Dublin day one and Two

Gah, I have to learn to stop procrastinating with these blogs. I love doing them but I get so behind so easily. Really sorry about that. Lets start talking Dublin again. last Friday (a week ago), I woke up in my hostel room and decided to wear a skirt. Yes, a skirt with tights and leg warmers to keep me from getting too cold. Next step was meeting Kari, Katie and Kurtis for breakfast (the hostel provided it). After that we started towards Trinity college where we were to meet two other friends, Amy and Heather. It was spitting rain but warm out (well up to 8 or 9 degrees, but still). I enjoyed the weather as it felt very authentic. Trinity College was nice. We were going to go see the book of Kells but they had a duplicate out instead because the original was being cleaned or something, but they were still charging a poo load to see it so we headed towards St Patrick's church. We got to wander and meander our way down. You might have seen some of the pictures of this on my facebook. We found a post box thing with a sign saying "no bomb please." Which amused us immensley. Not that that thing should amuse but...whatever, its me, the girl who laughs at people getting hit with cars. IN FILMS! I almost forgot to add that. Hee.

Anywho, we got to St Patricks ala help from a nice Irish man who stopped and asked if we needed help finding where we were going. So sweet. I found the people in Dublin so nice and so helpful. St Patricks we got a peek at but didnt go all the way in as it was kinda expensive. Thats one warning about Dublin is that it is more expensive we found than London, but it is very friendly and there is so much to do! We started making our way to the Guiness factory/museum but on the way stopped in this nice old church. Interestingly I went to use the wash room and on my way out I saw a catholic newpaper with the headline "pro-lifers lament Obama's first killings." I think we all know what that means. I read a little of the article and it said that some ppl were initially excited about Obama going in because of his focus on human rights, but that they thought he was doing more harm than good because of his pro-abbortion, contraception and stem cell research. Strange strange ppl out there I must say. Anywho, next stop the Guiness factory!

When we got there we checked in our backpacks so we wouldnt have to carry them around. We bought tickets as a group and some of us got asked to show ID. You see if you are over 18 you get to go up to the gravity bar at the end of the museum, and have a free pint of Guiness. The guy giving out the tickets hadnt looked at me when asking for ID so I asked him if he wanted to see mine. He looked me up and down looked in at my face, smiled and said no, your fine. Hmmm. I shall take that as a compliment. The museum was really interesting. It took you through the process of making the beer as well as the history of the beer and the family that started it. My pictures on facebook explain that better, lots of wheat and lots of hops and water and yeast. There is a water fall in there that reminded me soo much of Charlie and the Chocolate factory, but dont worry, they dont use the fountain water to make the beer. Eventually we made it to the tasting station where we got a little taste of it. We then proceeded to the Gravity bar which happens to be at the very top of the factory and be an observation deck like thing where there are windows all around and stuff. We got our free pint of Guiness and got started. Now let me announce that I am a light weight now for some reason and I decided to finish my Guiness as quickly as I could so that I wouldnt haveto drink any more at the end, if you get what I mean. I mean dont get me wrong, I liked Guiness the best out of every beer I have tried, but I still do not really like beer. So we chattedand observed. Kurtis finished his first, but he's a guy so woopty do. Next I was sure Iwas taking silver, but almost as I was about to finish Heather somehoe passed me at the last second and stole the prize. I guess i'm taking home the bronze then. I beleive Kari got fourth place and Katie got fifth, but if I am mistaken I hope you correct me. Amy got the pretty purple ribbon for sixth. Katie and I somehow managed to be very tipsy and ended up having a grande time on the observation deck just chatting and taking pictures.

Once we left I believe we went in search of a pub or bar to eat at. We actually ended up stopping at this little bokstore and I found/bought a 21st edition of a compilation of certain Rudyard Kipling poems. Now when I say 21st edition I mean that the book was published/printed in 1905. It sold for 10 euro! The guy who sold it to me was like, wow thats a steal, you are so lucky. I giggled and was very pleased with my purchase. We found the pub we were looking for, which had live music and dance. No dancers that night, but it did have some live music. A few of us got food and the rest of us just enjoyed the music and eachother's company. When everyone was done we started looking for a pub with live music and cheap booze. We eventually found one after wandering fora while. I decided to order an Irish whiskey tasting tray. I gots four different whiskeys each coming with a description and name. There was half a shot of each though I think it would be fair to say they were pretty big half shots. Kurtis got a tray too, but the bar tender didnt fill his as much as he had mine! Love the Irish. I was feeling bouncey after that and we all had a good time chatting and drinking and listening to music. We luckily had gotten seats that were a both and basically it looked like we were sitting in a giant barrel that had half of it cut out.

