Dublin, Ireland

Dublin May 17-20

Maura, Alex, and I spent our 4 day weekend in Dublin, Ireland. We got in on Thursday night and went out to Temple bar to sample some Irish beer. Even though I was in an English speaking country, I would start to talk to people I didn’t know in Spanish. Spanish is now my default… maybe it’s a good problem to have. Right as we were about to leave because we wanted to have a “low key/ early night”, a group of Irish guys threw a coaster at us to get our attention. They were a crazy and a lot of fun so we were surprised to find out that they are all elementary school teachers. They taught us some slang including “what’s crack” meaning what’s up, how are you, or you can use it to mean you’re having a great time.

We also had the opportunity to meet Obamas 8th cousin, Henry, who is from Ireland. He was at Temple Bar that night after coming from a charity dinner and our Irish friends told us to go say hi. We figured he was lying, but after searching the internet we really did meet Obamas cousin.  We failed in the picture department because we forgot to get a picture with him.

On Friday we went to a park and took a 2 hour nap on the grass. We were so exhausted from the night before. Then toured the Guinness factory to learn the beer making process, learned how to properly use all our senses to taste beer, and went to “Guinness Academy” to learn the 6 steps for pouring a perfect glass of Guinness.

That evening we got back to our hostel around 8 to rest and eat dinner before going back out on the town. We were planning on going out but our power nap turned into a slumber. I laid down around 10 and didn’t wake up until 10 the next morning. I hadn’t even changed out of my clothes from the day before. Oops, guess I was tired.

After 12 hours of sleeping I was recharged for the day and ready to roll on Saturday. We went to Starbucks, a wax museum, hit up tourist shops, went to Trinity College, St. Patricks cathedral, and had an authentic Irish meal of fish and chips. Back at the hostle we watched cricket in the lounge and met a group of 5 guys from England. They were in Ireland celebrating their friends’ birthday. We had fun talking with them and comparing British English slang to American English slang. Another “low key night” turned into staying out until 5AM.

My favorite part about Ireland was the people. Everyone was so friendly, welcoming, and funny! For example, we pulled out our map to figure out how to get to the Guinness factory and a cute little old man stopped and said “what beautiful girls! Welcome to Ireland. So glad you’re here. Do you need help finding anything?” When we were at the Guinness factory one of the workers talked with us for a while and gave us tips for places to go around Dublin. He even invited us to watch his band play music at a bar later that week. We would be back in Spain then, but it was a nice gesture. I loved the people of Dublin and had so much with Alex and Maura!