Dublin Publin

Hello blog followers! I'm sorry I have been so suckful at updating but now I finally have a good chunk of time to think and write so here it is... the epic entry that will cover the last 2 weeks... where should I begin? How about our weekend in Dublin?

So on June 26th, a group of about 18 of us went to Dublin. We left Galway on the bus at 4 PM. Kristi and I sat behind this really cute gay couple who were talking about going to the parade and they seemed really cool. I wanted to talk to them but I was too shy. We got in around 7:30ish and wandered around trying to find our hostel. Once we did, we changed and went out to try to find something to eat. My first impression of Dublin was that it was a bit too crazy for me. I know it sounds weird coming from a girl who works in Manhattan but I've been away from there for so long and gotten used to the Galway atmosphere which, although the nightlife is great, has far less people. We kept looking for somewhere to eat but because it was so late by the time we got out, all the kitchens in the pubs had closed so we had to settle for this Native American pizza/smoothie/bagel place named Urban Apache?? It sounds like the most random, obscure grouping of things but we got this delicious olive & mushroom pizza from there and were able drink the 2 euro cheap-ass cider we got from the off licence next door with it so all was well. After that, we went looking for somewhere to drink. We got to The Temple Bar area but everything was so packed and crazy that we couldn't even fit into most place (and there were only about 8 of us). We ended up at this pub called Farrington's and, because it was already so late by then, Kristi, Sarah and I ordered a pint of cheap beer & a shot of cheap vodka (classy, I know) to jump start the night. We sat and listened to some good music for a while and then, while simply trying to order some Guinness and mind our own business, we yet again got made fun of for drinking an old, Irish men's beer. We tried to defend ourselves but to no avail. Luckily, the guys who were giving us a hard time ended up being cool and we hung out with them for the rest of the night. They were a football (read: soccer) team who had just had their last match of the season and were out celebrating. Daryl, the captain of the team who I was talking to, was really nice and he and his friends ordered Kristi, Sarah and I "Baby Guinness" shots which were mostly Tia Maria, a coffee liquer, and some Bailey's. The Bailey's sat on top of the Tia Maria so it looked like a lil' Guinness in a shot glass. It was very tasty. After Farrington's, we walked around looking for more places to go and attempted to get into this one club but, because of the Gay Pride Parade that was happening the next day, it was a "Ladies Night" and the guys couldn't get in. We ended up at this one pub which, although it looked normal and traditional on the upper floor, looked more like a grungy basement down below which is where the music was. The best comparrison I can make is to the scene in the beginning of Across The Universe when Jude and his lady are singing "Hold Me Tight" at the punk rawk show. Anywho, after that, we returned to the hostel at some ungodly hour and, in an attempt to brush my teeth, stumbled upon Mike, another kid on our trip, sprawled out on the floor and hugging the toilet in the co-ed bathroom. That was a fun surprise. We went to bed and woke up at 9 AM the next morning in order to get the "free breakfast" the hostel provides which turned out to be toast & coffee. Sweet. After everyone was up and recovered, we set out for the Kilmainham Gaol on foot with one map and no idea of where we were going. We walked for about half an hour on the backroads and through a residential area yet miraculously found it. While sitting outside waiting for the stragglers, Kristi and I saw two faces who looked oddly familiar. Upon further examination, we decided that it was Gavin & John, the two guys we met in The King's Head in Galway a week prior (see June 25th's post)! We went up to them and said hello, both groups unable to believe that we were randomly running into each other again. Small world, huh? Anyway, after that we took a tour of the jail which was very interesting and then hopped on the bus in hopes to meet up with Luis & Sharkie, two of my friends from Lehigh who just happened to be in Dublin for the weekend too. We found them on O'Connell Street and walked around looking for food. We found a Middle Eastern place and