I am in London now and thought I would update my blog while we are having a lazy day at our friend Ben's house in London (whom we are staying with for the next 4 days).
We got to Dublin around 2 or 3 on Friday and checked into our hostel. It looked like a shady area when we turned onto the street our hostel was at, but the inside looked way better! It was centrally located in the middle of Dublin- only a 5-10 min. walk to anywhere we went! We took a walk around after we set our luggage down in our rooms and changed. The four of us (Chelsea, Lindsay, Lindsay's little sister- Molly, and me) bought necklaces from this street vendor that say our names in metal with shamrocks on either side of our names. We all match and have worn them every day since! :) We decided to get dinner at an Irish pub next to our hostel and it was so good! I had a cajun chicken panini and it was AMAZING! I know it isn't Irish, but it didn't matter...
Then, we went back to our hostel to get ready for a pub crawl that we signed up with earlier through our hostel. It was 13 Euros to get into 4 pubs and one club, a free Guiness at the first pub, a free shot at every other place, and discounted drinks at one of the places. It was so fun! We met some Americans, Australians, and Irish people.
Saturday, we got up early to do all of our tourist sight-seeing. We bought a bus pass that took us around the city and had a tour guide telling us about everything as we drove by. We went to Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells (thanks to Aunt Linda for suggesting this), the Guinness factory, Jameson factory, and Leprechaun museum. I met up with Shelley and hugged her for like 5 min!! She came along with the 4 of us for the day and left and met up with the people she came with before we went to the Jameson factory. The Book of Kells was so cool!! Everything was so old and hard to believe. We couldn't take pictures so you won't see any on facebook- but it was cool! The Guinness factory was interesting even though I hate beer I appreciated seeing how it is made. At the end, we got to pour our own Guinnes, and yes I drank it. It was nasty. I had already had a Guinness the night before I took lots of pictures there so be looking out for those on facebook some time soon! The Jameson factory was cool as well and we had a tour guide explain everything to us. At the end of the tour, we had a free drink of Jameson. I didn't think I liked whiskey, but Jameson is really good!
Right before we left, it started pouring rain. We got lucky and were given ponchos from the people who worked at the front desk of the factory. We were so hungry and walked to the nearest restaurant, which happened to be an Italian restaurant. It was really good, but we were very tired and full so we went back to our hostel and took naps. We took about an hour and a half nap and then decided that we should go out and do something. We met up with Shelley, Kate (a girl in my honors fraternity) and went to Temple Bar for the night. It was sooo much fun and properly Irish! There was a band (a woman singing and man playing guitar) that we listened to for a couple hours. I actually drank a beer at the bar- which I know will shock many of you! It was alright, better than Guinness, and I felt like I should drink an Irish beer while at an Irish bar. Also, it was the cheapest thing at the bar... On the way home, we got BBQ chicken kebabs. Lindsay was Irish and got a lamb kebab, which I tried. It was alright, but I just don't like the fact of eating lamb.
Sunday, we got up at a decent time to finish some tourist things. We wanted to kiss the Blarney Stone, but it was a 3 hour train ride to the town where the Blarney Stone is at and it was 50 something Euros to get there. We decided that was too much money and to stay in Dublin for the day and do other things. We started it off right with breakfast at McDonalds... Then we went to the oldest pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head, which is now my profile picture. Shelley spent the whole day with us, except the Leprechaun Museum, and it was so good to see her!! I have been pretty homesick lately and seeing a familiar face from home was comforting. We had an Irish coffee at The Brazen Head and I think it has become my new favorite drink! After the pub, we went to the Leprechaun Museum. Everything was huge so we felt like leprechauns- I felt like a kid again! We took lots of pictures here too so be on the lookout for those as well! After the museum, we went to a shop to get our souvenirs. Then we went back to the pub we ate at the first day for dinner. I got the same thing as the time before because it was just so good!
After dinner, we got our luggage from the hostel and got on a bus to go to Ben's house. I know some of you are thinking, aren't you at Ben's house now? And yes, I am. Ben has two houses: one in Dublin because his dad does a lot of work over there, and one in London. Must be nice, right? So we got to Ben's after an hour long bus ride and just hung out with him and his friends there for the night. We left Monday to catch our flight back to England.
We got back to Brighton and had a little less than an hour for all of us to take showers and re-pack for London. It is probably the fastest I have gotten ready and packed ever. Chelsea and I rode to Ben's house with his friend, Gabriel and Lindsay and Molly rode back with Ben and his other friend, Alex. We got here around 10pm and had a nice home cooked spaghetti from Ben's mom. It was delicious!
Then we got ready and went out to a club in London that was pretty fun but definitely didn't compare to the ones in Brighton!
Today, we have been really lazy and just slept and layed around. We are going to dinner with Lindsay's cousin who works at the U.S. Embassy (and who we stayed with when we went to the Justin Bieber concert). We aren't sure of our plans while we are in London, but we want to take Molly to all the best sights while we are here and see the things we didn't get to see when we were in London at the beginning of the semester. I will update after I get home from London on Saturday!
Still miss you all!
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