It was nice to sleep in and dry my hair. The morning gave me a chance to talk to mom and relax before getting ready to head into the city centre again. Stacy, Claire, Laura, and I met at one and took the bus into town. We got off at O'Connell Street which is more north of where we've been exploring and near the River Liffey. We definitely did the tourist thing... and saw about 3 or 4 things on the Must See in Dublin List. Claire was pretty much a walking guide book, and me & my map navigated around the city. The city is not marked well, all streets signs are like small & on buildings and the streets are not in a grid. They also change names depending exactly on them you are located.
We saw some famous statues and this Millennium Spire. It cost over 5 million euro, and most Dubliners think of it as a big waste of money. Which is why they give it derogatory nicknames like the Stiffy on the Liffey, the Stiletto in the Ghetto, & the Erection in the Intersection. Finally some of that flavorful Irish language that we hear so much about.
O'Connell Street. Took this picture for all the Bailey's fans at home.
This is an irish local telling who am I assuming are really stupid tourists that they are in fact driving on the wrong side of the road. Driving on the left has gotten a little hard to get used to. And there's been a few times when we've all been almost hit by cars because we looked the wrong way before crossing the street. But we're getting better at that. And the crosswalks are helpfully labeled LOOK LEFT. The River Liffey & O'Connell Street. 
The bridge in the background is the Ha' Penny Bridge where it used to cost half a penny to cross. I love the bright colors and old buildings everywhere. The River Liffey is kind of dirty. After much deliberation about whether or not they dye the river green for St. Patrick's Day, I think we came to the consensus that they probably don't. I'll keep a look out around March though. We walked along the Liffey until we got near the Christ Church Cathedral and then we walked down to see that. Probably one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. According to my guidebook, this was the sight of the first church in Dublin, made of wood. It was replaced by this beautiful stone church in 1172. I am pretty sure it's a protestant church along with St. Patrick's Cathedral (which we saw later).
After walking by the Cathedral we headed towards the Dublin Castle. We walked around the inside of the castle courtyard and read the angels of hope that were put on display. Similar to the cows of Chicago, these angels are painted by some of Ireland's famous artists. I can only assume that these angels have something to do with the crossroads Ireland is currently at. One of our orientation speakers talked about how Ireland is currently reassessing its values during the recession.
A lot of Dublin is under construction. These gardens have a snake path and the little Irish kids were running on the path. Looked like fun. We headed back towards Grafton Street and came along St. Patrick's Cathedral on the way. Talk about beautiful. Not only is the actually church beautiful, but the greens surrounding it. We even got to hear the church bells playing. The park around it makes you just want to sit down for a while. Read a book. Take a nap. Write something inspirational. Be something bigger than you are. Or eat a sandwich, which are rather popular in Dublin.
The pictures don't even do it justice. It was another sunny day in Dublin (which we are very grateful for) and the sun makes the picture a little dark. Laura, me, Claire, & Stacy in front of the Cathedral. Thanks to some other tourists for taking the picture. Everyone is seriously friendly.
After all the sight seeing we headed towards the bus stop and stopped at a little cafe for a late lunch. Cafe Seven offered an array of food, I got a chicken & cheese paninni. Dublin is definitely an international city. We see people from all over and the women that waited on us were some kind of asian descendant. We stopped back at a few shops, including a hardware store that ofcourse sold much cheaper hairdryers, who would've thought to look at a hardware store of hairdryers but whatever. We stopped at the grocery and picked up some wine for later on. The drinking age is 18 in Dublin, so no I didn't get carded in the pubs, but I did in fact get carded at the grocery store. I think it had something to do with my American accent, which we are all very aware of.
Then I hugged a leprechaun and got on the bus home. I don't think he is very lucky though since he is begging for donations on the street.
After naps we met up at Claire & Laura's apartment for wine & grilled cheese. Classy. The crisp & fruity California white proved to be less than desirable.
That's what you get when you by cheap wine with a screw off top, but we weren't sure if we had a corkscrew in our apartments. We also didn't have wine glasses so we drank out of mugs & pints. We headed out on the town. Stevie arrived from Milan so she joined us. We decided we first wanted to head to Whelan's...where they filmed P.S. I Love You.
cover was 10 euro and we weren't feeling that. We head back down Wexford which turns into Aungier which turns into Great George Street. Like I said, kind of confusing city. We tried Hogan's which was a pub recommended to us by our Irish friends at Temple Bar. It was packed, and after waiting in line forever for a bathroom and having to pull a chain out of the ceiling to flush the toilet, we headed towards another pub. We went to Mercantile Pub where we had gotten directions from the doorman the other night. We had pints of Irish Cider and they were really nice to us and brought out a table and chairs for us. But the pub had an American feel.... and by American feel I mean they played Sweet Home Alabama, Suspicious Minds, and Nickelback's Rockstar. Stacy & Jen got directed to go to Porterhouse, a younger pub, and so we met them there. Once again busy, standing room only for us, and the live band was playing some kind of blues music.
We talked to some Irish local kids who told us that all the younger kids go to a place called The Palace. We split in half and took cabs there with them. They were studying at the Dublin School of Business and taught us the meaning of "Craic", the gaelic word for fun. It's pronounced like crack, so they promised us it wasn't the word for heroine. They also taught us the phrase "Savage Craic" which means like real good fun. We tried to use in context but it sounds kind of stupid with our American accents.
The Palace was like a nightclub, and giving our attitude to see it all, Jen Laura Stacy and I went in. Johnny our new friend had to leave some of his friends behind because they were under 18. We had to pay 10 euro to get in, which was kind of a rip off, but we got to see a European Disco. Definitely makes places like Kams look ghetto. Ofcourse they played like the Killers and Snoop Dogg, and some S Club 7. We had fun dancing ridiculously to American music.
We took a taxi home. Taxi drivers don't understand tipping here.... they don't know what to do with it when we tried to give them one. Learn something new everyday. Wide awake when we got home at 2:30.... Another craic filled day in Dublin.
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