Going all arseways in IRELAND!

Next stop: Dublin, IRELAND!

I'll tell you right now that despite the rain and the cold and whatever else, Dublin was definitely my favorite city on this trip. I liked the food, the people were friendly, the atmosphere was lively, and I really really like Irish coffee! There, I said it. I'm no alco by any means, but I do go all kinds of arseways for a bit o' Jameson whisky in me coffee! :D

Ok ok I'm kidding. But not really.

When we first arrived in Dublin, Monica and I got lost. We had to take a bus from the airport to the city center to get to our hostel, and since there's no actual bus stop named "city center" or anything related to that, we ended up riding that bus to the other end of town and had to transfer to get back to the city. It wasn't that big of a deal considering the fact that we might have wasted only 30 minutes of time, but the reason why I'm telling this story is because I wanted to express how incredibly adorable the Irish people we met were! The bus drivers were so helpful, but they were really fun to talk to. When we got on the right bus to go back into the city, we explained what happened to the driver so he didn't charge us for a ticket, and he says "You got laahhst did ye? Weeeelll, wuddya gohn do that fer? Ye know it's raaaaynin out. Not a good time fer gettin' lahhst I'd say..." and so on, ha ha (I obviously don't have the official transcript with me, but that's the gist of what he said). He also told us where exactly to get off the bus too. It was bleedin' deadly (that means brilliant)!

I have another "the Irish people are cute and nice" story that concerns us getting food too! We eventually made it to our hostel, but we had to wait a couple hours before we could check into our room, so we dropped off our bags and went out to find something to eat. I really wanted to try fish and chips, so we wandered around O'Connell street, which is a major area, and we passed this shop that sells blocks of perfumed luxury soap. Monica and I were busy staring at the soap when we noticed that one of the workers inside is standing in the middle of the store with this huge grin on his face, and waving us to come in. We thought since he works there, he must know the city, and decided to ask him for a recommendation on a good fish and chips place. He told us about this place called Beshoff's across the street, but he was so cute and friendly that I wanted to put him in my pocket like my own personal leprechaun! But I figured I couldn't do that because of store policy or whatever...

But here's our meal at Beshoff's! We found out that the traditional way to eat it is with vinegar, but I think tartar sauce tastes better.

Afterward, we went back to the hostel to check in, I took a much needed hot shower, and took a nice long nap to re-energize for a night out later on.


When we did go back out, we went the most famous part of Dublin: Temple Bar!
Temple Bar is basically a small area where there are a lot of really nice bars and nightclubs which cater to the tourists, but surprisingly, it's not overly touristy (I wouldn't have liked it as much if it was).




Monica and I had a plan that night to try Irish coffee or a Guinness, depending on how we felt, and then dedicate the next night to drinking whatever we didn't drink on this night. Well, this night ended up being about the Irish coffees...





We found one boozer in particular called The Temple Bar (go figure), which ended up being our favorite place the whole time we were in Dublin.





We went inside first just to check it out and take a few pictures, but ended up staying because the atmosphere was incredible. They had live Irish music, tons of people, and it felt like that cozy, hole in the wall type of place that everyone goes to for a fun night out!

I think the best part for me was the band that was playing as we walked in. You HAVE to listen:

How amazing is that? I felt like I should get up on a table and start riverdancing or something...





Next, we planted ourselves at the bar, and ordered up our first Irish coffee! :D





You see the 2 upside down bottles of whiskey mounted on the wall facing the camera? That's what we had in our coffees. First Paddy's, and then Jameson. (I preferred the Jameson though)





Here I am with the first glass of the night! We ended up having 2.5 coffees each that night (we split the first one), and the side effects included extreme alertness from the coffee part, contradicted by the state of calmness from the whiskey, followed by some giddiness and exhilaration stemming from the realization that we were drinking Irish coffees in Ireland!
(So for me, I basically ended up falling in love with everything in sight) :D

• Side note: I have to mention another really nice Irish person! Our bartender was so helpful to us while we were there. His name was Morgan, and he gave us tips all night on where to go the next day, what to see, where to go eat, and so on. Plus, he acted like our protective older brother in case someone at the bar was being a little too friendly with us. We were so happy to meet him and his tips were amazing, so we ended up writing him a thank you note the next day.

