London: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. (Saturday, Feb. 13th)

Back from LONDON!

We did so much that I am going to do individual posts for each day!

Day 1: Saturday.

Our flight was at 6:55 pm out of Dublin Airport. We took the Aircoach Bus to the Airport so after packing all of belongings into our backpacks, checking and re-checking that we had all our confirmation numbers and travel documents, we walked to the UCD Entrance to catch the bus. The bus came about 4:15, getting us to Dublin International about 5 pm. After insuring that we got our proper return tickets from the bus driver, we headed into the Airport. Now, I am becoming a pro at airports so we quickly made it to the Ryan Air desk to check our passports and travel documents. Then it was off to security... liquids in a bag, checking my umbrella and testing it out, the security guy walked us through the whole procedure. I know it pretty well now, jackets off, shoes off (they just checked to see what kind we had on, didn't have to take them off), everything in a tray and move on through.

Dublin Airport is quite large... with about 300 gates. It was a bit of a hike to our gate, 105, and I felt like I was walking through a mall not an airport. They had all sorts of shops, and not selling like tourists things that you'd find in O'Hare. It was like Chanel, and classy things, not "Someone who loves me went to Dublin and got me this shirt" shirts. Claire and I found our gate and took turns going to the bathroom, etc. I popped a Dramamine... I've heard that Ryan Air can be a little rocky, so I was prepared.

Ryan Air doesn't have assigned seats, sort of like Southwest. However, it's more of a free for all. We lined up to board and within 10 seconds of us standing up, there were already like 30 people in front of us. In Europe, they allow you on the tarmac to board...so we walked down to the stairs...outside, on the runway, and up the stairs into the plane. We used the back entrance, because we figured it would be easier to get out the back when we landed.

Ryan Air is also very strict about luggage. It was easy to see why, the seats are pretty close to one another...little leg room. Luckily Claire and I snagged some seats in the 29th row, and were able to have a seat between us. I napped a little, but kept being woken up by the frequent announcements by the flight attendant who had a very thick accent. You are trained to wake up for this announcements, because usually they are pertinent information: weather conditions, ETAs, etc. Not on Ryan Air. It was like an informecial. First they were advertising smokeless cigarettes. With the heavy smoker population in Europe, that makes sense, except the flight was legitimately an hour, maybe an hour fifteen, from gate to gate. Then they were selling stratch off lotto tickets. And then, another announcement, selling perfume. Yep, possibly the worst product to have being sold in an inclosed space with recycled air. Thank you Ryan Air for the interesting experience. The passengers behind us were a bit rowdy as well...having a good time and laughing a lot. Before I realized it, we were touching down in London. A little rocky but not too bad. The celebatory music that they played when we landed was just the icing on the cake. I'm pretty sure it was like the "Charge" sound. Either way, it made me smile.

They only let us out the front entrance of the plane...so much for our great plan. We got inside London Gatwick and tried to navigate the new place. The airport was pretty deserted for being 8 pm on a Saturday. We found immigration, and after being redirected, ended up just having to give our boarding pass. No stamp for my passport, kind of disappointing. We got some pounds out of the ATM and headed to find our train. We then found the train station after a few points in the right direction. We had a confirmation number and I guess that's all we needed. We found our train and within a few minutes we were on our way into Victoria Station on the Gatwick Express. The Gatwick Express had a drink cart for its short 30 minute direct trip...but it made me laugh. Everyone we met along the way was very nice.

When we got into Victoria, we had to make our way to our hostel. Now in America, we are used to grid like streets. Not the case in Europe. Needless to say, we got painfully lost. It's not that often that I get lost...given I have a pretty decent compass, but we had a very undetailed map, and it was in my better judgment not to ask the strange people on the road (they were all shady looking) for directions when its dark and you are just with one other innocent looking girl. After stopping at a Shell station (what up America) and looking at a map, we headed towards our hostel. We stopped for sandwiches at the local Tesco and felt better.

