I am in love with Ireland. I went to Dublin this weekend with two of my friends and stayed with one of our other friends at her dorm (she goes to Syracuse but in Dublin she goes to UCD and has a dorm there). It was such a shock to hear people speaking English (or at least some sort of English) and although the weather was FREEZING, the country was incredible. We took a late flight on Thursday and landed in Dublin around 12:30am and although our cab driver was really talkative and nice, he totally scammed us and drove around, lost. Needless to say that our cab ride was 45 euros. Not a great way to start the trip. But, when we finally got to see our friend that we hadn't seen since MAY we had forgotten about our crazy expensive cab fare. We ended up sleeping on her floor because she didn't have much room. Talk about roughing it. But hey, having a free place to stay was great. In the morning, we got groceries, made eggs and then walked around the city center. It was beautiful! I loved the architecture, live music everywhere and the nice people. When we were walking down the street a balloon animal maker man gave us free balloon animals! I can't remember the last time I got something literally free. After visiting Trinity College and walking around all day with our Dublin native, we went to the Guiness Factory. We saw how Guiness beer is made and got a free pint on the top floor of the factory that had a great view of the city. The beer was really heavy but it was a great experience. After, we headed home to make dinner and get ready for a fun night of pub crawling. The live music that we heard at the pubs was one of the highlights of my trip. It seemed like there was someone playing on every street corner and in every pub. Since I've been in Madrid I've been musically deprived so it was great to hear live stuff.
Saturday we woke up bright and early at 9am and ran to catch a tour bus that took us to the countryside. We were the youngest people on the tour by far because 9am is an unknown time to most college students but the tour showed us a totally different side of Ireland. The nature and history was beautiful. We saw different towns and villages, a handweaving factory (random, i know), rivers, and a really old graveyard/monestary. We were so proud of ourselves for getting up and experiencing Ireland. After, we shopped (of course) we went home and got ready for another fun night on the town.
We wished we had more time in beautiful Ireland but sadly, we flew home this afternoon. The airport was actually the nicest airport I've ever been in. It was more like a mall than an airport. And although the airport itself was great, the airline was another story. Our bags had to fit in the overhead compartment and one of my friends bags was slightly larger. They made told her 5 minutes before the plane was boarding, that she had to pay 35 euros to check the bag and that she had no other option. The staff was extremely rude so we thought quickly and put on a bunch of the clothes that were making the bag too large. My friend ended up stuffing some under her jacket making a mock-pregnant stomach in order to get on the plane without 35 euros. Our scheme worked and although I was wearing a tank top, long sleeved shirt, sweat shirt, leather jacket, and 2 scarves, it was worth it.
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