Ireland.

It's Monday afternoon and I just got back from a wonderful weekend in the friendly and VERY green city of Dublin. I flew in with my rommate Kim and our friend Claire, and went straight to Catlan's apartment when we arrived in the city. It was so nice to see a familiar face and hang out with my bestest b-town homegirl all weekend! So Friday night we had plans to go to the rugby match, but right before we showed up, the game was sold out! and all the nearby pubs were jam packed. We just relaxed at her place for a little and then met up with her friends to go out in Temple Bar- the really hip area where supposedly all the young people go out at night. Well, let me tell you, we soon found out that students in Dublin do not go out on the weekends because only the older 'working class' comes in to the city to party. Then we also had a hard time finding a place that didn't charge cover and then didn't ask for IDs- since a lot of us didn't even have anything to show the bouncer. We settled for a beer at a cute pub called Portobello and chatted the rest of the evening.
Saturday, we were up early to get some sightseeing in! We walked through Trinity College, which is where Catlan is directly-enrolled (pretty fancy shmancy) and we walked through the Book of Kells exhibit, which is a transcript of the 4 Gospels from the year 800! We walked through the Long Room, which is Trinity's old old old library and it has all these cool busts of famous people lining it and it has a 3 story ceiling. On our way out we saw a wedding taking place at the Trinity College Chapel and it looked like an "all-out" affair.
We stopped at Burdock's for Fish 'n Chips- which is supposed to be the most famous place in all of Ireland, and it was declicious! I shared with Cat because the portion was ginormous. Then we took a stroll through St. Stephen's Green, the city's extremely bright green public park. After, we did some window shopping on the hip Grafton Street. Saturday night we stayed in to cook a meal for all 10 of us (including Phil, Catlan's really cute Irisn neighbor). That night we went out to Temple Bar again and ended up at a place called ViperRoom, where they were playing traditional Irish fold music upstairs and clubby 1998 American music downstairs, what a strange mix!
Sunday we headed out to take a tour of Dublin Castle. It is where the British King and Queen used to stay when Ireland was part of the UK until 1922. Now it is still a functioning Irish government building, mainly used for the inauguration of the new Irish president every 7 years. Each pres can serve up to 2 terms. Did you know that a woman has been president of Ireland since 1990?
After the Dublin Castle we headed back to Temple Bar to find out where the live music was playing since there was a music festival going on all weekend. We started t Flannery's and had some lunch and watched some rugby, then we headed over to THE TEMPLE BAR for a real jam session! It was a group with 4 young guys, an accordian, a fiddle, a guitar and an Irish drum. They were so much fun and the crowd new a lot of their songs, everyone was sippin some Guinness and havin a jolly good time. I mean really, does it get much better than listening to a talented group playing traditional Irish music in one of the most reknowned pubs in Dublin??
Sunday night we relaxed back at Cat's place, to watch Grey's Anatomy (I love that show) and then Kim, Claire and I spent the night at a hostel so we could get a cab at 5am for the airport. Let me tell you a little something about hostels: their weird. There are maybe 10 or 15 people that stay all in one room, always coming in and out and just one big communal bathroom for everyone to share. I guess over the next 4 months I will get used to this situation or try finding some cheap hotels, or book hostels that we can get a room to ourselves??
I'm still getting everything worked out as far as the robbing last week, hopefully i will get everything situated soon and I won't have to think about it because it makes me sick in my stomach everytime I replay what happened last Monday.
This week Im just going to take it easy and hopefully find some new places in Barcelona. I'll be here this weekend and then in Paris the weekend after that!
Now I understand how people get addicted to travelling and how much fun it is to explore new cities and learn new things about yourself, your friends, and the history of the world!
I'm off for a jog down the boardwalk before the sun sets.
Adios!
<3 Steph

a travel blog by stephshap

Luck o the Irish!

Dublin, Ireland