Granada

Ireland might be my favorite place on earth...
the first night we were there we ate dinner at at a pub. we were a half an hour past the time they stop serving it, but they served us anyway. very nice people. i also learned that they dont really say 'your welcome' in ireland. they say 'cheers' instead :)
The first full day we were there we tried to go to Dunleighry..(im going to butcher the spelling of everything irish...) but we got on the train going the opposite way, oops. so we ended up in Howth (pronounced Hoat). it ended up being beautiful! it was right on the coast and there was a pier and a lighthouse...just everything i pictured ireland to be. it was actually raining and cold most of the time we were in ireland, but it was alright, thats my favorite kind of weather :)
then we went out for mexican food, that was delicious. later we went to a pub called 'whalen' which was definitely the pub that part of the move ps i love you was filmed in! so cool. :) suprisingly it was all locals there. we were told that they dont advertise it like that so no one really knows thats where it is. lucky for us :) we also went to a pub o'donahughs..that was also recommended to us by several people. it was very funny, we were the youngest by far. the next closest in age people to us were at least twice our age, but it was a lot of fun. everyone in dublin is so friendly! they even bought us a few beers :p
on halloween we actually did make it to dunleighry..but i like howth better :) the weather was nicer that day though. its kinda funny, we were told several times that halloween originated in ireland, and we could tell. it seemed a lot different from home. people were dressed up all day! and everyone was talking about it all weekend.
we also toured the guinness factory on halloween. that was a lot of fun. it was basically a self guided tour of a museum, but it was interesting to see how the beer is made! then we got a free glass at the end. theres a special way to pour it. at the pub the night before we were wondering why there were like ten glasses of half full beers on the bar, but learned why! that night we actually ended up staying in our hostel with some wine and playing games :) which was lots of fun.
the next day we decided to get a little extra sleep so instead of eating breakfast at the hostel, we went out for breakfast. SO delicious, finally a breakfast thats not toast! then we did TONS of shopping and took a look at the famine statues. they were very artistically done well, it was very cool, but at the same time errie. they're a memorial to all those affected by the potato famine, and also kind of a thanks to everyone who moved to the states and canada during it because it helped build the foundation they have now.
then a friend of mine who spend the summer in dublin recommended we go to a pub called porterhouse to get some strawberry beer. so we found it and they told us they had actually been out for three weeks and just got it back at 5 pm that day. what luck. and! a traditional irish rock band was performing that night too, which was SO SO SO cool! i loved it :) annnnd we went out to eat at fridays :) we ate tons of irish food while we were there though, which was a lot better than what i have heard.

the first couple of days we were just so excited to be in IRELAND..but after a while we started to realize what was happening around us. there was a homeless person on every corner. and it was very obvious that alcoholism is a very big problem in ireland. during the afternoons we saw far too many people stumbling around or passed out on the sidewalk. one night two guys who were at very oldest 15 years old came up to the group of us girls and were trying to talk to us. one of them had a beer in each pocket, a beer in one hand, and a cigarette in the other. he had just gotten kicked off the train for being to drunk. i loved so much about ireland, especially because i had the mix of such a wonderful experience and at the same time it was very eye opening...
i would love to go back