Monica suffered from similar side effects from the coffees as myself, and this picture is a result! (ha ha) It's a hand dryer in the restroom where you put your hands in the two holes and pull them out slowly as the air jets blast your hands dry in less than 10 seconds. I think Monica fell in love with that. :P





As we were walking back to the hostel at the end of our fabulous Irish coffee night, Monica got a picture of me being in love with the city.

And here's Moni hanging off a lamp post!

And then the most amazing thing happened...

I FOUND A LEPRECHAUN!!! :D :D :D :D

(see the green aura thing?)

That definitely made my night!





The next morning, we started off the day with another free tour! (Yes, same company as before) It was pretty interesting, but towards the end of the tour it started raining really hard so it was kind of difficult to focus after that.

Here's part of Dublin castle! We found out it used to also be a prison.

Here's the chapel part of the castle.

Castle from farther away. We learned that the castle-looking part at the top of the tower in the middle was actually added there in the 1970s (if I remember right) to make the castle look more castle-y.

Another part of the castle. Our guide said that today, the building is used as a permanent place for heads of state, so if someone important visits Dublin, such as an ambassador to wherever, they'll probably stay here.


More of the Dublin castle area. By the way, the guy in the red shirt was our guide, and he was really funny. He's from Ireland, and when he introduced himself at the beginning of the tour, he jokingly said that he and people where he's from are like the "white trash" of Ireland according to Dubliners, because he's not from the city.






Here's more of the castle, and yes, it's multi-colored on purpose. We found out that the reason why is because this part of the castle was added later on and the architect "liked those colors", so they just kept it that way. Are you kidding me?






Here's the old Viking church. We found out that the Viking invasions had a lot of impact on Dublin, through infusions with the culture, buildings like this, and so on.






There aren't many remnants of the Vikings left today, but here's a sort of memorial to them in the form of a kind of life-size blueprint of a Viking settlement. It was pretty small for the people who lived there, too- usually about 10 people per house.

Here's me and Monica by the Viking church!

Like I said before, towards the last part of the tour, it started raining really hard, making it difficult to take pictures and continue paying attention, so Monica and I left the tour early to go find a cozy pub that served some hot Irish stew. But don't worry, we didn't miss much. Some of the other things our guide talked about was how the band U2 is from Dublin and got their start there, some of the famous authors and poets from Dublin, and some weird plaques and monuments around the city that don't make sense to Dubliners even, so they make fun of it (think of the rainbow castle, and it's kind of like that).



Here's where we went for the Irish stew! I think Madigan's is a chain throughout Dublin because we saw them all over. But that didn't hurt the quality of the food at all, in my opinion.





Honestly, the rain was a little depressing, and by that time, all we wanted was some hot stew and the chance to relax.

I think I was a bit tired by then too.

But here's what the inside looked like! I really liked how the pubs here all had that warm cozy feeling.




Mmm Irish stew! Veggies and potatoes and big chunks of beef... life was getting tasty at this point!

Here we are ready to chow down!

After filling up on stew, it was still pretty rainy outside, so Monica and I decided to pass the time walking through the shopping district. What we saw there wasn't too different from the styles we have in the US (but definitely not like Glasgow... wow).

When the weather cleared, we ventured out to another area of Dublin that's full of bars and cute little shops. I think this was my favorite area of the city because it had so much more character in the atmosphere and the buildings than in some of the more touristy areas.

Here's some street scenery.

More street.

Just like in the UK, the Irish drive on the left side of the road, making it really difficult for people like me to not get run over. So I'm really glad they put these fool-proof signs on the ground telling us which way to watch for cars. :)






Oh, and this picture is for my boyfriend, who is secretly fascinated by all things economy (but don't tell him I said that). :P


Towards the end of the day, it was time to start looking for another good bar so we could have a real Guinness and enjoy another night out in Dublin!

