♧DUBLIN♧

I LOVE IRELAND.  Dublin was amazing.  Libby, Maggie and I left last Friday afternoon and arrived in Dublin at about 9.  We took the bus to our hostel, Globetrotters, which was perfect.  It was a few blocks away from Temple Bar, the Liffey, Trinity College... basically right in the center of downtown.  It was Libby and I's first hostel experience, and it really wasn't bad.  We were in 12 person rooms, bunk beds everywhere, and even though it was completely booked, it wasn't too crowded.  Each morning they had a traditional Irish breakfast, with everything from cereal and fruit to eggs and potatoes, lots of coffee... it was fab.  On the morning of St. Patrick's day they had an Irish band playing songs at one of the tables.  There was a dancing contest- i didn't compete, but it was so great.  

So the first night we just went out to dinner, walked around temple bar and called it a night.  We wanted to wake up early the next day to start seeing the sights.  On Saturday we went to St. Stephen's Green in the morning, which I loved.  It was beautiful.  The flowers were just starting to bloom everywhere.  After being in the Alicante desert for a while, it was nice to be surrounded by some green grass.  From there we walked to another park close by, looking for the James Joyce statue, but we never actually found it.  We did stumble across the Oscar Wilde memorial, which was nice.  It started raining/drizzling, and was freezing, but we pressed on.  We saw the Prime Minister's house, Huguenot Cemetery, and then decided it was time to head out to the Guinness storehouse.  We took the full tour, learned all about the beer-making process.  It makes you appreciate it a little more when you know how much work goes into putting it together.  The building was amazing, about 7 stories.  You start at the bottom and you work your way up... the top floor is the gravity bar, where you get to enjoy a complimentary pint.  I didn't think I would like Guinness, but I actually really did.  They say the Guinness in Dublin tastes different than anywhere else in the world, we'll see how Spain measures up...

Saturday night we went out to dinner and to Temple Bar.  It was still raining, which was annoying.  It was packed, obviously, but fabulous.  We were meeting people from all over the world... Holland, Australia, Switzerland, England, everywhere, and then of course the Irish.  So fun!

Sunday we woke up and tried to go to Mass, but we got to St. Patrick's Cathedral and found that 1. it wasn't Catholic, and 2. they didn't have services until the afternoon.  We tried to go to Christ's Church also, but the times were too late for us... at least we made an effort, I guess.  

Instead, we took a train out to Howth (pronounced as if it rhymes with both) which is a small coastal town about 10 miles out from Dublin.  It was my favorite part of the trip, hands down.  The town was adorable, with sail boats and fishing boats... we even saw seals swimming in the harbor.  There were houses all up on the bluffs overlooking the ocean,  and a strip of cafes and tiny stores...one was even named "Ann's."  (Got a pic, no worries.)  Later in the afternoon we toured Dublin Castle, brushed up on our history lessons.  It still is the major government building of Ireland, so they wont let you into a lot of the rooms, but it was nice to see what we could.

On Monday was the parade, which began at noon.  We had so much fun... it was still chilly, but sunny so it didn't matter.  It felt like being at a football game in Columbia, it was so great.  Everyone was out on the streets, dressed up to the max.  The parade was intense...about 2 hours.  Afterwards there were concerts on the streets, sort of a huge festival.  It was great.  We spent the rest of the day just walking around, listening to music and hanging out.  It really couldn't have been much better.