This past weekend we had a "puente," literally meaning "bridge." This is because we had a 5-day weekend: no school on Monday for Halloween and then Tuesday was a festivo, so no school. Regi, Ashley and I made our way to Ireland and the UK! We left Friday for Dublin and stayed until Sunday morning. What an amazing city! From the moment I stepped into the Dublin airport, I was in love! In the airport, there was an art display of photographs entitled "The people of Ireland." It was just a bunch of people's faces, but I could already tell that Ireland was a people-friendly country. The next thing that pleased me was that the airport customs people stamped my passport!!! So now my passport says I've been to Ireland! (not every country does this, which makes me sad because I want a lot of stamps in my passport)!
We made our way to the bus stop and, with the help of a few nice Irish people, made it onto the right bus headed towards the city center, where our hostel was located. Whilst (I feel so British saying that!) on the bus, which was DOUBLE DECKER, by the way, we realized that there was absolutely no way we could tell which stop was ours. We knew where we were supposed to get off, but there were no signs inside or outside of the bus that told us what each stop was. I guess you just had to know (or ask the bus driver). After being on the bus for a while, we decided to move downstairs and then encountered 3 other Americans from Michigan who happened to be going to the same hostel as us, and were equally confused as to which stop we were supposed to get off at. Ha. Anyways, we figured it out, and all was well. We made it to our hostel where we met the craziest, most hilarious, epitome of and Irish man ever--Shamus, the "concierge." Oh man, he was a HOOT and super nice!!! We got our room and walked through a maze of doors and hallways to get there, made our beds, and were off to begin our adventures!
First stop: Grafton Street! Great shopping street that conveniently leads to St. Stephen's Green, which is a beautiful park. Most everything was in walking distance from our hostel, which was great! Grafton St. was very cool and then we toured St. Stephen's Green. After, we decided to walk to St. Patrick's Cathedral, then headed back towards the hostel. We ate dinner at a nearby restaurant called O'Shea's. It was pretty good.
The next day we went on a free walking tour (based on tips only). Our tour guide's name was Dave and he was great! Very enthusiatic and knowledgeable about all of the sites we saw. To name a few: Trinity College, Temple Bar, Christ Church, Ha' Penny Bridge on the River Liffey, a museum, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour! After our tour, we went to the Guinness Storehouse/museum. It was very cool, but definitely more info. than I ever needed to know about Guinness. We got a free pint at the end up in Gravity Bar, on the top floor of the museum. Gravity Bar has a panoramic view of Dublin, and it's amazing. We got there right at sunset too! After, we promptly left because we were pooped! I wanted to get postcards, so Ash came with me to buy them while Regi got Burger King. On our way back to the hostel, Ashley and I grabbed some Thai food to go.
We had planned to stay in that night because we were so tired from our long day of touring the city, but our friends we met from California (same age as us but studying in Rome) convinced us to rest up and go out with them b/c you're only in Dublin once! Plus the whole city was celebrating Halloween! So we rallied, but had no idea what to wear. Amanda and Mollie (our new friends) got Irish rugby outfits to wear but the three of us didn't have anything. Luckily, the day before, Regi and Ashley had purchased matching flannel pj's and so Reg wore hers and I wore Ash's while she just wore regular clothes. Regi and I dressed up at "couch potatos." :)
We went out and met a really funny and nice girl from Liverpool and just had a great time out. Irish (or Dublin) people go all out for Halloween. It's nuts! Then we went home and got up early for our 30 min. flight to Liverpool. The end. Pictures:
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