Ireland

Dublin Ireland was a great time. First, we got to our hostel, which turned out to be a gorgeous hotel. I have no idea how we got so lucky, but we stayed in a real hotel room with our own bathroom and everything for less then the hostels we just booked for spring break. It was fantastic.

On Monday, we arrived and had a pretty good flight and free transportation to the hotel room from the airport. We decided that night to go to the Hardrock cafe for dinner. Molly has never been to a hardrock before and I love the food there, so it worked out well. Before we ate dinner, though we did some shopping for green clothes to wear on Tuesday (St. Patrick's Day). We were fairly lucky because as soon as we stepped off the bus there was a little shop called Carrolls selling all types of clothes and hats and clover headbands. We bought some things and then went to dinner. At the restaurant we were told we would have to wait 45 mins for a table, which was dissappointing because we were really hungry. We decided to wait at the bar and grab a drink; but before we even reached the bar, literally 45 seconds later, our buzzer went off telling us they were ready to seat us. Somehow, we got lucky and got a table in no time. We ate a delicious dinner and had our first real Irish Guinness. After that, we met up with some of my friends from high school who are also abroad, and some of their friends. We all went out and had a lot of fun.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day. It was absolutely amazing. The parade was HUGE; people had ladders and were climbing on statues to see it. Technically, we were at the parade, but unfortunately we could not see a thing. O'Connelly, one of the busiest streets in Dublin was closed down and all you could see was a sea of green. There were SO many people. Everyone was happy and drunk; and dressed in green, with green accessories, and green make-up. It was great. We went to a bar nearby and had a few drinks. While we were there (just Molly and I because our friends were on the other side of the street and there was no way we could cross until after the parade) we met some Irish friends. Surprisingly, it was difficult to have a conversation because of the thickness of their accents, but we managed. We learned that cornbeef and cabbage is NOT an Irish tradition. When we mentioned the meal, our Irish friends asked us what cornbeef was, they have never even heard of it! Turns out they have either ham and cabbage, roastbeef, or stew. Anyyway, we met up with our friends after the parade and had a great night out.

Wednesday was a day to relax. As you can imagine, we were in pretty bad shape from the day/night before. We slept in and watched some T.V. in ENGLISH! That was really nice. Once we felt better we walked around town and did some shopping. On Thursday, we decided to go to the Guinness storehouse. It was really cool to see how Guinness is made and we got a couple of free samples- no complaints here. We had a really fun time. We walked around and did some sight-seeing of the town. We went in early that night because we had to get up at 430 on Friday morning to catch the shuttle back to the airport.

All in all we had an awesome time and I would go back to Ireland every year if I could. The people there are so nice and layed back. It was a great experience.