Time to put my travel pants back on! After a hectic summer, Dani and I are finally checking a big trip off our bucket lists- traveling to the land of the leprechauns, whiskey, and Guinness! I am ever so grateful to have this once in a lifetime opportunity, and super excited to share this adventure with anyone reading this(:
As per tradition, a list of Trip Goals has been acquired:
- Find a super sketchy dive bar
- see something over 1000 years old
- count the gingers!
- find at least one random animal to pet
- kiss a random person (we are in Ireland after all…)
- eat weird food
- learn a traditional Irish song
- have a toast with a random person
- figure out how to pronounce town names
- learn three words in Gaelic per day
- learn an Irish drinking song
Let the fun begin!
4 August 2016-Travel day
Have I ever mentioned how convenient it is to travel in barn boots? I can shove anything and everything down the shafts…passport, wallet, cell phone, unsuspecting bananas…the possibilities are endless!
The flight from Denver to Atlanta and the layover were both uneventful…but the trip from Atlanta to Dublin was tons of fun! It began with us getting grounded by lightning for almost an hour (bunch of pansies…) during which time Dani and I commenced harassing a lovely lad from Waterford (from now on he will be named LLFW in the interest of preserving his privacy and all that good stuff). He told us all about how Irish accents are different (I will admit, he had a lovely lilt that Dubliners seem to be missing) and what some fun slang terms are and such. Definitely made the flight pass quicker! His dad is in the Thoroughbred racing industry in Kentucky, so he has dual citizenship. He plans to use it to go to college in the States. Dani and I told him that he was going to have girls chasing after him…he seemed clueless. Oh boy…
LLFW also has the beautiful black hair, pretty skin and beautiful blue eyes that Dani and I’s friend Mr. Whitney has. LLFW is in for quite a bit of trouble I imagine, with those Irish looks and an accent. I feel that the unsuspecting American girls will need to be forewarned(:
5 August 2016
Ginger Count: 2 super gingers (those that look like they belong to the Weasley clan) and 24 regular gingers. Dani and I had a lot of fun picking out the gingers, although I feel that this is somehow politically incorrect…oh well, we only get to be young and stupid in Ireland once!
at 12:30 (after being in Ireland for approximately two hours and running on roughly three hours of sleep) I had already managed to choke on food, spill coffee all over myself, and curse loudly in front of small children.
Dani and I went on a beautiful walking tour of the Dublin City Centre (the same location as our hotel, conveniently enough) for four hours with a lovely guide named Patty. She was very grandmotherly, reminded both Dani and me of Mary Poppins was about 5 foot 2 and walked fast enough to put a New Yorker to shame (yes Rob, that means you). With both of us tired out of our minds and running on caffeine and spite at that point, processing what we were seeing was hard (okay, maybe only hard for me). We saw such lovely sites as St. Patrick’s Cathedral (see below)
We went and saw the Book of Kells at Trinity College, but sadly could not take pictures (it’s from 900…we totes saw something over 1000 years old! First trip goal accomplished) but we also got to see Long Hall- home to every single book printed in Ireland as well as all the copyrights.
We saw some other of the previous British royalty’s “town homes,” some of which are now government buildings, others of which are tourist attractions.
Dublin is a strange mix of the old and new, but it somehow works. Everyone is friendly so far!
Dani and I went back to the hotel, crashed for a few hours, then proceeded to get up and get dinner. We were told the Temple Bar district of Dublin is where all the young people like ourselves gather, so we thought we would check it out. We had some delicious food, and some excellent people watching. Apparently, people like to dress up as leprechauns. And at 19:30 at night some people are already drunk enough to hike their pants up over their nipples and walk around like that. We saw it in person…I’m surprised the guy doing that didn’t hurt himself a bit…
After dinner, Dani and I decided to have “just one drink” and check out the scenery. Well, our first drink was something called “Baby Guinness” which is a mix of Kahlua and Bailey’s. It was delicious. Then there was another shot. Then there was a coffee Martini for me and some whiskey for Dani. Then there was a fruity drink for me (in a rooftop bar!) and more whiskey for Dani. Then there was some Guinness for me and more whiskey for Dani. Then there was some Irish cider for me…and more whiskey for Dani. Then we ended up crashing a stag party of a bunch of English guys and doing shots of tequila. And then we went to some weird bar and had shots of sambuca and some Canadian beer…and holy crap I just now realized we had a lot to drink. Like it’s a miracle we didn’t get sick (thank you high elevation I guess??)
We rounded off the night getting kebabs with some ginger guy from Galway named Johnny at 02:15 in the morning and then getting lost on our way back to the hotel. But we made it! I’m sorry mom. And Dani’s mom. YOLO?
Tata for now!
The Adventures of a Budding Biologist 