However, we continued to be on the wrong street and walked significantly out of the direction. After about 2 hours of walking from Victoria, we gave up near the Park Place City Hall got into a London Black Cab (so posh and awesome). It made me feel better when it took the cab driver a few minutes to orientate himself with our map and figure out where to go.

He pulled up to our hostel... and we got out, so exhausted and discouraged. The hostel was on this backstreet, kind of desolate, and we had to knock to get in. Claire and I both looked at each other like "I want to go home". We were greeted by the worker who checked us in. We were feeling a little better...until we found our dark room 102 and had to find our bunks in the dark. Our hostel room had 5 bunk beds with bunks stacked 3 high. It is not good hostel etiquette to turn on the lights when its possible people are sleeping..(given it was midnight that applied) so we found our beds in the dark and climbed up. Both of us were all the way on the top. We found a light on our beds so that made us feel better. We were both just not feeling this whole situation but we knew sleep would make us feel better. I didn't sleep very well... kept waking up. At about 3 am, I got up to go to the bathroom and then my key wouldn't work to get back into the room. Luckily the desk is staffed 24/7 so I went down and they reactivated my key. I was hopeful that the morning light would help a little bit.... I was determined to love London.

Pictures of our hostel in the day time... which helped :)

(Bed M...that's me)

Cliff Walks, Majestic Blue Water, and a Pup Named Sally

We woke up this morning with plans to go to Howth, a seaside village north of the city. We had heard good things from roommates and friends we figured it was a perfect day trip. Claire, Laura, and I met at 11:30 ready to roll. We took the bus into the city, and after picking up some snacks from Tesco, we headed to the Connolly Station to catch the DART. We bought our roundtrip tickets for 4.20 Euro and had to run a little bit to catch the train. The DART took us through more of residential Dublin. Most of the houses are duplexes here, but they paint their individual sides different colors. I'm not sure that would fly in the USA where we have so many ordinances and village rules.

Howth is like a little elevated peninsula on the north side of Dublin. As soon as we pulled into the station we were surrounded by the seascape and the smell of ocean air and the sound of seagulls and waves crashing. Definitely my type of town. We had read in our guidebooks about the cliff walks and after exploring the pier for a bit we decided that's what we wanted to do. After our typical tourist photos we headed up the little road to begin our exploration. Before we left the pier, we found a new companion, a little dog that Claire named Fernando.

Not sure where that name came from, but it kind of stuck, even after we found out its real name. Fernando was so friendly and the perfect man's best friend. Fernando came with us up the hill and after about 10 minutes of walking with our faithful dog, we all became a little attached to him. He ran ahead of us, almost leading the way, but always looking back to make sure we were with him. He lead us down a random path and we got to take in more beautiful views. Not a picture in the world could capture how perfect this place was. After a little walking, we decided to venture of the path and down the hill to sit on some big boulders and have a little snack. The hill was a little steep and gravelly so we were careful not to slip and plumet to a rocky death. We found a perfect rock to sit on to eat our hobnobs that I had bought at Tesco. Hobnobs are a new favorite snack that I've developed here in Ireland.. they are called Digestive Biscuits and are like wheatmeal covered in chocolate on one side. They say that they are healthy and they are delicious so definitely a fan of that. We sat on this perfect boulder listening the waves crashed, with our new dog companion, in Ireland, on the coast, with beautiful blue water, it was surreal.

We walked up the road some more and found my future Ireland residence.

A little bit further we found the trail and began to hike up the hill. We stopped to take a picture (I only took about 150 pictures today) and met some more girls studying abroad. We did the old "I'll take a picture of you if you'll take one of us" deal. Turns out they had met our dog companion earlier and her name turned out to be Sally. We determined she was kind of a tourist whore, following them around all day before going home. But she followed us as we continued on our path and we weren't complaining.

