Dubliners

Thank you so much for bearing with me these past 10 days. I am so full of stories of this amazing fall break, and I can’t wait to write them down and tell them to you.

Dublin

Dublin, Ireland was the first stop on our fall break journey. It was a great first weekend. I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland. We had to leave very early friday morning, before 7 (which would not be that early as the trip goes on), to get to Ciampino Airport to catch our flight to Dublin. Our group consisted of Ryan, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Me. We flew Ryanair to Dublin, which meant that we had to shove our purses into our backpacks because we are only allowed one piece of carry-on luggage. I used the technique my dad taught me: Roll your clothes!! I rolled everything up so nicely that I figured I had enough room for a few souvenirs. After a couple of hours, we were in Dublin!! It was so exciting to pass through customs, add another stamp to my passport and get on the bus to our hostel! We stayed at the Ashfield House, a nice centrally located hostel. We didn’t have much time in Dublin so we headed straight out to walk around. We were lucky, the weather was on our side- we could walk around and thoroughly enjoy hearing English, albeit heavily accented English. 

We walked around trying to find a good pub to get a bit to eat. And this was a big decision and a very difficult one- because pubs are a dime a dozen in Ireland. No one to could pick one! The one we decided on had a sign that said, “Great food! Good Atmosphere!” I was sold and we walked into the dark candle lit pub full of regulars who could tell we were tourist. We just had to swallow our pride and find a table. Our waiter was really nice and we decided on the Traditional Irish Stew with lamb. Which was amazing, it was comfort food that we had been missing with all that pasta. (Not that pasta isn’t comfort food- but the stew reminds me more of a below 0 night in Minnesota wrapped up in a blanket watching TV while the snow continues to dump until our deck is nearly half covered. Oh Minnesota, how I miss you). We also tried Irish Cider, which for the longest time we couldn’t decide if it had alcohol in it because it didn’t taste like anything! But it was great and we all enjoyed our first pint of Bulmer’s.

Trinity College

After our late lunch we walked back towards our hostel to Trinity College. One of the oldest Universities in Europe. Ryan was very excited to see it, because he is looking at doing his masters degree somewhere in Europe. As we walked around the campus- we all missed the campus feel of a college. J-Force is a great place, but everything is in one building-- it is truly just a “center” to study in Rome. It doesn’t bother me that much, but seeing all the students walking from the library to their dorms and out for the night caused me almost miss Loyola. We walked around Dublin some more-until we happened upon a microbrewery that seemed pretty cool. Ireland was playing Russia that night, which meant huge crowds at every pub we went to, and a lot of drunk Irishmen. We all got some cheap pints of beer and found a place to stand to cheer on Ireland! They made a good comeback at about 75 minutes, and they tied it right before regulation. But Russia scored during stoppage time (they had 5 minutes) and Ireland couldn’t come back. It was sad, which just caused the population (and I mean the WHOLE population of Dublin) to drink more. We called it any early night, hey we had been up for over 18 hours. A guy at the hostel made fun of us and tired to make us go out with him, we followed him around for a bit- but I was just too exhausted to get excited about anything. Especially when the drunk Irishmen started yelling and trying to talk to us, even talking about us like we couldn’t hear them. (Be prepared for a rant..in 3...2...1..) What in God’s Green Earth was their problem? Since when did I become an object to be talked about like I am nothing, like I have no feelings or thoughts of my own? That my sole existence is to please them. I might have done my hair, and had been wearing make-up, but that gives them no right to treat me that way.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

The next day, Saturday, we spent walking around the Temple Bar area, right by our hostel. It’s full of these funky little shops and a lot of young people milling around. It’s right by Trinity so it reminds me of Dinkytown in Minneapolis. There was a temple bar market, selling books, clothes, and food and that was the best part of my trip to Dublin. Give me a chance to buy cheap books and I’m on it! I bought The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was tempted to buy it in an English bookstore in Rome (yep I found one-sorry mom! I could be buying worse things with my money!) but it was 17 euro, in Dublin it was 5. I can’t wait to get a chance to read it. I just have too much homework to finish this upcoming week! Ryan bought the collection of James Joyce’s short stores, Dubliners- which I found very fitting. And Sarah bought Thanks for the Memories by Cecila Ahern (my recommendation) she is the author of P.S. I Love You. Enough said. We headed to the food market next which smelled so good- full of fresh baked bread, scones, hot dogs, crepes, hot apple cider, and even amazing hot chocolate. It felt so much like fall. I didn’t buy anything but I did try a blueberry scone which was amazing and the hot apple cider had shots of apple brandy in them. Gotta love Ireland. 

 After walking around some more, we made our way to the Guinness Factory. I would say the biggest highlight of the trip to Dublin. It’s almost a pilgrimage sight for beer lovers around the world. We got in on a discounted ticket because we were students (15 euros, plus a free pint of Guinness!) We started the tour looking at the 9000 year lease Arthur Guinness signed in the 1700’s giving him rights to the water and land where the factory sits. We walked through the tour seeing the process of combining the hops, barley, water, and yeast to create the beer (see you actually learn something) and looked at their advertising campains, including Guinness gives you Strength! (Which I’m sure wouldn’t fly anymore--especially with cartoons) We got our free pints and then sat down to enjoy them. Now I don’t really enjoy Guinness- I’ve decided I’m not a fan of beer, but I had to finish the pint, which really fills you up and does a number on a light weight like me! 

After the Guinness Factory we stopped at a pub to eat and headed out to a couple different pubs before we met up with Mallory, Chana, and Christina who just got to Dublin for their fall break. We ended up at this pub where there were 2 guys playing blues and folk music. We had some cider and talked. We called it a night at about 1am and got ready for our flight to london in the morning! 

Stay Tuned for a long post from London!