The Dubliners

The most challenging part of my life right now is trying to get to the next level on the game on my flip phone. I'm going to go ahead and say I'm doing something right. 

Last weekend I flew to Ireland where I cried over Degas, was silenced by Yeats, and granted "gab" from Blarney.

We booked this trip back in August, thinking we were expert planners. We were going to fly out of Brussels- Charleroi after a day of interning in Brussels. The sheer genius and practicality unraveled very quickly when we found out:

1. Brussels- Charleroi is an hour outside Brussels by train 

2. We don't intern on Thursdays 

3. We have a night class on Thursday night 

We expertly combatted this by missing 1.5 / 2 of our classes on Thursday and sprinting/ panting/ speeding/ crying/ sweating/ cursing our way onto the plane- getting to the airport as boarding started. Luckily Ryanair was pretty quick to get through. I did however spot some security glitches. For instances, how are you going to take your sweet old time patting me down (so violating) and then not make me take off my shoes or take my liquids out of my carry on? Well, we got there so OVER IT. 

Hungry, tired, and needing to rally we decided to grab dinner before making our way to Trinity College, where we would be staying for the weekend. (Shout out to Kaitlynn's friend Liam!) We picked a random restaurant that looked like it had good food, vibes, and prices. Guess who we saw there???? THE STATUE OF LIBERTY! DRESSED IN AN AMERICAN FLAG! #doingitwrong 

After dinner, we went to Trinity, where we settled into our room- a single. One bed. I want to say dimensions around 8'x10'. We changed and went right out. Once in the bar, we found a table in a corner where we could chill after our exhausting travel day and have a few drinks. The pub got more and more crowded as we sat there drinking our Bulmers (Irish Cider). At one point, a guy at the table behind us fell back into me, laughing too hard at a video on Barstool. He felt bad and got us all drinks. From that point on, we somehow gathered a merry band of American misfits in Ireland.

We touristed HARD on Friday, first (after coffee) hitting the National Gallery of Ireland which stumbles on of my favorite Degas paintings. There were tears.

Two Dancer in their Dressing Room -Edgar Degas

We also went to the National Library, National History Museum, St. Stephen's Green, and St. Patrick's Cathedral before collapsing into our barstools and ending our day of adventures with our new favorite Cider: Bulmers. Please let me find you again in the States! 

Friday night, we hit Porterhouse, a notable Dublin bar where we found 2 for 1 Daiquiris and Chicken wings that we promptly devoured, having not eaten since our Burrito Bowls at lunch #doingitwrong. On our quest for another bar, we were lured out of the rain by the warm and familiar sounds of Sweet Home Alabama, which was ironic as we soon realized we were the only Americans in the bar. We danced the night away, requesting Roar and We Can't Stop "for the Americans." We got some weird looks as we belted out our pop anthems. 

The next morning, we were up at out of the room by 8:00 to make our PADDY WAGON TOUR to the Blarney Castle, with stops in Cork and Cobh!!! 

Not only where we thrilled about our blatantly tourist adventure into the Irish country side, but we also got to see two of our CUA friends, Maggie and Lauren, who are currently studying abroad in Dublin. Glad to see someone we knew outside our 25 person program, we gabbed our way to Blarney, comparing our internships, classes, and bar stories. In Cobh we fell in love with a Cathedral and the sun drenched coast. After a rushed lunch, in which we were forced to grab our "chips" and run, we got back in the bus and were soon at the Blarney Castle. Jovial from the sun and being outside city limits, we took goofy pictures and ran around the castle like children. We also got to kiss the Blarney Stone! I tried to take my dearest roommate Christina for a little walk in the poison garden, so I could get the annex to myself, but she was onto me. 

After our excursion, we made the three hour trip back to Dublin, only to find that the beef stew dinner we had been promising ourselves since our arrival in Dublin was just out of reach. We ended up at an Italian place #doingitwrong. Or maybe we were doing it right because I had the most insanely delicious meal I've had since I got to this continent. I had grilled mussels and a tomato stuffed with ricotta cheese, eggplant, and heaven dust. Oh and french fries. I can't not, ya know?

The highlight of dinner however was meeting the only other patrons dining at 23:30: a table of about 35 men. They decided to include us in their little awards ceremony. For these awards, the six of us girls had to reach into a bag and pull out a wrapped gift with a label that we read out. Now these labels weren't Tom, Mark, Vladimir, etc. Rather, they were titles of awards, like "Fastest Hands" and "Best Package" and "Worst Line Judge." We had so much fun picking out the winners and being a part of their tradition that year. The shutdown jokes flowed freely from those darling Irish men, but we ended the night with an epically gratifying USA chant. Chanting USA in an Italian restaurant in Dublin. What?

It was a really really great weekend.

High: Blarney Castle with Maggie and Lauren
Low: Sleeping on the floor like a broken animal
Souvenir: A book called Remembered Kisses of Irish love poems paired with
love paintings by Irish artists (everything I love: books, love, poems, art) (I just need to read it while eating French Fries and drinking coffee in a garden) (while wearing stripes and pearls)


Oh and here's the kicked: I didn't have classes on Monday or work Tuesday and Thursday. Muahaha! My own little mini Fall break!