after much anticipation....the details of the delightfully drunken dublin

i bet you all thought this post would never come! oh, ye of little faith. finally, feast your eyes on the long-awaited ireland post!

a few weeks ago, my friend sally invited me to go to dublin with her for valentine's weekend, and of course i couldn't decline. we booked with ryanair, a super cheap/ghettolicious airline that's muy popular. we met up with sally's friend hema at victoria station, then trained it to gatwick airport, where we almost missed our flight because the departure boards were broken. i love running in airports!

as we flew into dublin, and i looked down at all the lights, i couldn't help but think of los angeles. by night, all cities look the same....except that la has no dark patches of fields. it's just miles and miles of lights. well, at any rate, it made me miss home just a little.

anywho, after arriving, we of course had to make a journey through customs. there were other pockets of americans in the crowd, and unfortunately, their strident voices made us realize why everyone says americans are loudmouths. we really are. it's horribly embarrassing.

the irish didn't give us a hard time about it, though. they were so friendly! the immigration officer i was chatting with asked what i was doing in dublin for valentine's day. i joked, "looking for love!" to which he chuckled, "well, you'll have no problem, dearie!" i immediately wanted him as a grandpa.

but my next interaction with an irishman wasn’t so sweet. as hema waited to get her money changed, I decided to ask her to get me change for my 50 euro note, which would only take an extra second or two. after I asked her, the 50-something irish fellow behind her angrily muttered, “f***ing americans, don’t you know you’re not supposed to cut in queue?” of course, i immediately panicked, turned bright red, and started apologizing profusely. i want to represent my country well, and prove we’re not all jerks! as soon as he saw I was flipping out, though, he started laughing and told me he was just “taking the piss” out of me. I was so relieved, and had a nice little conversation with him while we waited for hema to finish up. he ended up being really sweet and friendly. oh, those irish!

so after that little scare, we bused it to sally's friend rory's place, where we didn't waste any time with unpacking...we headed straight for the pub! i simply had to try a “strawberry beer,” which was very tasty. the pub/club (called porterhouse) was playing mostly american pop (as i’ve found out, american pop is EVERYWHERE), and before too long some irish guys approached our table asking us to join them. of course I wanted to, because how often is it you make irish friends? they were older, late twenties—and were quite friendly, drunken, tattooed, and hilarious. NB—irish people swear a ton. its not just a stereotype, it’s true.

on the way back home, we walked gown gafton street (where parts of “once” were filmed!), and met a guy named david who felt the urge to keep dancing up on us. i didn’t mind, i danced right back!

on friday, we walked all over the city. we started in st. stephen’s green, a lovely park (which joyce wrote about! in ulysses? or maybe it was in portrait of the artist…). then, we had to have breakfast, so we went to a local creperie and i wolfed down a delicious nutella crepe—predictable, i know.

cute cottage in the park

a map of the park

st. ann's church

scrumptious nutella crepe

we then went to the famed trinity college, where rory goes to school. we saw the breathtaking “long library,” which was filled with ancient-looking books. i’d include a picture, but we weren’t allowed to take any. they also had some artifacts, including the typewriter synge used! i read his play for my irish writing class! it was really incredible being able to see bits of history that i’ve been studying in person.

trinity college!

we were going to look at the book of kells, but seeing as it actually cost money to have a gander, we opted out. cheap students. instead we walked around the outside of the dublin castle and down some random dublin streets, just taking in the sights.

dublin castle

random stuff

park with snakes! must've been before st. patrick drove them out

after that, we headed for christ’s church cathedral, a beautiful building with the oldest in-use structure in Ireland—800+ year old crypts! we also got to see a mummified cat and rat, which were obviously awesome, and i lit a candle for peace. you have to say a prayer in every new church you go into, isn’t that a rule? anyways, it seemed like the right thing to do.

this picture doesn't do the floor justice at all. the floor was breathtaking!

prayer candles!

the mummified cat and rat! basically, they found these two creatures mummified in the church organ. sick!