sat down for a delicious lunch of falafel. Afterwards, we returned to where the parade was supposed to be going and realized, after a bit of searching, that we definitely missed it. We are assholes lol I guess we didn't realize how long we were taking at lunch and, having only had experience with the HUGE NYC Pride parade, I kind of assumed it would last more than a half hour so yeah... That was kind of dissappointing :-/ we did see a bunch of people with rainbow flags walking around but nothing like last year's parade in the city. Oh well. After that, we parted ways with the boys and Kristi, Sarah and I met up with everyone else again and we all went on the tour of the Guinness storehouse. That was AWESOME. With admission, you ticket stub got you got a free pint that you could redeem either at the Pour Your Own Pint station or the Gravity Bar at the top of the place. On our way up, we decided that it would be sweet to be able to say that we poured our own pint of Guinness in Ireland so we used our ticket stub there. It was fun and we got certificates and everything. After we had finished there, we decided to head up to the Gravity Bar even though we wouldn't be able to get a drink up there but just to check out the sweet view of Dublin. On the way up, this random couple in front of us turned around and went "Hey, do you guys need extra ticket stubs?" We had no idea how they would've known that we had used ours already but we didn't argue. We got up there and the bartenders poured Guinnesses with 3-leaf clovers in the foam. It was awesomeeee. After we left, we hopped on the bus that we thought was going to bring us close to home but apparently, it was the last bus of the night and we were at the end of the line so we had to walk home from O'Connell Street. It was alright though because it was a nice out. When we got home, Sarah, Adam, Kristi and I went out to dinner and I got bangers & mash which was yummo. Back at the hostel, we drank a lil' and then went to this pub called The Turk's Head. We stayed there for a bit, Adam & I danced a lil' and then we got Kristi birthday shots for her birthday which started at midnight! Once some people came, we decided that it was time to leave so we went to The Temple Bar and sang and danced a bunch. Another birthday party group came in who happened to be in Dublin for the parade and we talked to them for a lil. Kristi tried to get the pink birthday hat from the birthday boy but was unsuccessful. After that, we decided it was time to go home but first, Abrakebabra (which I had been calling Abrakedabra all weekend and only realized on Sunday that that wasn't the name of it...oops?) I got chicken fingers and then we went to bed. The next morning, we realized that Tommy hadn't come home which wasn't good especially because he doesn't have a cell phone with him in Ireland but we didn't really have time to figure out where he was because we had to check out by 10:30 AM. After we found him, we went out to breakfast where I had a delicious omlette and then headed back to the Guinness factory to buy souviners because our bus ticket was still valid. We rode the bus around for a while because it was one of those tour buses with the open tops and live commentary by the driver who was this crazy awesome Irish guy who sang songs and told us a lot about everywhere he drove past. Then, we went to Trinity College to see The Book of Kells but it cost 10 euro to get in and it had already been a very expensive weekend and we didn't even really know what we were going to see so we just decided not to go. Instead, we sat on a bench outside to rest for a bit and ended up getting pooped on :-/ just our luck. After that, Sarah was pretty sad so we found a Starbuck's for her (the FIRST one I've seen in Ireland! How sweet is that?) We met up with the rest of the group, walked back to the hostel, got sandwiches on the way, and headed to the bus. We got on and saw the same gay guys we sat behind on the bus ride there! Second small world realization of the trip. Anywho, that's about it. Although it was a lot of fun, a lot of people who went were saying that they were glad we are studying abroad in Galway and not in Dublin because it is too crazy there and Galway is more quaint while still having a lot of stuff to do in it. Phewf. That was a mouthful. I think I'll leave the Dingle recap until later today or tomorrow.... I have to go to the gym today (in the rain :-/ meh) and maybe do something besides writing in my blog so yeah. Until then...