Here's Monica nibbling on her evening sandwich (I know it looks like something else, but I swear, it was just a sandwich).






We found another bar in the Temple Bar area where they play live Irish music, but I didn't get a video this time because the one from the day before was just too bloody brilliant!

And then we had a Guinness!

Here's Moni with the Guinness!

And here's me with the Guinness!

We found out later that night that it might have been a better idea to order 2 Guinness's instead of just 1 and splitting it, because a guy from Dublin came up to us later to ask if we liked Guinness, and then, why in the hell were we splitting one of we liked it so much. But the funniest thing about this encounter was the fact that we couldn't understand anything he was saying through his accent! It sounded like "mumble mumble mumble Guinness mumble mumble why in God's good graces? mumble mumble tastes like cold coffee and shite! mumble mumble mumble..." Needless to say I did a lot of smiling and nodding. :)

As far as the next day goes, we had all morning to do some last minute sight-seeing and then we had to go back to the airport to catch a flight that afternoon.


To start off the day, we couldn't resist being a little touristy! Here's Monica, the Irish Viking, and some random leprechaun.

Here's a view of O'Connell street in the city center.

One of the rivers in Dublin.

More of O'Connell street. (Notice the driving on the wrong side of the road!)

Hanging off a lamp post!

We found these weird footprint engravings near the Temple Bar area, but there's no explanation for them that we found. They were definitely supposed to be there because they were made very nicely of copper and there were different kinds of prints all over the sidewalk (barefoot, mens dress shoes, womens stilettos). But no plaque or sign, and our tour guide mentioned it the day before too, but he also said he had no idea what they were for. Hmm...

More of the river.

Me and Moni by the river.

Here we are by the famous statue of Molly Malone (although I believe Dubliners call her the 'tart with the cart')!





Ok, I know this isn't so much about Dublin, but I thought it was funny to see a random guy shivering outside by a bar because he was wearing hardly anything. My guess is that he was part of a bachelor party or a sports team.





This is the Millennium Spire on O'Connell Street, and was built at the turn of the century. I think it's more commonly referred to as the 'stiletto by the ghetto' or the 'stiffey by the liffey'. I guess they prefer the rhyming names here.

Me and Moni in front of the spire!

Another unexplainable part of Dublin: this plaque was put on this bridge in memory of the tragic death of someone who never actually existed! At first, no one noticed it, but when the city tried to remove it, the people of Dublin protested for it to remain there since it had been there for so long anyway and they liked it. So it's still there!





Next, we went to this park in the south part of Dublin called St. Stephen's Green.

Look how pretty it is!

Me and the 2 Monica's on the Green!

It's still beautiful even with an overcast day.

Me playing hide-and-go-seek... with myself!

After St. Stephen's Green, we went to see some true Irish whiskey at the Celtic Whiskey Shop!

Monica told me that she was especially interested in seeing the whiskey for her parents, because they usually drink it with their coffee in the mornings (like a Colombian tradition), and that they prefer something like Red Label. So the goal was to find a really good Irish whiskey to bring back and try to convert them. :)

The shop had every brand imaginable, including whiskey from different parts of the world, and they also had a tasting booth so we could try some of it. I tried a brand called Powers, which I thought was a little strong, but still pretty smooth.






Midleton is the most expensive brand of whiskey manufactured in Ireland. The bottle in the chest on the left had been aged for over 30 years already and it was priced at about 2000 euros. I remember Morgan (our bartender from the other night) telling us that a shot of Midleton at The Temple Bar would be about 80-something euros. Eeee!





After the whiskey shop, we went to a bar to just relax and watch some football before going back to the airport. And this time, we took the right bus!


Cheers XOXO

P.S. Here's some more fun Irish slang for you:

• Cheese on your chin (phr): your fly is open!
• BOBFOC (n): Body Off Baywatch, Face Off Crimewatch, eg. "she's a Bobfoc"
• Drink Link (n): a bank ATM
• Gobshite (n): idiot