Dublin

Alright, so Thursday night, Miriam and I packed our backpacks to head off to Ireland for the weekend!  We left around 6 AM on Friday and boarded the metro for the airport.  There, we met up with Kelly, Emma, Claire and Lauren and we also saw that there were several other SLU students heading that way on the same flight!

We landed in the early afternoon, bought Dublin passes (which saved us a lot of money at attractions), took a bus into the city and walked to the Four Courts Hostel (after getting a little turned around) and checked in.  This was all after waiting in line at customs FOREVER.  They were having problems with some people from South America, I think.  Then when it was my turn, the guy got confused with my Norwegian visa, which happened on the way in.  But soon understood and we all got a fancy stamp for a 90 day visit allowance in Ireland.  Miriam, Claire, Lauren and I shared a room that was meant for six, but we were the only four in there while Kelly and Emma slept in a room of 16.  We locked everything up and headed to the Guinness factory.

We got in for free with the pass when it was supposed to be 13 euros (from what I recall) and walked around the museum for a couple of hours.  At the end, we went up to the Sky Bar (a bar on top of the building that was totally encompassed in glass in order to see the whole city) and then learned the tricks to pouring our own pint of Guinness.  We got a certificate, of course.  The coolest thing was that "our teacher's" grandmother's best friend's name was Noellen! I've never heard of anyone else with my name!  That was a really neat discovery.

From there, we were really tired and got fish and chips at a pub called "O'Shay's".  From there we just went back to the hostel and hung out in the "Bubble Room" in the basement reading some sickening romance novels aloud by Irish authors.  One of the men who worked there kept coming by and was amazed at the number of romance novels there were in the hostel's library and kept pestering us about reading them (although it was a joke).  I really appreciated the mural that was outside of the Bubble Room...

The next morning, we ate breakfast at 8:30 and left soon after to visit some cathedrals.  We walked to Christ Church first and then to St. Patrick's after.  Both were stunning on the inside and out.  There was a festival of some sort outside of Christ Church with traditional food and dance, which was very neat to look through.

After that, we walked around the city and saw the Trinity College campus (very impressive), got free cake and coffee at a restaurant (courtesy of the Dublin pass), saw a leprechaun in front of the Molly Malone statue (of course we took a picture with him), and visited the Jameson distillery.  I was lucky enough to be one of the whisky testers (not much of a fan, unfortunately) and learned the difference between the different kinds of whiskey.  Shopping was next on our list and we walked around for what seemed like hours to find a place to eat because of a music festival that was in town and all of the restaurants were full.

Sunday morning, we left fairly early again.  It was just Miriam, Emma, Kelly and me on Sunday, because the other girls were doing a day trip.  First, we got more free cake and coffee and then we walked across town to Aviva Stadium and got - what felt like - a VIP tour (it was fo' free... Dublin Pass) through the whole place.  We got to see the locker rooms, showers, press rooms, corporate rooms and even enter the field the same way the soccer and rugby players would.  It seemed even more VIP because it was only the four of us on the tour.  We then walked across town again (after lunch) in the rain and did some shopping.  I bought a nice coat for pretty cheap and the girls found things as well.

We saw a castle later, went to the wax museum and met up with the girls for dinner at a pub called O'Donaghue's where Emma and I both ended our trip with fish and chips and a pint of Guinness.  When we got back to the hostel, we had a Spanish woman living in our room and we spoke with her for a bit before we packed, showered and went to bed.  We took a taxi to the airport and got there around 8 AM.

The flight was uneventful, but when I tried to go through customs, the same thing happened that keeps happening to me: they look at my expired Norwegian visa!  So the guy was questioning me, but he eventually realized I just never got stamped coming in or leaving from Madrid.  For whatever reason, I never EVER get stamps, which is sad because I've been so many places and nothing to prove of it in my passport.  (I don't even have a stamp from Norway... and I entered and exited that country at least four or five times...)

Miriam and I are going to look into a trip for this weekend... Maybe Barcelona?  If you have any suggestions, let me know!