So...about updating this thing...

Yeah...I've been pretty bad lately. Sorry about that. I have a LOT to write about, just no time to do it. I have to recap the weekend in Dublin and this past weekend in Dingle but I have a test tomorrow so after that, I promise a nice, long post. It'll be worth the wait, I promise. Thanks for the patience. Hope the States are well! Rainy regards :-)

Oh yeah, almost forgot...

[02:10] HCXC eharp: oh so while u leave our country michael jackson dies
[02:10] HCXC eharp: nice job

RIP?

Dear Rugby, where have you BEEN all my life?

Rugby is the most awesome sport ever. That's it. Hands down. No competition. Here's why: So tonight a bunch of us get taken by bus to this "touch/flag rugby" tournament. It's kinda like American Beer League softball in that the teams are comprised of people you work with or whatnot and they're co-ed. So there are like 8 different pitches that teams are playing on and this guy walking around in a Ben Franklin-y outfit blowing a fog horn every so often to signify the end of matches. Obviously he was dressed like that because he was supposed to be the "town crier" of olden times who would go out into the streets and say "Hear ye, hear ye!" every time there was news to be heard. There were no uprights and like I said, it was like flag rugby so there wasn't any tackling but instead, if you got a flag pulled off of you, you had to stop and put the ball down. If a guy scored it was worth 1 point but if a girl scored (by some FREAK chance of events, obvi) it was worth 3 points! There had to be 3 girls on each side of 10 but if there were 4, and 1 of them scored, the try was worth 4 points. Yowza. So yeah, there were tons of ruggers all over the place and it made me miss rugby/want to play REAL bad. And that was before the Fancy Dress Parade. Just wait. So after all the games finished, everyone started getting dressed up into these costumes like it was Halloween or something. Each team was something different like The Simpsons or Lego people or Swine Flu or the cast of Shrek or Vikings and then they had a parade kinda thing on the pitch....what??? lol It was awesome. Everyone was drunk and silly and totally into it and it just looked like such a good time. I wish there could be anything like that in America. It just made me realize how laid back everyone is here and just interested in having a good time. Ireland really is an awesome place so far. I have very few complaints besides the lack of wireless internet in the apartments, the dirty tasting drinking water, and the fact that the dollar sucks here but that's not their fault! Everyone is so friendly and interesting and ugh. Definitely not New Yorkers lol anywho, yeah. Just wanted to write about that because it was so sweet. I should be getting to bed because I have a long day/weekend ahead of me. Tomorrow's schedule is as follows: wake up at 7:30, finish reading for class, go get bus ticket to Dublin, class 9-10, gym 10-11:30ish, back to the apartment to shower, work, class 2-3, back home to pack, eat sometime in there perhaps?, bus to Dublin at 5, arrive about 9ish?, drop stuff off, eat again maybe?, PARTAYYYYY! Then Saturday we're probably going to go to the Pride parade, then the Guinness factory then who knows? It should be a fun fun weekend :-D Alright, I'm gonna need all the sleep I can get before this weekend commences so I'm going to get to bed. I'll recap the best of the weekend on Monday. Until then....

So it's been a few days...

I'm getting a lil' lazy with this blog thing but I'm going to try to keep up. Right now, I'm not feelin so hot so I'm trying to waste time at work until I have to leave at 4 to go to a viewing of "The Quiet Man" for my Lit & Film class.
Last night was fun. There was a welcome reception at the college bar for all the American students. A group from Villanova is also here as well as some kids from Albany, Marquette, Michigan, etc. There was free finger foods like chicken fingers, lil' egg rolls, french fries, sandwich squares, potato wedges, etc. and we also got 2 free drink tickets. A bunch of people in the group don't drink so they were giving other people their drink tickets so Kristi, Sarah, Kendall and I all ended up with more than we were supposed to which was probably a bad idea but oh well. We discovered this new mixed berry cider called Kopparberg which was very delish so we had that. The reception thing started at 5:15 PM though so by 8 we were well on our way to being silly. We got home and I made cheesy potatoes and played Name That Tune with Adam. I was very impressed. He is quite the music buff. After that, we wandered around the apartment a little, hanging out with everyone and playing some games and then at around 11:15 we finally left to go to the pubs. While walking there, however, we somehow managed to lose everyone and Kristi and I ended up going into the Kings Head by ourselves. She didn't have her ID on her though so she used mine and got in fine. The second we get in there, these 3 40-something year old guys start talking to us and ask us what we're drinking. We, being poor, drunk college kids, tell them Guinness and talk to them for about 5 minutes before 2 24-year-old guys pull us over and start talking to us. They said we looked like we needed saving and we thanked them thoroughly. They ended up being very nice guys. They both went to Uni of Scranton for undergrad and one of them lived in Philly, while the other was an Irish guy. Gavin and John were their names. They said they would be in Dublin this weekend and that we should give them a call if we're looking for something to do, in a completely friendly, not-hitting-on-us way. They even walked us home. Nice fellahs. When we got back, Kristi and I set off the fire alarm twice trying to make toast and then Adam started a Nutella fight. Now that I think about it, that was the 2nd Nutella fight I've been in...odd... I went to bed and woke up feeling yucky at 8:30 so I had some Cheerios and went back to bed til 11. I got up, made myself a PB&J and walked to the film school. Emily went out and brought me back a chicken cutlet, lettuce & garlic mayo sandwich and a brownie and now I am just waiting for Sarah to get here so we can walk to class together.
Other than that, not much has gone on in the past 2 days. Our 1st day of class was yesterday. The keynote speaker was very interesting in that he was talking about the importance of an interdisciplinary education and such. He seemed very passionate about Irish Studies. The professor of my Lit & Film class is American (I think? He has no acccent) so that's kind of a bummer because I thought I'd have a legit Irishman teaching me but I guess it'll be good in that I'll be able to understand him better. We already have a bit of reading to do for tomorrow which will be interesting to get done because I have that movie viewing from 4-5:30 today and then at 7:30 we are going to see the Galway Corinthians Rugby Club match and social afterwards. I have class at 9 and 2 tomorrow and then we head to Dublin for the weekend! I am very excited about that. The Dublin gay pride parade is that weekend and Sarah really wants to go to it. We are also going to tour the Guinness factory and enjoy the nightlife and such. I'm going to have to do laundry once we get back though because I am running low on undies and to be honest, the laundry I did for 3 days straight in the crappy machines in the apartment kind of smells like mildew so I'll probably run those again at the laundromat. I'm not going to go to the gym today but I have gone the past 3 days and done the workout that Robbie planned for me. It's hard and I sweat a lot because it's so hot in there and they don't give you towels but it feels good afterwards. I'm pretty sure I've lost some weight since I've been here because I haven't been eating that much so I guess it negates the calories from drinking...hmmm.... Whatever works. Anywho, I should probably pretend to be doing work for the next 15 minutes before I leave. More tomorrow...orrrr when we get back from Dublin. Ta ta!