The explorer I am sent me off the path to climb another mound and found me sticking my foot into a big mud puddle. Second time in Ireland with a wet shoe. Luckily the sun was out so it warmed my feet as I took off my sock to ring it out and get the excess water out of my shoe.

We kept hiking and stopping every once in a while to enjoy the views. We sat on the cliffs, in some tall grass (perfect for snakes and wombats, according to our Aussie expert on wildlife). The water was so blue, the sky was so blue, the sun was shining, the grass was green, there was a horse in the distance, and a perfect pup at my side.

After many attempts with the self timer we got some great photos. But they don't even do justice to how pretty it was. I just wanted to nap there, or daydream there.... you forget that the real world exists. Or that snow exists. Or that somewhere someone is doing accounting cases and that someone could be you. But it's not, you are sitting on a cliff in Ireland watching waves crash with a lighthouse, a bay, and the silhouettes of mountains in the background.

After soaking in the views, we headed back down the mountain towards the village. We were hungry and tired from the 2 hours of hiking we had done. We found a quaint little cafe called Quay West (pronounced Key West-- hello USA reference) and got some dinner. We were going to explore some more but it was cold so we caught the DART back into the city. We had planned to go see a movie when we got back into Dublin...we figured we wanted a chill night so a little American culture would be perfect. After wandering to see what movie theater played the movie soonest we bought our tickets at the Savoy Theater (hello Champaign) and went to the local BK lounge to hang out for the 1.5 hours til our movie. Let me tell you, Ireland's Burger King's are a rip off...Claire got a large fry (which looked like a small) for 2.40 euro (which is almost $4) and they were very stingy on the ketchup.

It was finally time for our movie. The theaters are much nicer than ours and I was expected to see the movie, Valentine's Day, for its allstar cast. I really liked it, laughed a lot...typical chickflick, but perfect after a long day and no recent interaction with TV or movies.

Home on the bus. Skype the family. And now it's time for bed. LONDON tomorrow, so I'll be off the blogging world until Tuesday Night or Wednesday.

I Think I've Listened To Every Type of Music Today

A late night meant sleeping in this morning. I woke up to a beautiful Dublin day with a bright sun that makes you happy to wake up. I had a group meeting at 2 so not enough time to explore, so I took advantage of a little down time to listen to some popular "Irish" music. Some ad for the Ireland Music Awards crossed my path and I decided to explore what was "hot" in Ireland, other than Replay & Beyonce. I found some good songs and anyone that knows me, knows that new music pretty much makes my day.

I have finally begun working on my semester projects with my groups. It's nice meeting the Irish students in my group and they are all genuinely nice and friendly. After my group meeting and my Thursday afternoon class, I headed home to shower and get ready for the Irish House Party put on by the Center for Study Abroad. After catching a bus with about 20 other kids who happened to be going the same place, and a bus driver who went out of his way to announce to the bus which stop we should all get off at. We met up with some of our BU friends at the bar, and hung out before we went into the room where the House Party was held.

Claire, Stacy, Lauren, Mike, Bridget, Amy, and Taylor

An Irish House Party is pretty much a traditional gathering.... traditional music, dancing, and pints. We got two free drink vouchers when we got there so after we sat down, we got our Bulmer's Cider. I tried the Pear variety tonight for a change of pace... pretty much tasted the same. After a bit of waiting, everyone's definitely on "Irish time" here, the band showed up and got rocking. As like all Irish entertainers, they were humorous and friendly and got the mood set. They played some instrumental music, and then gave us the lyrics to one of the Irish songs.

We all sang along and tapped our feet to the beat. The girl danced a traditional dance and then they brought up some students to dance. They taught them a traditional dance that is supposedly simple enough to do when you've had a few too many, but I'm not sure my uncoordinated self could have done it.

