Dublin, Ireland: St. Paddy's Day Weekend!

First of all, I am so sorry that I haven’t had time to update you all in awhile; I guess I’ve just been having too much fun! However, to fill you in from where I left off, three weekends ago, Katie and I embarked on one of our most highly anticipated trips of the whole semester... to Dublin, Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day!

We had a midterm on Thursday morning and a paper due, which I had been up half the night studying for, so I was very tired by the time our test was over. Running on little energy and two hours of sleep, Katie and I took the metro right from school to catch the next train to Madrid. We got to the train station with no problems, and we were able to get on the 12:45 train. I love taking the train so much more than flying because it's nice to see the country, aside from the city life all the time. By 3:15, we arrived in Madrid, leaving us plenty of time to catch our 6:00 flight to Dublin. We hopped in a taxi to the airport, and before we knew it, we were boarding the plane. Once we got to Dublin about two and a half hours later, we stepped off the plane, and it quickly sank in that we weren't in southern Europe anymore. It was much colder in Ireland, but we were still so happy to be there. We were greeted in the airport with colorful green, orange, and white balloons (Ireland's flag's colors) and all sorts of St. Patrick's Day decorations. We loved it already! Katie and I easily found the bus stop and bought our tickets to the city center. Just 15-20 minutes later, we hopped off the bus and were standing right in the middle of all the action - we had finally made it to Dublin!

We were staying in a hotel right near O'Connell Bridge, which meant that we were basically right in the heart of the city and within walking distance to almost everything! The only problem was that we weren't sure which direction to head to get to the river, so I ended up asking these two guys standing outside a pub... big mistake. Our first encounter with the Irish happened to be two obliterated drunks that instead of helping us just offered to come with us; luckily, another young guy was standing nearby and came over to point us in the right direction and save us from the drunks (thankfully!) We ended up walking a lot further than we had to to find our hotel because we ended up walking right past it to begin with, duh! When we finally found it and checked in, we were so exhausted after such a long day that we decided we wanted to get something quickly to eat and hit the hay. We went back out in the city, and because it was late, we ended up getting Papa John's, took a few snapshots of the city all lit up in green, and called it a night.

The next morning, we woke up rejuvenated and ready to see the city. The weather forecast had originally called for sunshine all weekend, so we left our umbrellas in Sevilla... well, you guessed it, the first thing we bought in Ireland? Umbrellas. You really can never trust the weather. We grabbed some breakfast awhile and walked around the city a little more to see everything in the daylight. Katie and I met the Sandeman's New Dublin walking tour at the City Hall around 1:00 and took a three hour walking tour of the city. Our native Irish guide was fantastic, and she was very knowledgable about the city and the history of Ireland in general. We walked around downtown Dublin for about three hours and saw some of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. We saw Trinity College where scenes of Harry Potter was filmed, the location of ancient viking homes, beautiful cathedrals, Temple Bar where U2 first played before they made it big, and many other very cool sites. One of the most important things that our guide taught us was the Irish word “Slainte” which means “Cheers” (very important to know for a weekend in Dublin). After our tour, Katie and I headed for the Guinness Storehouse. We really took the scenic route to get there because I accidentally led us in the wrong direction, but it all worked out because we walked the length of the river and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon. Each bridge was a little different, and they made for a lot of great pictures! Even though it was a long walk to the storehouse and our feet were killing us, we knew that a couple cold beers were in our near future. 

Three hours later, we arrived to the Guinness Storehouse (no I’m just kidding, I didn’t get us that lost.) Anyway, we waited in line to enter and finally bought our tickets. We toured the five different stories of the building; the bottom floors walked you through the process of exactly how Guinness is made, and the upper floors allowed you to sample the beer and even pour your own pint! It was very cool to see what goes into the long process of making Guinness, and it was even more fun to put my own bar-tending skills to the test! Eventually we went up to the gravity bar that was the highest layer of the building that consisted of a room with glass windows all around allowing you to look out over the city of Dublin. We enjoyed seeing the nightlife, but it was getting pretty late at that point and we were starving. Katie and I headed back to the hotel and found a nearby pub that we got dinner at. Afterwards we found a store called Carroll’s that supplied all of our St. Patrick’s Day needs. We bought t-shirts, Guinness paraphernalia, and other souvenirs. Afterwards, we walked around the city a bit more to take pictures of the many buildings that were all lit up green for St. Patrick’s Day. We loved seeing the city at night, but after about an hour, we were about ready to call it a night. I forgot to mention that earlier that day, Katie and I had gone to a tourist office and bought bus tour tickets into the countryside for the following day, and since our bus was leaving at 8:00am sharp the next morning, we didn’t want to take any chances of missing it. Plus, by 10:00 that night we were really cold and totally beat after being out for literally all day, so we stopped at the McDonald’s to get shamrock shakes on the way back (don’t judge me, it was St. Paddy’s Day, I had too!) Katie and I ended the evening watching P.S. I Love You, because the next day, one of our many stops during our tour was to see places in the countryside where it was filmed. :) 