Ben Taylor & Hurling

So, I am in love. Tonight, a bunch of us went to this pub called Róisín Dubh (which means "Little Black Rose" in Irish) and saw Ben Taylor, David Saw, and John Forté perform. The show was amazing. I plan on downloading lots of their stuff as soon as I get home because the internet here certainly won't allow it. Maybe even order a shirt from one of their sites. They were so personable after the show too and very down to Earth. (In case you don't know, Ben Taylor is James Taylor & Carly Simon's son so he's kind of a big deal, and John Forte used to perform with The Fugees so yeah. Cool stuff) I got them to sign a coaster cuz I'm a poor college kid and didn't have enough Euros on me to buy a CD and we got pictures with them too. AND I was successful in stealing my Guinness pint glass tonight too! I'm glad we took them tonight beause we failed in nabbing our Heineken glasses on Saturday night and those were meaningful ones as well. Overall, a good night I'd say. Before that Adam and I cooked a yummy dinner of chicken and pasta (suprise!) and prior to that, I was at the gym. I tried the workout my trainer, Robbie, made up for me last Friday the first time today and let me tell you...I am going to be sore in the morning :-/ But I think it'll probably be a good kind of sore that will make me feel less guilty about the quantity of calories I am drinking every night. And before that, we had a hurling lesson from Eamon O'Shea, a coach for the County Tipperary senior men's hurling team. It is quite the sport. It's almost like a cross between field hockey and lacrosse except they don't wear any pads (which Eamon made quite clear by comparing it to the wusses who play American football) and the sticks (which are called hurleys) don't have any pockets. They're just plain wood -- ash to be exact. We only did a few drills and hit the ball around a bit but it was fun to learn. Apparently it's pretty huge here and most kids start playing when they're 3 or 4. I just thought it was funny because there we were, about thirty 19-21 year old kids on this field learning what children are taught here when they are 4. Sadly, I don't think we're going to get to see a hurling match while we're here but it's entirely possible that we're going to see a football (for all you Americans, that's soccer ;-) lol) game which should be LOTS of fun. I'm excited. Anywho, it's 1:47 AM here and I'm pooped so I'm going to get to bed. Until next time...

Hello Blogger!