The spirit in the room was great, everyone was chilled, relaxed, laughing, enjoying themselves. One of the band members even cracked a "That's What She Said" joke, although I think our table was the only one that heard. It was amazing to think how strange it was to be in this foreign city actually watching legitimate people dance around to Irish music and sing. It felt sort of like a movie. The band played Galway Girl, a crowd favorite, and everyone sang along. We then had "Party Piece" type were members of the audience were encouraged to join in and perform. Two girls did an Irish reel and one guy named Tom sang an Irish song.

This guy was teaching us about the different rhythms of irish music. He also through a "Who's your Daddy?" joke in. Some humor is universal I suppose. We all sang a Gaelic song together as well. They ended with a "crude" song about a man who meets a woman in California during the gold rush who turns out to be a man...the song is called "Close Shave" and it was a good laugh. After an encore, our time was up.

We headed to Blackrock with our BU friends for a repeat of Thursday Night Karaoke at the Wicked Wolf. We, Amy, Bridget, Claire and I, decided to serenade the crowd with a little "Man, I Feel Like A Woman".

Among the nights hits were "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" sang by X Factor celeb Alster, a crowd favorite "Don't Stop Believing", a painful performance of "What's My Age Again?", and the man himself, Brock Jones, ending with "Ring of Fire". We were disappointed in the lack of Lionel tonight. Usually that's Brock's jam. There is something so fun about jamming out to your favorite songs. We've become regulars, and we know that because we know the regulars and what they usually sing. Amidst the fun, Claire and I discovered that our BU friends Lauren and Bridget who we first met at the Racetrack are actually in our same business fraternity, so that's a cool connection.When the clock struck 12 it was closing time, and we headed to Supermac's to get some greasy food. Definitely no Geo's pizza but it was good enough. We got to end the musical marvelous day with a little 2Pac Changes. After finishing our fries and nuggets, we caught a cab and chatted with our driver Bernard (Ben) Murphy about life in Windy City as he drove us safely back to UCD. Another surreal night in Dublin.

(Deltasigs from across the United States)

A Month of Ireland?

Today marks the fourth week of Dublin. How did that happen?

It's about 2:30 am here, and we just got home from a Wednesday night on the town. We went to a special Valentine's Day party for International Students at this club called Sin. Real classy. What was more classy was that we stopped at Eddie Rocket's for some fries and an oreo milkshake before we went. Eddie Rockets is the cousin of American Johnny Rockets, basically greasy overpriced diner. They are all over Dublin and just happened to be close to where we were. The milkshake hit the spot while I pestered Laura about Australia. I'm learning new things everyday...like kangaroos are like Australian deer....found outside of the city and dangerous when hit with a car. Or that they don't have bloomin' onions in Australia. Combined with our previous conversation about how Foster's isn't really an Australian favorite, I'm beginning to believe everything I've ever heard about Australia is false.

The club was fun.... we got our dance on, while trying to avoid the creepers which often grace such events. It was nice to get out of our rooms and enjoy some American music. It made me miss my friends at home, but Claire is a freestyle dancer and Laura and I are about as goofy as one another. There were a lot of people there, and ofcourse I took the time to people watch. We had a few Jersey Shore guidos, some men who looked way too old to be there, some drunken idiots who somehow managed to mess with the fire extinguisher. European guys are very much big into BROmance. I overheard someone in my class today say that they were more into one another than the girls.... not sure if that's true. Just an observation.

After dancing for a while, we decided to meet up with Laura's friend Margaret and another from Amie who is returning to Australia soon. We meet them and walked towards Trinity College to get a cab home. We figured out that if we catch a taxi there it is like 5 euro cheaper because it goes in a more direct route. Money saving techniques are favored. I'd rather save my money for fun things like traveling.

Which we are finalizing our plans for. We booked tickets to Paris for Easter Weekend. A little more than I wanted to spend but I can not go home and not have seen the Eiffel Tower. It's Easter Weekend so it makes sense that flights are going to be more expensive. We are in the works for planning a trip to Italy for before finals. That's the other place that I really want to see.

