Life is for living, so f**king live it.

I write this latest blog as a legal-to-drink-in-the-United-States 21 year-old!! My birthday was absolutely fabulous and I now have the joy of always getting to talk about turning 21 in Europe! Wow, do I have it tough.

I was actually a little worried about my birthday because I wasn’t sure how it was going to be away from home without my friends and family. Especially since it was on a random Tuesday night and we all had work the next morning I wasn’t sure who would actually want to go out and celebrate with me. Plus without my friends and family it almost didn’t seem like there was a point in actually celebrating my birthday. Then there was the whole anti-climactic part of not turning 21 in America and having been able to legally drink since I got to Ireland in May. Luckily though I’ve met some great people here in Dublin and they made it an amazing birthday for me!

Monday night I went out to some pubs with Denise and Jahna and we ended the night at our favorite pub- The Palace Bar. They gave me a free shot at midnight to ring in my first legal drink (of course we’d already been drinking since ten but it was the symbolism behind the drink that mattered! Haha).

My first drink as a legal 21-year-old!

We didn’t stay out too late Monday night since we all had work the next day and we knew we’d head out again Tuesday night to really celebrate my birthday.

Tuesday morning my supervisor let me and the other intern, Rory, come into work late so we could go out to breakfast for my birthday! We ate at this great little crepe restaurant that was delicious.

Walking to Beggars Bush after my birthday breakfast... we got soaked!

Unfortunately the weather was really crappy in the morning with lots of rain (gotta love that Irish weather) so we then had to make our way to Beggars Bush in the pouring rain and subsequently we got soaking wet (it was one of those rains where umbrellas do you little good).

Work was good and they let us go a bit early so Rory and I walked around in City Centre for a bit before meeting up with the rest of my friends for dinner. I’d been craving Italian food since I got here and Rory knew of a great Italian restaurant so that’s where we went for dinner (it didn’t compare to Spaghetti Warehouse but was still delicious). I had some delicious brushetta with the most amazing fresh tomatoes and some yummy ravioli along with tiramisu for dessert of course. A couple people couldn’t make it to dinner so it was actually pretty low-key with about six of us.

Rory and Me at dinner... with the huge birthday pin she made me wear! hehe

At breakfast Rory had surprised me with a huge 21st birthday pin that she insisted I wear so I had it on throughout dinner! haha

Ellie, Meghan, Me, Lindsay, and Kelsie at dinner for my 21st birthday!

We went back to the apartment after dinner to freshen up and then Meghan and I headed back to city centre around ten for the night. We went to Palace Bar and it was pretty low key but tons of fun. I actually kind of liked that it was just Meghan and me and we had a blast! It’s funny actually, this whole summer when I would talk about my birthday and how I wasn’t sure how it would be since I was away from my friends and family and already legal to drink here Jahna would be the one to tell me that we would make it a great birthday and go out and all that. But in the end she wasn’t able to come to either dinner (because of a work thing) or drinks (because she was exhausted). She did take me out Monday night though, which was great. It’s just funny I guess because I always thought Jahna would be the one I’d spend my birthday with instead of Meghan- but in the end I wound up having a bbllaasst with Meghan!!

We listened to some music at the Palace and had a bunch of drinks and shots of course! Since we know all the bartenders we stayed past closing and hung out for a bit. After that we walked over to Doyles and had a couple shots there as well- (I’m not sure whose idea tequila shots at two in the morning was but somehow even with that the next morning wasn’t too brutal.)

We headed home around three and I was dreading having to get up for work this morning but it actually wasn’t too bad considering. It also helped that I really didn’t do much at work, haha, but more on my last week in a later blog.

Now I can’t wait to get home and continue my birthday celebration with my family and friends!! I guess in the end I realize now that I get the best of both worlds- turning 21 while in Europe and then coming home a week later to celebrate with everyone back in Chicago!! Can’t wait!

written by

kmr788 on July 22, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland

from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland

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