Hello all! This is my blog from Ireland. I'm going to write in it so that I don't have to tell all the same stories over and over again and everyone can be updated on a day-to-day basis if they'd like. Anywho, so...where to begin? Well it's 11:10 AM right now and I woke up in the living room on the mattress from my bed that I had moved there last night at 4 AM when I decided it was time to go to bed. Needless to say, it was a wee bit confusing at first. I tried to go back to sleep but my body wasn't having it. I'll probably take a pretty solid nap later but for now, I'll stay awake and write.
Yesterday was a lot of fun. We woke up and went to the farmer's market they have in town every Saturday. It's SO cool. I wish we had more of those near us because not only do they have locally grown fruits and veggies, but they also have tons of other stuff like cheese stands, crepe vendors, people selling breads, tarts, fish, donuts, pretzels, other baked goods, etc. And then of course you have the people who are trying to jewlery, clothing, candles, bags, etc. and ALL of it is either hippieish or very traditionally Irish. Basically, it's awesome and I'm in love. Too bad we're not going to be able to go to it next weekend or the following one because we'll be in Dublin & then Dingle. Oh well, both of those trips should be pretty sweet as well. At the farmer's market I got a crepe with mixed cheese, ham, fried onions, and dijon mustard on it. It was absolutely delicious and very filling.
When we got back, I started making hot tea that I was then planning on putting in the fridge in order to get iced tea because the water here tastes really bad and dirty and I'm becoming dehydrated because lots o' beer + crappy tasting water that I don't want to drink = not a happy, hydrated Dianna. So I'm microwaving these cups of water and all of a sudden, the fire alarm goes off in the building. Now I start freaking out because I thought somehow I had done it. (Note: our professor/the landlord of the building have both warned us time and time again about not setting the fire alarm off because someone did it last year when they put potatoes on the stove after a pretty drunken night and fell asleep and the fire trucks had to come and she had to pay 150 euro and I REALLY didn't want to do that because I'm going broke as it is so that would really burn a hole in my wallet.) So we're waiting outside all hoping to God that it wasn't something any of us had done to set it off because anything can happen in these ever-so-lovely-and-definitely-not-faulty apartments. After about 20 minutes, one of our TA's came back and shut it off and everything was fine. Someone was cooking bacon and didn't put the air vent on I guess. Definitely required evacuation.
Anywho, after that a bunch of us walked over to "uni" (that's what they call college here) and played a game of ultimate frisbee on the big lawn they have there. It was a lot of fun. I am so jealous that they have that huge lawn right smack dab in the middle of their campus AND that their campus is horizontal rather than vertical. It's nice not to break a sweat walking to and from places everyday (the daily rain and overall nippiness may factor into that a bit as well).
After the game which my team, Flower Power (not by my choosing, I swear), lost, we all headed back and a bunch of us came into my room to watch this Irish movie, Once. We borrowed it from the film school that I'm interning at along with the DVD player we watched it on and a ton of other "fil-ems" as well (that's how they pronounce it here). It was an interesting movie. I think I'd say I liked it, mostly because of the great music that was in it, but I'd definitely have to see it again to decide how I feel about the plot and all because I probably missed some vital dialogue simply because I couldn't understand what they were saying. Here's the famous song from the movie that apparently won some big award: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoSL_qayMCc
It's really beautiful.
After the movie we made dinner of pasta & sauce with sauteed string beans which was tasty and finished the remainer of Adam's birthday pie which the TA's had bought for him (he was there so it's ok). Before going out, we hung out with some of the other people on the trip that we don't hang out with much so that was fun and then we headed to The Quays. Although we do really like that place, we were heading there mostly to see this guy play who we had heard the previous night but when we got there, there was a DJ set up. I guess there was a lack of communication and we got to the wrong place or time? Who knows. So we left and headed to The Kings Head which was a lot of fun. My friend Sarah was with me and we ran into the trainer from our gym who set up a personal training routine for both of us. He's 20 and is going to America, specifically PA, in a week. He is studying physical fitness education or something at school and is co-oping for the summer and tried to get a job at Lehigh, small world huh? Anyway, we ended up hanging out with him and some of his friends for the rest of the night. After we finished at The King's Head we headed to my 1st club of the trip! People have been going to them since we've been here but I've never ended up at one so Cuba was my first. It was...interesting. Very loud, very dark with flashing lights, kiiiinda Eurotrash but fun still. Overall, a very good day/night. Well, that's really all for now. Suprisingly the internet is working very well right now so I'm going to go try to upload some more pictures while I still have the opportunity.
Until next time... :-)