I am going to class too...but that's nothing much different than America. Except my international marketing teacher is about the worst teacher I've ever had because her language barrier prevents her from being able to explain things well. She doesn't even really try...she goes, oh you don't understand, okay, new subject. Luckily she is only a parttime teacher and the other teacher should be teaching next week. I really like my Business Excellence teacher... he is somewhat interesting and seems to care a lot.

Here's some random observations from the last month:

.Cars drive on the left side of the road (obviously), but pedestrians don't seem to stick to a side. More like they walk in the center of the sidewalk.

.Environmental friendliness is pretty big here. Reusable bags are the standard for groceries. Recycling is big. All the plugs in my apartment have on/off switches when not in use. The toilet has two different flushers...for different types of waste. (Ok, Brent, you were right on that...)

.Cheese only comes in two varieties...red and white

.General Mills cereals are branded under the Nestle Name...so Cheerios would be labeled with a Nestle box.

.Instead of saying ten thirty, they say half ten.

That's all I can think of right now.

Irish House Party tomorrow, London on Saturday :)

When The Saints Go Marching In

Sunday Morning was perfect for sleeping in and skyping Momma. Anna, Maggie's friend from Paris, was still staying with me so I got up and me and Claire took her around Dublin some more. We walked around western Dublin city and saw some less touristy areas. We ended up at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Such a beautiful place, worth seeing a few times. The weather was chilly so we went back home and just hung out. Laura was finally back from Marrakesh, Morocco so I was glad to see her. :)

I decided it would be a good idea to take a nap in preparation for our plans to stay up and watch the Superbowl. A local club called Kobra was having a Superbowl Party in association with UCD. Superbowl the American way...beer in solo cups and hamburgers served. We all thought it would be fun to watch the game and toast to American culture a bit. After my nap (or rather, laying there in the dark for an hour with my eyes closed), I got ready, rounded up the troops and headed to catch the bus.

We met up with Stacy, Jen, and Mariel at the club. The place was packed, we missed the national anthem, but were faced painted by some Irish students when we walked in. Why Not right? There was a big projection screen in the center of the room (not quite Hooked Up Installs HD, but still good). We found a place to sit/stand, and watched the game. It was hard to choose who to root for, so I kind of cheered for both. Into the second quarter, Claire had made friends with some Irish students she ended up sitting next to. The one girl, Aoife, (pronounced Ee-Fa) was so nice. She had studied abroad at the University of Minnesota for a year and loved all things America. She loved Minneapolis, loved Keeping up with Karadishans, and wanted us to find her an American to marry. Her dream husband is a Texican, a mexican from Texas. She laughed with us about how Dublin shut down because they got an inch of a snow. As a former resident of Minneapolis, she knew what real snow was like. She was impressed with my knowledge of Derry, where she is from, and about my limited Irish History knowledge. I guess my Wednesday night class is paying off a little. She insisted I have a beer with her, and well, you don't mess with Irish culture so I headed to the bar with her. She stopped to talk to some American guys, who I knew were not from Texas. We ran into her friend Leanne, who she introduced me to. I told her my name was Brittany, and she goes "Brittany Metz!". I was like yeah? And she's like you are in my Business Excellence class and in my group! Talk about a small world, right? She was so funny and was telling me about the Irish way and basically to just talk to everyone because the Irish don't care and they are just friendly. And also that Irish guys love Americans, so just go up to them and say, Hi I'm from America. (There we go, Linds). We got coronas, after waiting at the bar forever, but Leanne pushed ahead. She offered to pay for it, but I told her I had it, no worries. Leanne and Aoife said that I should go out with them, so I'm thinking that'll be fun. Meet some actual Irish people instead of more Americans, from Chicago.

