Irish I was... Irish I were...

in Dublin, Ireland!

So me and Dana booked it to the bus at Liverpool St Station cuz her boss convinced her she was going to miss the flight.... we totally didn't but she texted her boss tricking him and he said... "get with program bobrowski! you're such a dumbass!" oh.em.gee!!!!!

So we're at Stansted Airport trying to sort out our liquids - so I grab a plastic bag and a couple extras "just in case." I turn over and see Dana grabbing about 50... cuz "they'd be great to for my sandwiches!" Hahahhaha. So then we go through security and they stop us and search our entire bags, find Dana's 12ounce sized hairspray and goes "Maam, you can't bring this.....this is wayyyy too big"

"WHAT!?!?! I thought it was gas! I thought gas was legal! Gas you know.. like liquid solid GAS!"


So we finallyyyyy get to Dublin after some delays and taking forever to get the bus to city center, then meeting some girl in city center to help us find our way to our hostel (side note 1: my first hostel experience ever! side note 2: the girl we met had her cousin from SF that was staying w/ her for the weekend!). We get there and its like 2AM and our other friend (who had booked a flight for Friday MORNING instead of EVENING) is already sleeping in our 6-bed room while me and Dana are munching away on Burger King (first visit).

So we make the way across from our hostel and take a picture on this piece of art. The guard said it was closed but we just wanted to take pictures so he was like "Ok!" Doesn't this remind you of the eggheads in front of Mrak (for those Aggies out there!)


Walked around "Dvblin" - to Church Christ Cathedral - funded by Strongbow. (and then St Patrick's church is funded by Baileys. What a great country!)

inside the cathedral

Cool place to visit. Kinda crazy cuz it's a real time working church and there were tombs to the side of the pews (really small tombs for people who were really small). Went down to the crypt, pretty amazing stuff.

Hit up Hard Rock Cafe for lunch - so we asked our waitress if she had an ISIC menu, and she goes "Is that for someone with special needs?" ... Um, we'll just get the mac & cheese.... thanks. Sat around waiting for our food and planning out the rest of the trips for the year, then realised the list was too long.

Head to the GUINNESS factory! A must do for anyone visiting Dublin.... one of the best self guided tours I've done. Two free beers, one at the top at the Gravity bar - panaramic view of the city!

Also, for some reason it had never clicked in my mind - GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS! So apparently some guys (including the managing director of Guinness) were arguing about which was the fastest bird in Europe while they were at a pub. They couldn't come to a consensus so he figured other people need one place they could go to find answers to their questions.. and bam.. the guinness book of world records was started. Ironically though, the answer to the original question of which bird was the fastest was NOT answered in the first edition of the book! Cray.zee!

Enjoyin our free pint!

The video about how they make these barrells was INTENSE. Can you say TALENTED?!

Love this ad. Too bad they ran out a the gift shop

Headed out to TEMPLE BAR after eating some Burger King for dinner (second time!). Dublin is a small town, but the downtown area is so lively and all the bars are literally on the same block. Got some long islands and turned "beer goggles" into Long Island Goggles aka "LIGs" which started a year long joke of WIGs (wine goggles), VOGs (vodka goggles) and our favourite, AKAGs (All kinds of Alcohol Goggles!)

these are our Long Island "Goggles"

Dublin @ night

So "The Spire" in Dublin - first of all is way crazier looking at night, it looks like its going on forever in the sky. Plus the fact that we were drunk...I was looking up in the sky for a good minute mesmerized by this!

Paid a visit to Burger King after the night (time number THREE!) and got up the next morning to head to Trinity College - home of the Book of Kells! It's so crazy that it's a tourist spot .. the students that go there must feel like fish.. people are walking around taking pictures of their campus and dorms and don't even have an interest in going there. Or finding a non French and non Italian roommate:

Such a cute university. Makes me feel smart just walking around the campus

So it starts raining, we eat lunch at a fast food joint called "AbreKEBABra" (so clever! I love it), then decided to trek out to outter Dublin (I mean, it didn't look that far) to Kilmainham Gaol (or what we called kil-a-man. hahaha). After a 45 minute "stroll," we were finally one of the most informative and well put together tours I've been on at a tourist spot. Tons of Irish people were arrested for petty crimes, so the prison held way more people than it was meant to. However, during the potato famine, Irish citizens actually commited crimes so they could get caught and be put into this prison so they would be guaranteed a ration of food. Crazy cuz they showed how the cells of many radical Irishmen who were held in the prison - Irishmen who made a huge impact on their country by leading the country, and even writing the current constitution.

The Victorian Wing (pictured below) was actually inspiration for the layout for modern days MALLS (built this way so guards could see and hear more of the prisoners/room at once).


So what I've learned:

• Dublin is a crazy party city.
• My digicam has the perfect amount of battery to last a weekend trip.
• Walking around in the rain... is. MISERABLE!
• Grafton St is a really cute area to go shopping around - especially since it was around Christmas. It's super festive and doesn't feel too big city. It's a small town feel with big town shops!
  

LODGE-istics:

Transportation
Ryanair:
Return tickets were about 30 pounds. If you're flying from Stanstead, there are DEFINITELY deals - for about 10 pounds or even less. Just check often.

Bus for about 6Euros from the airport to city center.

Lodging
Marlborough Hostel
€ 20/night. Dublin is not the cheapest place for lodging, and we didn't really want to stay at a 16 bed/room hostel.
It is very central though, so that's a plus.

Guinness Factory
€ 11 for students
€ 15 for adults (10% off if you book online = € 13.50!)

Definitely book your tickets in advance online!!! You just have to know the day you're planning on going, but you get to skip the line and go straight to the online checkin counter. It's like VIP! (and trust me, if its raining, you def don't want to be standing in line). We went in the middle of November and the line was still down the block.. don't take chances!