When Irish eyes are smiling!!!

Hey Guys!

I can’t begin to explain to you how great Ireland is. Granted, I only saw Dublin, but I met some of the most amazing people, saw some of the coolest things, listened to the greatest music and partied like there was no tomorrow.

Sarah and I left on Wednesday, arriving in Dublin at 3:00pm. Our first stop was our hostel – Litton Lane – which, by they way is fabulous! It is a little noisy, but it is central to EVERYTHING, and the people are great! That night we decided to go bar hopping (no point in staying in one place when you can go to many!!!). We started off at a bar that was playing live music and we bought our first Guinness! Next we went into another pub which was also playing live music. Here we met three Irish guys. They ended up showing us all the cool pubs in Temple Bar. I think I’m beginning to look younger instead of older, because I’ve never been carded so much in my life!!! It only became an issue when I was trying to get into the bars that were 21+.

The next day, we did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of Dublin. Our fist stop was the Guinness Breweries. I got to see how the beer was made (I had no idea beer was made with Barley!), learn all about its history, see cool advertisements and drink a pint of Guinness (it was 11:30am!!!). Next on the list were Dublin Castle, Christ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedral. I was a little disappointed by Dublin Castle because, although it was very pretty from the outside, we were not allowed to go in. The two cathedrals were great…full of history and beauty! We also got to walk in the St Stephen’s Green Park, (which is HUGE, and very green) and see the Dublin doors (their doors are painted different colours, such as red, green, blue and yellow!!!!!) That night we ate dinner at Gruel…it’s fabulous. It looks a little grungy from the outside, and you order your food from a blackboard, but the atmosphere is great and the food is delicious. I ordered bangers and mash. This would have been a little more confusing had I gone to a restaurant and saw the words “bangers and mash” on the menu, but Stephy gave me the heads up and I thoroughly enjoyed my sausages and mashed potatoes!!! We then headed over to a bar and watched an Irish dancing show and listened to live Irish folklore. We were standing near the bar and an old man came up to me and asked if I was the Canadian he had been speaking too while on the bus tour. I said yes and he said that he was there alone and had two seats available if we didn’t mind sitting with an old guy!!! Obviously I didn’t mind at all! He even bought us drinks! I spoke with him the whole night! He has done a fair bit of traveling in his lifetime. He spent most of his time in South East Asia (shout out to Stephy, Kristelle and Jo!). When I asked him if he had ever gone to Vietnam, he told me, “yes, I was there for a year, except everyone was trying to kill me…I don’t understand why….I’m such a nice guy!!!” (He was in the Vietnam War!).

Friday was spent visiting the outskirts of Dublin. We took a tour bus all the way to Wicklow and Glendalough. The English name Glendalough comes from the Irish Gleann Dá Locha which translates to "The valley of the two lakes". It was there that St. Kevin founded a monastery in the sixth century. We visited the monastery and there are fun rituals...which naturally I participated in! For example, you must walk around the tower three times and then make a wish. Or you must hug the cross and if your fingers touch, you can make a wish. The scenery was also spectacular. Granted it was winter, so the green was not at its greenest, but it was still breath taking. I also saw sheep and mountain goats in the valley! Loves it! That night we had no place to stay. We were getting kicked out of our hostel because it had been booked for the weekend a year in advance. Our backup plan was couchsurfing, except the guy lived an hour out of the downtown area. Some hotels had availability except the going rate was 200E per night…a little out of my price range! We went into this hotel to see if they had availability. Clearly they didn’t. But the guy was older and we asked him if he knew of any cheaper places that had availability because if not we were going to be homeless for the night. The owner felt so bad for us, he ended up giving us their “emergency room” for 35E each…he even threw in a full Irish breakfast! Yummy!

The next day was St Paddy’s Day! We made sure to get to O’Connell Street early in the morning so not to miss any of the action! Everyone was dressed in green and were wearing crazy hats! I put shamrock tattoos on my face and then proceeded to paint my face the Irish colours and dyed the tips of my hair green! The parade itself was AMAZING. Unlike in Montreal, there were no radio station floats, or university floats with random ppl drinking on it! The whole parade was a story of all the cultures of Ireland. The dances, the music and the costumes were incredible. I got asked out on a date by Saint Patrick! (It was a clearly a joke, but very funny nevertheless!) After the parade, it was party time…if you could get in to any of the bars! Not only was it St Paddy’s Day, but the Irish were playing Italy in rugby (we won!!!!). The bars were sooo packed it was ridiculous. We went to a few and eventually settle for a club (Fitzsimmons). Yes, that is right. I was clubbing at 2:30 in the afternoon! It was fun though, because it was a live band that was playing folklore music… I meet a group of Irish guys and we sang along to all the music and drank! I had a blast! At 6:30pm we were beginning to get a little hungry so we went to eat at Fitzgeralds! We met this group of Americans who were in the air force and stationed in Germany. We drank with them for the rest of the night. At around 12:30am we headed to the airport. We figured we could just sleep there until our 8:30 flight. Turns out, the rest of Dublin had the same idea. There were hundreds of people sleeping on the floor, on tables, on benches…EVERYWHERE. I managed to get a McDonalds’ bench, however I didn’t really sleep because I was wet (it had been raining) and cold.

Now I’m back in France. I can’t quite express how much I loved Dublin. I had the greatest time and met some of the greatest people! I was definitively sad to go, and wish I could have stayed a little longer. It’s now time to study (…mustn’t forget that I’m here for school!!!!!....) Next trip…Belgium for Easter!

Miss you guys!

Sláinte!

-Ash
xoxo