When I headed back to where Anna, Claire, and Stevie were, I found Claire in the middle of a booth surrounded by new friends. I climbed in there with her, and started talking to her new Irish friend Derek. Derek was with his 2 friends... whose name I didn't catch...although Claire said she thought one was named Edna. Both were out of undergrad and one worked at a firm called PriceWaterhouse Coopers, in case we were familiar with it. We were like, oh yea, we're a little familiar with it, thanks. Derek made fun of my American words... and my inability to pronounce Galway correctly. He also filled me in on some of the rugby rules... and we were correct on some of the rules we guessed on. I totally pulled the American card to ask him about what's popular in Ireland..music, movies, etc. He basically said anything American, as America controls the world.

He passed out with his shoes on... so they felt like it was appropriate to mess with him.

All during this, the game was going on. Let's just say that Ireland does not share the Superbowl Commercial phenomenon. While my friends in America were indulging in Budweiser and Doritos Commercials, I was watching commercials for Dominos, Van Insurance, and Sensodyne. Kid you not, like poorly made commercials. I was thankful when they turned on music during the commercials. Nothing says America like Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z, who they call Jay Zed. That and a bunch of Irish and American students rocking out to "You Have to Fight for Your Right to Party" and "Born in the USA". Let me tell you, it was inspiring. And the fact that every time the Saints scored or made a play, they chanted/sung "When the Saints Go Marching In". It was a definite Saints dominated crowd. We thought that it would be mostly Americans but Aoife told us that there were a lot of Irish people there so it was at least 50/50. Some stuck out as more Irish then others, especially the group of guys that kept chanting SACK SACK but instead it came out SOCK SOCK.

It was a perfect American night surrounded by some awesome Irish people. Everything they say about the Irish is true. They are friendly and full of humor, easy to talk to, and laugh with.

When the Saints won, everyone was celebrating, singing their favorite song (When the Saints Go Marching In). I also think that a lot of people were throwing their glasses down... not sure why. I think that's more of a Greek thing than American or Irish.

The game ended about 3 am Ireland time, and Anna had to catch a bus to the airport for her 6 am flight back to Paris. We caught a cab (sorry a TAXI, I got corrected about that as well). We all had such a great time. I would say it's the most fun Superbowl Party I've ever been to.

Ofcourse by the time I got home and checked my email, it was like 3:30 am and I was wide awake. By the time I fell asleep it was probably 4:30 which made waking up at 8:30 for my 9 am class a little difficult. It also meant that I fell asleep for about 3 hours this afternoon.

Tonight I had tacos with the girls and planned some more of London and Spring Break! Life is good. :)

Castles, Rugby, & Live Music: Just Another Day in Ireland

Anna, Maggie's friend from Paris, and I met up with Maggie, Claire, Stacy, Stevie and Alicia at about 9:20 and walked to the BIF parking lot to hop on the bus to Kilkenny with our Study Abroad group. While the UCD Quinn School pays for the trip, we asked Dorothy if it was okay to bring friends. She said yes, as long as we keep it on the down low.

The bus ride was a little less than two hours, and I just chatted with Stacy and slept a little. Kilkenny is the medieval capital of Ireland and home to Kilkenny Castle. Originally the site of Strongbow's fortress, Kilkenny Castle was owned and inhabited by the Butler family for the duration of its useful life. Since its sale to the state of Ireland, it has been restored to its hay days. While photography is not permitted inside the castle, I got a few illegal shots and some gorgeous outside pictures. The furniture and decorations are mostly replicas, and it was cool to walk through, but I've never been a dawdler in museum type places so I walked through relatively quickly.

(an ancient toilet--- i took this just for Brent)

After our tour of the castle, we headed to a pub for lunch. We ate at a place called Kyteler's Inn. Dorothy kept telling us we had to meet the witch Alice when we arrived. We didn't really understand what she meant until we saw a witch (mannequin) sitting in the fireplace.

