80's night and Dublin....warning this will be long.

Ok hi kids. So I haven't posted in awahile, therefore this is going to be very very long.

First, on wed night me and Beth and a bunch of our guy friends attended 80's night at a local club, GPO. It was amazing. Think of masque party but with a bunch of Irish people. Thats basically the best I can describe it. Of course it would have been better if you guys actually had been there. So anyways we danced all night to crappy american 80's music, while the boys protected us from any unwanted irish boys. It was so funny anytime a creepy Irish guy would come up to us, they would just elbow them away. I must say I am a pretty big fan of the body guards. O yea, also before we went out we pregammed and I taught them fuck you pyramid. Which I was shocked to learn, none of them had ever heard of. Anyways I taught them the wonderfulness of the game and we proceeded to the club. So much fun but it made me miss you guys like crazy.

Next, the following day was unevnetful, made some good dinner, chicken pizza patty thing, it was delicious, I must say I'm turning into a pretty good cook. Roomies, next year we shall be eating well. After good food I basically packed for the weekend and such, we went to bed early becuase we had a bus to catch at 6 am the next morning. Once on the bus the adventure to Dublin began, and boy was it crazy.

Ok so we get to Dublin by like 9 o'clock in the morning. We get our barrings and head off to our hostel, Brown's. Now I don't know how many of you have ever been to a hostel but I found it kind of creepy. It wasnt all bad but it definatly was not as clean as I was suspecting. Two of the girls we were with, were completly creeped out and decided right then that they would only be spending one night. Ok so after checking the hostel, and dropping of our bags we walked around Dublin and took loads of pictures (will be put up on facebook in the near future.) We went everywhere, St. Patricks Cathedral, Trinity College, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Stephens green, the book of Kells and more places I cant even remeber because I don't have my camera in front of me. Next we headed off to the Guiness Brewery. I could not come to Dublin and not go there. I think we probably spent like 2 hours there becuase it was so interesting, and people were enjoying there free pint. I didnt get mine becuase well, Guiness is gross. I really do not enjoy it at all, so I gave mine to my friend Gerry. The best part about the Guiness factory was that it had a 360 degree room at the very top so while you sipped your Guiness you could look out over Dublin and take photos. Very cool. After Guiness we went to Dublin castle. But it was closed so we just took pictures of the outside. Very pretty (Sara you'll be proud of my artsy stuff). Next we walked around for like an hour just trying to find a cheepish place to eat that wasnt fast food, becuase we were not coming all the way to Dubln and eating at McDonalds. Thats just lame. Finally we found somewhere and then headed off to buy some beer and sandwhich stuff for the next day.

Upon our return to the Hostel we got ourselves pretty and went down to the common room to pregame before heading to the pubs. Ok this is where the story gets creepy. Lots of older foreign men were hitting on us the entire time. It was so gross. We chugged faster than I ever have in life and then proceeded to go to Temple Bar area to see the pub scene. It was very cool, a little upsetting because some of the places wouldnt let us in. Did you know some places over seas are 21 to enter? Rediculous I know! But anyways we ended up meeting some very nice american boys, Matt and Pat. Matt talked with my one friend while me and Pat chatted the entire night. Pat is from Hartford, Conn, he is a photographer, and takes mainly sports photos. He is also a magician. it was super cool the tricks he did and so creepy. Like he made ashes go from his friends cigarette, into my hand. Needless to say I was freaked out. It was really nice to talk to him, and he ended up coming back to the hostel and we talked until 3 in the am. Its just so nice to find someone you really enjoy talking to, we exchanged emails and hopefully we will stay in touch. I know i'll probably never see him again but it was amazing.

The next morning proceeded in sleeping in and then getting ready for our next excursion. We made peanut butter sandwiches to eat along the way and headed out to find phoneix park and the presidents house. Tip for any of you ever going to Dublin, bring a really good map and something that will make you impenitrable to water. We got lost, got bad directions and ended up walking 2-3 miles in the pouring rain before we eventually found the house. We talked with a garda officer outside of the house who was super nice and helped us find where we wanted to go. Remember at this point we were compeltly drenched from head to toe, tired and the one girls umbrella had broken. So we contiued on and as we were walking we saw the president of Ireland pull into her house. How cool is that? Pretty awesome. By the time we reached the visitors center we walked in to get some hot choclate and it started hailing! I cant even imagine if we would have been outside for it. By this point the two girls who had decided to leave that night were feed up and decided to do the tour and then get a taxi to catch there bus. I can't imagine coming to irealnd, wearing jackets w/out hoods and bad walking shoes and not having a good time? I mean really. I dont understand why you dont plan appropraitly and enjoy your time. But anyways. We took the tour of the presidents house, very cool. And let me say its so different then the US. They told us she was in the house, we didnt have to go through any metal detectors or anything. It was so laid back and casual. But I guess no one wants to kill the Irish President. From there we went to the National Museum of Ireland and looked around for awahile. It was cool because they talked about stuff I am learning about in my two Irelands course. From there we went back to the hostel to take a quick nap so we could go out again.

After our nap we went to GPO. Now if you have been reading this whole thing you might be thinking of GPO the night club that I went to last week, but this time GPO stands for General Post Office. It's were the 1916 rising against England took place. It was pretty cool, and I mailed some postcards to family. (Dont worry guys yours will be coming soon). Next we headed to SuperMacs. A fast food place that is basically a McDonalds, Chick-fil-A, Sabarro, Subway, and Baskin Robbins mix that is absolutly delicious. We have them in Galway so I have been to one before, but i've never mentioned it before. But anyways it is asoluty delicious and if you ever go to one, have the garlic fries. They are o so good. Next we went and bought more beer to pregame with and headed back to the hostel to pregame with the creppy old men. Ewww. Ewww. But we survived we hit the Dublin night scene again and had a grand time. We met lots of Irish guys, some australian ones and even busted a 21st birthday party. The night was a success and we headed back to the hostel for sleep before mass in the morning.

As our journey in Dublin came to a close we attended mass at Our Lady Lords. The parish loved us we got a shot out in the beginning to the visiting Galway students, and also my roomie sarah was the lector. After mass we chatted with the priest, Father Jim, who get this got his MA from La Salle, is a personal friend of Bro. Mike Miginnes and served as part time pastor at our chapel! Small world huh? It was pretty cool. Following mass we went to the Mercy Sisters founding house because two of my friends, Erin and Kathleen attended schools run by them. The nuns were so nice and welcoming. Following this we pretty much ran back to our hostel picked up our things, grabbed supermacs for lunch and then ran to our bus. Which we missed. We thought it left at 3:15, nop 3. So the nice guy at the internet cafe let us sit and have a little picnic on the floor till the 4 o'clock bus came.

So that was Dublin, a crazy sometimes sketchy adventure. I decided it was nice but I definatly like Galway more. Galway feels much more Irish and Dublin has an air of americanized city. It was nice to visit but Im glad I am studying in Galway.

Ok so I think that is enough for now I have bored you all way to much. Anyways I hope classes are going well and I heard it snowed! lucky ducks! Miss you all!

Slán agat