Vive la France!: Dublin

6/20/2013-6/23/2013

At work on Thursday, there was absolutely nothing to do. In the morning, Claudia and I talked and looked stuff up on the internet. In the afternoon, my boss left for a weekend trip with her boyfriend leaving Claudia and I alone in the office. We decided to watch a movie, so we found one on youtube and relaxed in the office. I wouldn’t necessarily say we relaxed considering it was a horror movie, but again it was French so who knows if I even understood correctly! Haha. I was planning on going straight to the airport after work since I was going to Dublin to visit my boyfriend, but Claudia asked if I wanted to join her and her friend for a quick drink. Since I would have been 5 hours early for my flight, I happily agreed to get a drink. It was a lot of fun getting a drink, and I really enjoyed their company! I ended up leaving rather quickly however, as I was excited to go to Dublin. Getting there was quite a struggle however considering the airport shuttle was leaving right as I got there so I had to take a very expensive taxi. Then in security, for some reason I set the alarm off so I had to step aside while they swiped me with the metal detector. I was also a little unhappy because I had to throw out my shampoo and conditioner which I had just bought. (And you have no idea how hard it is to find conditioner here!!!) I was welcomed in the gate by then having to stand in an atrocious line. Once I made it onto the plane, all was well after the turbulence that made me think I was never going to see my friends and family again. While my day started great, it didn’t end the best but luckily Joe knows me well and took me straight to a pub when I got to Dublin to get a beer. We went to temple bar, one of the most famous bars in Dublin and I had my first Guinness!

The next day Joe and I went to The Guinness Brewery factory. It was very cool to see the factory and the process of brewing such a famous beer, but by far the best part was going to the top of the building to have a beer. The top part of the building had the best view of Dublin. One can see everything, and it was a very serene place to drink a Guinness. By time that was over, all the beer was starting to make me sleepy so we went back to his apartment to take a quick nap. We then went to a pub very close by. The interior was secretly hidden by a simple small door, but when one enters you realize it’s a very large beautiful place filled with flowers. This pub was called Brazen Head and it was the oldest pub in Dublin. We then went to dinner at a very nice restaurant called Rustic Stone. It was really cool, as they served the food raw, but also brought a little rustic looking grill so we could grill our food. It was very good and very fun! After dinner, Joe showed me around Trinity College. It’s a very pretty campus, and I believe one of the top schools in Europe. It started to rain, so we went to a local pub within the campus for a drink. We then went to a different bar to meet up with his friends and have some drinks. It was a lot of fun not only being with Joe, but meeting his friends as well!

On Saturday, Joe first showed me where he works. It’s quite a long walk, but there are very interesting and pretty sights along the way with all the buildings and canals. Considering there’s Pubs every 100 feet it seems like, Joe showed me some of his favorite pubs and when it started to rain we found a pub to hide out in and stay dry. Once it finally stopped raining for good, we went to Gafton Street. This street is the typical tourist street filled with street performers, shops, pubs, and restaurants. After purchasing a few things, we decided to go to a restaurant called The kitchen. It was very modern and nice and very yummy! After Dinner, Joe and I went on our own little Pu crawl. He took me to some of his favorite pubs where we would have a beer and listen to the live music. They were all very authentic pubs with not a lot of tourists.

Throughout the weekend, I went to 13 different pubs and tasted 6 different beers. It was quite fun, but I must say Im glad to get a break from beer now!