Thursday morning I was supposed to leave for Dublin. Only problem was I was 15 minutes late to check in and I ended up missing my flight. Stuck in Gatwick airport alone about to cry, I was faced with being a grown up, purchasing another 60 pound ticket and having to wait until 2:40 for the next flight out. I bought a book, ate, people watched, and was bored out of my mind. I had bought tickets to the Guiness Factory for that day and because I missed my flight I didn't think I was going to make it. I ran off the plane, hopped on a bus, prayed, and was able to make it in time before the last tour was allowed in. I wasn't really interested in how the beer was made, I was just interested in my free pint and so was Silvana, so after taking all of the touristy pictures you're supposed to take, we went all the way up to the Gravity Bar (the highest point in Dublin) and had our pint of Guiness.
That night, by fate, we ended up finding Kristin (our phones couldn't connect to each other) and went out to dinner and then hit the town. We bar/pub crawled but apparently Thursday's aren't that hopping so we decided it would be best to get some sleep in our hostel and be alive for the tour the next day.
One thing I have to say about Hostels - they are weird. You're packed in a room with complete strangers and if you've ever slept somewhere you were the slightest bit uncomfortable, you'll know the feeling of waking up and not feeling rested at all. There were three other girls in our room and we didn't meet any of them until the next morning. Imagine knowing two people are sleeping 4 feet away from you and not knowing what they look like because they're sleeping and it's pitch black.
Friday: We met everyone on the tour, and to our surprise we realized that the Australians on the tour outnumbered the Americans. The only other Americans on the bus were these two girls from Tennessee who didn't speak to anyone, and 8 random people from Wisconsin who make me believe no one is normal in that state. They were all awkward so we avoided them at all costs.
I met Aussies from Melbourne (pronounced Melbin), Brisbane, and Sydney. I liked every single one of them. They had awesome accents and were always down for a good time. There were also two guys from London who were absolutely hysterical. I can't wait to meet up with them while I'm here and hang out with them and drink some English tea.
Phil, Matt, Alan, John
John&Matt - the two Aussies from Melbourne who sat behind us and kept us thoroughly entertained the entire time.
Phil&Alan - the two Londonders who were friends from their job. What was their job you ask? They are bookies. That's legal here.
Anyway, Friday we saw the gorgeous Irish countryside in the south and went to Blarney Castle, some pretty beaches, and ended up in Killarney that night. Our tour guide brought us to this bar called O'Connors where we had a night of storytelling by this guy named Pa. Apparently so many men in Ireland are named Patrick that they have at least 5 different nicknames. Pa, Pat, Patsy and so on. He was hysterical and literally chugged 4 pints of Guiness and a shot of whiskey while performing. When I say chugged, think of a pint of Guiness. He was able to drink the entire thing in 3 gulps. It was the most impressive thing I've ever seen, and what's funnier is that's actually how Irishmen drink their Guiness.
Jackson from Wisconsin on the left, Pa on the right
After the storytelling, we went to the Grand Hotel where we danced the night away and drank even more. I found out that both the Irish and Australians don't grind. I'm beginning to think grinding is solely an American dance style...
The next morning we were off to see some beaches with crazy high cliffs surrounding them, and the town of Dingle. It was such a quaint little place, except we spend most of the time in a pub with all of our Australian friends and London boys that we didn't see much of it. That was probably the highlight of the trip. Sitting in this cute little pub, laughing our asses off and talking about the differences between Australia, England, and America.
Dingle
FUNNY STORY! We found out from our mates Matt&John (Aussies) that in Australia guys that hang out and that play footy (soccer) together like to hang out and watch the games ... get ready for it ... completely naked. They said that when they're with their guy friends they just take all of their clothes off and hang out (pun intended). It is completely normal and not gay in any way. Silvana and I were literally on the floor laughing about it.
Can you imagine any of your guy friends (if you are a guy, you and your pals) just hanging out and having someone be like "hmm, I feel like getting naked" and proceeding to just chill in the nude? No, I didn't think so.
Sheep, Sheep, and more Sheep
That afternoon we saw some more Irish countryside and took pretty pictures. That night we ended up in Ennis, another cute town, where we were put in a room with 8 other people. Silvana and I had it good - the other room was filled with 14 people. We got ready and went out to a pub where we just drank and had a good time, again. Let me tell you, we were in heaven. We were surrounded by the most beautiful accents in the world - the british, irish, and australian accents. Not only that, they were all guys (minus the awesome couple from Sydney) so there was no drama and, of course, we got free drinks. At 4 euros a pint, that's a pretty awesome thing to have.
Sunday was absolutely exhausting. We saw the Cliffs of Moher which were really impressive. It was where part of the 6th Harry Potter movie was filmed. It was towards the end when Dumbledore took Harry to those creepy caves where he had to use his blood to enter and whatnot. It is ALSO where the Princess Bride was shot - cliffs of insanity anyone?
Cliffs of Moher
Us & Our London Boys!
We ended up in Galway for lunch, I did some tourist shopping, and we headed back to Dublin! It was sad saying goodbye to all the people we made friends with, but it's awesome to know I have people in all the cities I want to visit in Australia. I was hesitant about whether or not I wanted to go, but this solidified my opinion.
I'm not going to get into detail but it was a shitty flight home. It was delayed, then someone committed suicide by jumping in front of one of the subways so my travels got delayed even more, and then there was a tube strike to the subway stopped way before South Kensinton and I ended up taking a 18 pound taxi ride home. To make it worse, I took a nap today and then woke up feeling like a bus had hit me in the face. I am extremely sick and have to postpone my trip to Paris. Being sick SUCKS.
I'll leave you with some Irish and Australian slang:
Irish:
grand - "how has your day been." "oh its been grand!" they say it all the time
feck - the nicer way of saying fuck. it's not really a curse word apparently.
craic - they're way of saying a good time. if you say the craic was 91 it means you had a fantastic time.
Australian:
slab - a 24 pack of beer
cube - a 30 pack of beer
getting a feed - going for a bite to eat
bird - way of saying chick
and they say aluminum - al-eh-mean-i-yum. so weird.
Have a Grand Night!
Miriam