Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! What better place to be than in Ireland, and of course Dublin is the best spot in Ireland. IFSA brought us up there, which was lucky cause zomg there were like no hostels/hotels available at all. Rafa and Katie did get a hostel so they met up with us that night after a rather hectic bus adventure up to Dublin. We went to the parade in the morning, and it was epically crowded even at 10:45, over an hour before the parade began. Surprisingly tame, for St. Patty’s Day, though I guess the US does kinda twist everything. Apparently it’s really only a big party here in Dublin, though it is a bank holiday and also every town has a parade. Fun fact: the shortest parade is 100 yards, from one pub to another. Lolz. It was a strange parade, with a whole story behind it called “BRILLIANT,” though I really had no idea what was going on. See pix for details, but basically there were a lot of colors and strange objects/animals/people and I had no idea what was going on.
After the parade we went to see the Book of Kells FOR FREE which was awesome cause I got to save the 8 euro for the pub that night haha. We hung around in the room playing games for a while cause the pubs were packed…like ‘can’t get back out’ packed. We planned on doing bumper cars at the carnival while intoxicated but sadly they closed so we settled for dancing around and singing loudly. Also lots of ‘Never Have I Ever,’ which is always a fun game to play haha. That night we ended up at a club that seemed to be mostly locals, and where the ratio of guys to girls was like 10:1. Seriously, it was like a man-fest in there. The music was pretty hardcore and I think a mosh pit almost started, but it was a lot of fun anyway. A good way to end the night, fo sho.
My roommates were in Dublin as well and we had a sketch plan to meet up ‘later.’ Funny story about that, actually. In Cork we were all going out in our separate groups but wanted to see each other so we decided to meet at Tasty Kebab ‘later.’ That’s it—no times, I didn’t have their phone numbers, and there’s more than one Tasty Kebab in Cork. Well, my friends and I did end up there, and when I walked in there they were! It was pretty epic—roommates reunited ftw haha. We didn’t find each other in Dublin, prbs cause it’s a lot bigger than tiny tiny Cork.
Friday I slept in…a little. Rafa, Katie, and I went to the Guinness factory and pretty much just wandered. We tried to go to the women’s Six Nations game (Ireland vs England) that night, but thanks to some crappy directions on the website we got lost, confused, and ended up not making it. Nbd, cause it ended up being pretty fun. I decided pretty last minute to stay Friday night too, which meant I needed a hostel or something to stay in, except since the Six Nations game was on Saturday night everything was full. Being me, I decided to wing it. OBVS A GOOD IDEA. So we went back to their hostel, and waited in a pub until the front desk would close, so Rafa could sneak me upstairs. Anyway, in the pub Rafa and I ordered ‘spicy’ hot wings. Yeah, so Ireland doesn’t really know what spicy is, so I can eat their spicy food even with my low tolerance. Apparently we found the one place that does use HOT hot sauce. Rafa was weak and gave up :P But I soldiered through and almost died. I was def crying by the end and drank everyone’s water (yes I know it doesn’t actually help but it was all I had!). Didn’t help that the movie ‘The Pianist’ was playing in the pub—I mean, who puts on a WWII movie in a pub of all places?! Rafa and I ended up talking to a really drunk old guy who may have been a little bit racist. Not like purposefully racist, just like politically incorrect and kinda ignorant racist. He did love Barack Obama though, and is really excited he’s coming to visit in May (as am I…we’re tooooooootally gonna follow him and wear all red, white, and blue haha). Bought me a pint and continued to tell us his life story, so all-in-all a pretty hilarious end to the night.
So back in the hostel, Rafa was paranoid…epically paranoid. Like ‘cover your hair cause it’s very noticeable’ paranoid haha. I can’t blame her—if she got caught they could kick us out. Sadly, no extra beds in the damn dorm room, so I slept (aka just laid awake for hours) on the floor by the window and the heater until like 5:30 when some girls left for their plane and one offered me her bed. BOOM I passed out immediately. I also slept the whole way home on the bus, but I will never again take for granted a bed and a blanket. Tile is not an adequate sleeping surface, btw. I don’t know who that girl was, but she’s my hero now.
Slán go fóill!
No comments:
Post a Comment