7am came really quick, and Katie and I were struggling to get ready. However, we put on our green (for the 3rd day in a row) and headed out to meet the bus. We actually made it to the bus 10 minutes EARLY... unbelievable for this pair, but we were very proud of ourselves. We boarded the bus and headed out on the 2.5 journey into Kilkenny. I slept almost the entire way which I didn’t feel too bad about because it was so foggy that morning that you couldn’t really see the countryside anyway. Our first stop was to the caves where the worst viking massacre in history took place. We ventured down into the cool and eerie caves and had a look around for ourselves. Our guide explained to us that over thousands ago, what is now the entrance to the caves, gave in and it became a hiding spot for many women and children. However, many of them were suffocated when the vikings entered with their flame torches and pitch forks. Our guide even turned the lights out at one point to show just how dark it really was; I could never imagine staying in that pitch black cave more than a few minutes, let alone months like some of the vikings. After we hiked up out of the caves, we went into the town of Kilkenny and wandered the city for part of the afternoon. We took pictures of the castle, saw the Colorado State Marching Band perform, and enjoyed a delicious lunch featuring a hearty cut sirloin steak, potatoes, and no surprise here, a Guinness. We boarded the bus soon after lunch and headed into the Wicklow Mountains. Katie and I got to see the “Hollywood” of Ireland and a national forest, yet what I was most excited for was seeing parts of the Irish scenery that was featured in the movie P.S. I Love You. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Gerard Butler would have been there too. :) Our last stop was in the valley of Glendalough. We were able to wander through the ancient graveyards to view the medieval St. Kevin’s Round Tower and other antiquated churches and statues. Katie and I took our picture with one statue of a cross with a specific tale attached to it. Legend has it that if you hug the cross, within a year and a day you’ll find your true love and be married. (There’s not a doubt in my mind that I’ll be proving this legend wrong next year on March 17th ha!) Afterwards, we wandered deeper into the national forest, hiking trails, snapping great photos, and enjoying the nature. It turned out that we were enjoying ourselves a little too much because we wandered so far on the trails that when we looked at our watch, we realized it was almost 4:50, and we had to meet our bus by 5:00 at the entrance; needless to say, Katie and I got our workout that day. We sprinted as fast as we could back through the trails and made it to the bus by 5:03, a true record. Luckily, there was still a few more people coming behind us, so we were just happy that we weren’t the absolute last ones!

Arriving back in Dublin around 6:00, we didn’t have long to grab dinner and get ready for the night. Totally living up to the typical American status, we stopped at a Quizno’s quickly and headed back to the hotel. We had to get ready quickly and meet our pub crawl that was leaving from the Workman’s Pub by 8:30. Gearing up in our new St. Paddy’s attire with our shamrock tattoos, beads, and hair clips, complemented by our green St. Paddy’s shirts, we were ready to go. We met up with some friends from Florence at the first pub and enjoyed a great night out on the town. I won’t get into too many details, aside from the fact that it was probably the best St. Patrick’s Day ever. We had so much fun on the pub crawl, an at the end of the night, we even made a trip to Papa John’s.

We got to sleep in a little bit longer the next morning which was nice because we were trying to prolong our time in Ireland as much as possible. Since it was St. Patrick’s Day, there was a large parade at 10:30, but unfortunately we had to catch a bus to the airport before it started. It was raining that day, so that made leaving a littler bit easier, but I could have stayed in Ireland for awhile longer, and I already can’t wait to revisit Ireland again someday. 

Two fun facts that I learned this weekend: 

1. A shamrock is actually an ancient religious symbol, whose three leaves represent the trilogy: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
2. If you say, St. “Patty’s” Day, you’re actually referencing a form of meat, in patty-like form. The correct term is St. “Paddy’s” Day, because Paddy is the correct nickname for Patrick, just F.Y.I. :)