crypt stuff

more church

post-church, we journeyed to the liffey…which was pretty dank, to be honest. it was dirty and grey. but everything around it was fabulous! have a look…

dublin!! i think this might be the irish bank, but i can't remember...

the post office where the easter rebellion of 1916 took place. yes, i'm learning stuff while abroad!

the bottom half of the millenium needle. kinda a weird touch to dublin. also known as the "stiffie on the liffey"

so quaint!

we decided it was pub-time, so we popped into the famous temple bar for some Guinness and live music. to my delight, the band played some traditional irish drinking songs, with people singing along. it was just perfect. little did I know what was in store later that night.

temple bar!

we ended up going to a birthday party filled with american exchange students, then headed to the trinity student pub, which was packed. it was quite like how an american party would be, not much difference. it kind of reminded me of freshman year, actually, haha. well, we soon grew a little restless, so rory took us to “devitt’s,” which ended up being my favorite part of the trip. it was a little pub in the heart of dublin, and upstairs they had about eight musicians on different instruments jamming and making the most beautiful irish music. i intensely wished that i had kept up irish dancing, so i could’ve danced for them. it was so authentic and heartfelt and wholly wonderful that i almost teared up. my homeland!

but after that, we were utterly wiped out, so we headed home for a good night’s sleep. valentine’s day was just as action-packed as the day before. we caught a bus to the Guinness factory, which was definitely a trip highlight. we toured the factory, learning about how the special drink is made (hops, barley, yeast, and water!), and ended the tour with a complimentary pint up in the gravity bar, which overlooks all of dublin. it was really special! afterwards we were starving, though, so we found “the black inn,” a great irish pub that’s been around since the 18^th century! the great thing about ireland is that everything seems to be at least 200 years old. i love how steeped in history it is.

guinness bottles through the ages

my favorite part of the factory--you get to leave a loving note for everyone to see

(my note)

shamrock!

the girls overlooking dublin

afterwards we were starving, though, so we found “the black inn,” a great irish pub that’s been around since the 18^th century! the great thing about ireland is that everything seems to be at least 200 years old. i love how steeped in history it is.

there were quite a few respectable-looking older irish people in the pub, very button-down and conservative looking. old-schoolers, if you will. so imagine my surprise when one particularly smart, genteel, grandfatherly irishman let out a stream of cusses that almost made my hair curl. it was fabulous.

inside the black lion inn. sorry for the blurriness

after our lunch of brown bread and creamy veg soup, sally & rory & i headed back home, stopping on the way to see the relics of st. valentine at the white friar church (after all, it WAS st. v’s feast day!). the inside of the church was really bizarre but beautiful. it had a lot of gorgeous mosaics, which clashed with the wall paint, which clashed with the splendid stained glass, which clashed with the lovely statues. oh, god bless the irish. i would’ve taken pictures, but there were a lot of people praying and such, so it didn’t feel appropriate. sorry, ya’ll!

anywho, so i said another prayer, and queued up to touch the st. valentine relics box. woohoo!

that night, to further honor st. valentine, of course we had an all-girls pig out party, complete with strawberries, chocolates, wine, and pizza. rory’s wonderful roommates and friends joined us to watch a few movies and binge. it was a welcome respite after two action-packed days!

to avoid making this epically long post ever-longer, suffice to say the next day we had a great brunch at a local frou frou restaurant, then flew home to london. it was a truly excellent trip, and i can’t wait to venture out of england again (though i must say, i quite like it here, too). to sum up, a few random observations about dublin:

-dublin is pretty clean, though grey

-there seemed to be a lot of blind people in the city

-not a large ginger population (surprise!)

-accents were REALLY hard to understand. MUMBLERS

-EXPENSIVE city, even compared to london

-not incredibly diverse city. mostly white

-extremely walkable city, compact

-there’s no hot water

-it's so GREEN!

-irish very friendly people

-drivers try to kill you

-at night, EVERYONE is sloshed

anyways, thanks for bearing with this ridiculous blogathon. tune in next time for a recap of my weekend in kent!

carpaltunnelsyndromely,

lilly