Still kind of confused, we got the history from our walking tour guide that Alice Kyteler was subject of the first witchcraft trial in Ireland in 1323. Most modern people belief that she was in fact just a clever woman and poisoner, as all four of her wealthy husbands died mysteriously of a similar fate leaving her their wealth.

Lunch was great. We ate in this stone catacombs below the inn. All of us had chicken and chips (fries) and pints of cider. Even better, it was on the UCD tab. We also got cheesecake for dessert, which was more fluffy and less creamy then American cheesecake.

After lunch we went on a walking tour of Kilkenny. Which was a bit chilly but still good. We explored the side streets and Black Abbey, a beautiful church run by Dominican monks. We went inside to see the gorgeous staind glass windows and one of their friars ended up talking to our group for about 15 minutes about the history of the building. That's so typically Dublin, random strangers offering their knowledge willingly and friendly.

We finished the walking tour and headed to a local pub to watch the Ireland-Italy rugby match. This is what I observed from the game. The field is called the pitch. You can not pass forward, only backward or laterally. Scoring occurs much like American football, with the endzone being worth 5 points and then an addition fieldgoal for 2 or just a fieldgoal for 3. We think that you can kick the ball up the field, but once it goes out of bounds, possession is up in the air. We also concluded that our favorite Irish player is Ronan O'Hara, he was the best looking we saw (mostly because his teeth looked pretty decent). Also, that it is brutal and Rugby players must laugh at American Football players with their wimpy pads and simple forward passing. Some Italian player was gushing blood from the head which we can only assume was from a cleat to the head. Rugby players dress like soccer players, and they wear like spandex under their shorts--which probably is a good thing because there is a lot of tugging at the jerseys. Ireland won the match--29 to 11. We owe some of our rugby knowledge to the man sitting next to us, who probably found us clueless and stupid.

After the match, we wandered the town and then got back on the bus and headed back to Dublin. I slept for a good portion. All the fresh air is exhausting.

We got home about 7 and made plans to meet an hour later to get some dinner. It ended up being just Mags, me, Claire, and Anna because Laura was entertaining her friend from Australia and was tired from Morocco and Jen & Stacy are going hiking early in the morning, and Stevie & Alicia cooked dinner themselves and met up with us later. We went to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen and had some delicious burgers and fries. We sat outside, which makes two nights in a row of chilling outside in February. It was probably about 7 degrees out, celsius that is, which is roughly 45 degrees fahrenheit but there is heat lamps so it was actually not too bad. Today was the biggest amount of food I've consumed in a while. Actually this weekend. Must be because we are entertaining guests. After our dinner (thanks to Anna for the treat in exchange for providing her with a couch) we headed to Porterhouse for music. Temple Bar was hopping, Saturday night, Rugby match which was played in Dublin, made for lively atmosphere.

We made our way to Porterhouse, snagged some seats, bought some drinks and just hung out. I even spurlged on a strawberry daquiri type drink. We had lots of random people start talking to us...one about ex-boyfriends as friends, one about Disneyland, one from Seattle about how expensive beer was. All nice, friendly, and seemingly harmless. The band started about midnight and played American type music-- Roxanne, Beat It, Apple Bottom Jeans... It was very chill which actually makes you a little sleepy.

Maggie has an early flight in the morning so we left about 1 am to head home. Claire decided she was going to do a social experiment. We've been feeling like we're getting scammed by taxi drivers since it seems like we are going way west to go south...and we felt as though our tourist location and tourist accents may play a part. So Claire gets into a cab (given we have some time of African driver) and tells him UCD Belfield in her best Irish accent. She continues to ask Maggie how she enjoyed Dublin, and sing along to Wonderwall all in this Irish accent. I about died trying to hold in my laughter. While our taxi driver took a similar path to the guy the night before, he did mention he was going this way to avoid traffic without being asked. So maybe her accent made him more accountable.

Time for bed. Pictures coming soon.