We eventually left, I bought food and snacked when we got back. We chatted for a very short time and then I headed to bed. My adventuare that night was that a young french couple came in and decided to share the bunk above me. They only made out for a little bit, but still, gah! I managed to have a fairly good sleep anyway. I think I will start talking about the next day. Sorry this is going to be so long. Again I got up and had breakfast at the hostel, this time deciding to wear my dress. We met Heather and Amy again at Trinity College. This time though explored around it a bit and ended up getting some really good photos. Our next stop was a book store so Katie could get a book for her dad. I love book stores, I hada hard time leaving them even when in the beautiful city of Dublin. Next we stopped at a celtic like jewlery store. While the others were in there I went next door to the chocolate shop that turns out to be a company that makes the best chocolate and hot chocolate in Ireland! I decided to try the hot chocolate because strangely it wasnt that expensive. It was seriously the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my enire life! OMG! You could not taste the powder, if they use any! You could drink all the way to the bottom without getting any taste of powder. They also throw in a complimentary chocolate when you buy a drink and omg! The company is called Butlers. Dear god, they were soo good!

So our next stop was the little park accross the street. It was so pretty and we got lots of gorgeous pictures. We even met a very fat seagul that was not afraid of us at all and ended up creeping us out. We also randomly found this playground with no children playing. It was such a good one too. Kari and I just ran towards it and started playing. Eventually everyone was all over the playground, swinging, playing or taking pictures. I even tried out the swing! Even though it was a baby one so I had to stand in it. It was soo much fun. We made our way to another cute little park and gots some photos. Then we crossed the street and went into the Dublin National Gallery. Saw some cool pictures. Once that was done we headed for our hostel and said goodbye to Heather and Amy who were flying back to London/the castle. We hung out at the hostel just to rest and to eat. But we knew we had to explore a bit so we wondered around this one part of Dublin, going into stores and taking pictures. Eventually (as it was getting dark) we saw this building that had been burned partially down. I wantedto go take pictures, so we wandered that way. We then spotted an alleyway that wasnt quite sketchy but was and we decided it would be a nice thing to wander down. The barbed wire here and there freaked us out only a little, but what made us laugh was the Erotica bar/strip joint at the end of the ally. We of course took pictures of the ronchy paintings on the wall and of the sign. What was even better was that there was this guy that walked past us at least four times obviously wanting to go in but not wanting us to see because we had been laughing at finding this place.

We decided to keep on our merry way and find the same pub we had gone to the night before ( the first one with the dancing). I got food and we all got to watch some live irish music and at one point some Irish dancing. It was really cool and I really enjoyed it. We then went back to the hostel and got some goodies and decided to hang out in Kari and Katie's room. We chatted and ate and hung out there for a while when in came their other room guests. All french guys ranging between the ages of 25 to 40 I would say. Nice guys. These two Canadian girls (who had obviuosly been drinking) then came in to chat with the french guys, the one of the girls didnt know french so she talked to us instead. What made me feel good about myself was I was able to understand the Canadian girl and the guy she was talking to when they were speaking french to eachother! So cool! I eventually went downstairs and to bed my only adventure that nightbeing that I found that my bed had been stripped of the sheets and stuff (I left all my stuff in a locker, dont worry) and someone had taken my bed. So I got the top bunk (the french couple had left). The music from the club next door was louder than from the bottom bunk, but strangely it didnt bug me. It obviously bother ed the other people in the room (a family) who were swereing in German and were obviously not happy because they couldnt sleep.

So I think that is all I will do for now as this is already long enough, though I hope to conclude my Dublin adventure soon as I already have other tales from this week that must be told!