town and enjoy Dublin while we had it. Rather, I was in the mood. The rest of the group was laying in their respective beds, taking naps. I convinced them to get up and man up and explore with me. Given my love for the road less traveled, I found a new restaurant for us to explore. I had read about in an airline magazine (yea, I have spent THAT much time on a plane recently). The restaurant was called "The Church" and basically a church that was converted into a restaurant/bar. It had good reviews but I never promise anything. I found that they had a BBQ terrace with a special menu which was a little more in our price range and we headed out. We took the usual bus to the usual stop on O'Connell and walked down Henry Street, which in my 4 months I have yet to explore. Win. We found the restaurant with no problem and found a table on the terrace. We got our meals-- a hamburger, assorted salads, and a baked potato and enjoyed them. It was a little chilly on the terrace so after we finished eating we decided to move inside to the bar area.

The inside of the place was beautiful and the building itself is one of the oldest balconied churches in Ireland. It is also the place were Arthur Guinness (man behind the famous stout) was married. To commemorate this, his bust is available "for great photos". It is also the final resting place of the judge who sentence Robert Emmett (Republican Icon) to death. It has beautiful stained glass and an old school organ and right in the center is a fully stocked bar. Kind of strange. I'm not sure how we felt about the drinking in church concept, but we ordered Strawberry Daiquiris and cheers-ed to God. Claire & Laura ordered a chocolate fudge cake and enjoyed that. I think that if food was served in church (like popcorn during a movie) people would have a better attention span during the sermon.

I am rather surprised that this restaurant hasn't had much more criticism. People are literally having cocktails next to a wall that lists the ten commandments. I am not much for the separation of church and state, but somewhat between sinners and sainthood. Still, it was a very unique restaurant and I enjoyed it. Plus there is something about sipping a daiquiri, listening to Bon Jovi, surrounded by the artifacts of God. A reminder of all things good. Good friends, good times, Good blessings.

We walked back to the bus and the Dublin crazies were out. Boys in track suits, girls rapping the lyrics to Ludacris. We headed back to the famous spire and headed home to relax and study some more.