Guinness Gives You Strength

This weekend we have guests! Maggie came in to visit from Paris with Alicia and brought her friend Anna. They arrived at UCD at about noon, and after dropping off their stuff, we headed to the city centre. Now when you have guests you are finally able to show off your skills and experience about your new foreign home. We took them through St. Stephen's Green and down Grafton Street which was particularly lively today with street performers due to the incredibly spring like weather. We headed towards Temple Bar area in hopes of grabbing something to eat at the Bad Ass Cafe, but it was closed so we ended up going to the Quay's Restaurant. Quay is actually pronounced "key" which we learned in Blarney from Carol Hallahan. We had a very peppy waitress and we ordered burgers, stew, salad, and paninis. All delicious and filling. It was a very cute restaurant and the food was mighty tasty.

(The Quays Restaurant where we had lunch)

Afterwards, I took them along the River Liffey to the Guinness Storehouse. We decided it was a nice tourist event to see and we had yet to experience it. We took some touristy photos by the main gate, St. James', of which the Guinness Legacy has a 9,000 year lease on. That means in like 10,100 Guinness could still be occupying that space. The tour was 11 euro for students and included a pint at the end of the tour. Basically, you walk around and see what goes into the beer...barley, hops, water, yeast (from what I remember) and just about that.

Making beer is an intense operation. It was actually a very cool museum type place. We got to sample some freshly brewed Guinness (about 7-10 days old) and it still tasted awful to me. Not a fan. We looked at old advertisements that declare that Guinness is good for you and Guinness gives you strength. Questionable advertising. Also, we found out that the Guinness Book of World Records is linked to the Guinness beer, as it was first published to end disagreements about the fastest, biggest, or whatever things in pub talk. The storehouse itsself is a giant pint glass in the center, with the "foam" part being the Gravity Bar at the top where you get your free pint. After enjoying the tour, we headed up. I ended up getting a Fanta, since I was still full from lunch, Guinness is like a meal, and I do not enjoy the bitter barley taste. We had a great 360 degree view of all of Dublin, so it was a great atmosphere.

It was about 5 when we left the storehouse and we headed back into Grafton Street area, taking a few detours so our wondrous guests could see Dublin Caste, Christ Church Cathedral, and Trinity College. We got back on the bus and headed home. We ended up eating a light dinner from Centra-- and I found Crispy M&Ms. I loved Crispy M&Ms and then they discontinued them in the States. It was a great find but they tasted different then at home. OR at least what I remembered.

Anna and Maggie wanted to experience Dublin night life so we took them to Temple Bar. It was so packed that you couldn't move. A French man wearing a beret and a red scarf tried to grab my hand when I walked by him. It was really strange, and he looked like the Frenchman from the final scene in the Mask when Jim Carrey has to paint a flush leveler to save Cameron Diaz. Anyway, it was odd. After I rejected him, he moved on to trying to hold Maggie's hand. Also rejected. It was too packed to stay there even though I liked the music so we headed down the street to Fitzsimmons. I had heard good things about it, so I thought we should give it a shot. There was live music on the main level but it was packed and we all wanted to sit down so we ended up going to the roof top terrance. Thank you Dublin weather and heat lamps for making it somewhat comfortable to sit outside in February. We chilled there for a bit before heading downstairs to a room in which Shaggy "It wasn't me" and Mambo #5 were playing. We sat there for a bit then decided to wander down the street to Porterhouse. Also hopping. The blues singer was back but it was kind of giving me a headache so we decided to head home. Our visitors and us had a long day.

Anna is staying with me so we pulled the couch into my room and made a makeshift pillow out of a pillowcase stuffed with clothes. Ingenius, I think yes. I called my favorite brother to wish him a Happy 24th Birthday.... he is worth the phone call. It was good to talk to him. :) I also now really want cake, thanks for the mental picture Allie Jones.

That was a very abbreviated version of a busy day, but I'll add photos later. It's almost 1:30 and we're going on a day trip tomorrow so I have to be up early.