Something pretty great happened to me this spring break: I FELL IN LOVE!
I am madly in love with Dublin and with Ireland and I need to go back and live there.
END OF STORY. LIFE DECIDED!
In fact Devon Marlene and I have big plans to move there in a couple years! The place is perfect!
DAY ONE:
The first day we got there and we dropped our stuff in the hostel and then went to the Guinness Factory!
The Factory was REALLY COOL and at the end you get a free drink!
(technically not free because its part of your ticket, but it seems free!)
There are seven floors and it shows you the back story of how Guinness is made, you can "trace your guinness roots", there is a section on advertising, etc. etc.
We ate there as well and had cottage pie- which is like shepards pie but not with lamb!
Baaaaaaad idea to eat lamb, this was with beef! It was DELICIOUS!
Lunch was a lot of fun, we were over-tired and eating the best food and being kind of silly :)
And after our lunch went up to get our drinks!
The Gravity Bar had a panoramic view of the wonderful Dublin!
The Guinness was really good, it tasted kind of like coffee, which by now we are well aware I love!
We spent a lot of time there, afterward we meandered on back to our hostel and took a very very very crucial to existence nap!
We woke up and got ready and went to Quay’s Bar for dinner-
TWAS DELICIOUS!
Our hostel was in the Temple Bar area and CONVIENTLY located right next to THE TEMPLE BAR!
WELL LET ME TELL YOU…it was SO cool there!
They were playing live music...AWESOME
We met a beautiful beautiful beautiful bartender named Shane who I have plans to marry!
He was BEAUTIFUL I tell you! Good thing I’m moving to Dublin one day!!
( I am 100% positive he will wait till that day and won’t ever look at another girl until then ;) )
ALSO! We were sitting at the bar, drooling over Dublin and Shane and live music AND WHO DO WE SEE?! JUSTIN! Justin lives in the same apartment upstairs in Florence and he is in mine and Devon's art class!
I was mid sentence and all the sudden was like waitttttt a second! could it be?! AND IT WAS!
 |
| of all the gin joints in the world! |
Thanks to my lovely and wonderful Granny and Grandpa,
I had no issue understanding what anyone was saying!
In fact every time anyone spoke it made me happy and it made me miss them!
But it was a lot harder for the other girls to understand, so sometimes when someone spoke to us I was like a pseudo-translator!
 |
| Hostel, close quarters anyone? |
When we came home we met the other person who was in our room at the hostel-
His name is Matt and he is from Australia!
He is one of the coolest people I have ever met, he has been like everywhere and has the coolest stories AND A REALLY COOL ACCENT!
He told us we sounded just like the movies which we thought was hysterical-And he did his american accent for us which was also really really funny.
A common question we asked people that we met was what their view of Americans were. We bombarded him with questions all trip!
APPARENTLY kangaroo in Australia are like the equivalent to deer in Connecticut, who knew!?
DAY TWO:
Day trip to the Galway and The Cliffs of Moher?
DON’T MIND IF I DO!
This day was one of the best of my whole life thus far, I really mean it.
It was unreal and amazing and there are no words!
Ireland has 30 different kinds of green and I am pretty sure I saw at least half of them!
We took a bus up to the Cliffs of Moher, but on the way made stops at various places.
Our bus driver was the lovely Desmond Murray, and he was hilarious. The whole time he was telling stories or giving information about what we were seeing and he was hysterical!
The first stop was the Castle of Dunguaire (Caislean Dhun Guaire)! The weather did this amazing thing, where anytime we were at a sight it would clear up! It was spitting when we got on the bus but the minute we stepped foot outside to check out the castle it stopped.
So here I am, soaking in all that is Ireland and heading back to the bus, and I turn around for one last look at the castle and what do I see? A RAINBOW!
I joke you not! Could things get any better? NO!
I shouted out and alerted my friends, everyone on the bus and probably half of Ireland!
IT WAS JUST SO PRETTY!
I still can't get over it!
I could have stayed there all day! But it was onward and upward back to the bus!
Then it was off to the area of limestone covered Poulnabrone Portal Tomb at the Burren in County Clare! It was insanely beautiful for being rocks.
And again the weather was cooperating and NOT raining on us while we ran around the rocks!
Desmond told the bus to not run on account of if you fall you would probably break your arm, whoops!
No broken arm! Maybe if I had broken it I could have spent an extra day in Dublin!
BACK TO THE BUS!
We went to Doolin and had lunch at Gus O’Connor’s Pub, where I got beef and Guinness stew ( SO GOOD) and then Devon and I had Bailey’s irish coffee.
Did I mention I am moving to Ireland?
We also stopped in and got some chocolate!
(which Devon and I would eat later when we found the leftovers in our purse at the bar haha)
Annnnnnnnd one of the best places on earth:
THE CLIFFS OF MOHER!
There is not a single word I can say that will do them justice.
Beautiful, perfect, breath-taking, amazing, unreal, phenomenal THE LIST GOES ON!
 |
| So happy I could fly! |
We had so much fun just walking around and frolicking in the grass!
There is a part of the cliffs where you are informed to not walk.
The ground will just fall out from under you.
And there is a fence and multiple signs telling you death is imminent,
however that didn’t stop 14 people from going over there and having the cliffs fall out from under them L it is very sad.
Needless to say I listened to all of these warnings- the next time I am anywhere near the Atlantic I want to be flying over it to go home, not falling into it.
It was SO windy because it was about to rain
(but remember this day was perfect and that means it did not rain until the bus was pulling away!)
It was really funny with the wind because everyone’s hair was literally attacking them!
Back to the bus and the ride home- If you think you were getting to sleep now that you have seen the cliffs YOU WERE WRONG! There was still an overview of Galway Bay, a "leprechaun" house and a really pretty panoramic view to stop at!
 |
| All of us and DESMOND <3 |
 |
| As Liz said, "A little house for a little person" I am a leprechaun! |
Desmond put the song “Galway Girl” on repeat until we would all sing along!
I was right there with him singing don’t you worry!
TRULY the best day ever!
AND TO ALL THE CONNOLLY'S IN MY LIFE:
Passed this pub on the bus tour,
Wished I could have gone into it and FREAKED OUT like I wanted to!
Probably for the best that I didn't!
We got back to the hostel around 9 and got ready to go out!
I was ALL for going back to the same bar and staring at Shane the bartender, but that was vetoed (darn!) Instead we split ways, Marlene Mandy and our new friend Matt went to Dicey’s and Devon and I went to a bar called The Globe!
The bar a different feel then temple bar, but I still really liked it!
We had a drink and talked for a while, but then some good music came on so it was time to dance!
They were playing Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Mumford and Sons- things like that! I don't know if that is relevant to anyone, but JUST so you know!
We were doing some swing dancing and other ridiculous yet fun things (the robot anyone!?) and we were having so much fun just being goofs!
WELL someone was enjoying it because this coaster ended up on our table!
But we were too busy dancing to see where it came from!
HILARIOUS I tell you!
DAY THREE:
Last day in Dublin and my heart was breaking! I realllllly would not have minded if my flight was cancelled forever!
We woke up and got breakfast at this place called Lemon, which had really great crepes!
Remember that time I ate five crepes in one weekend? LAY OFF ME I’M STARVING!
ANYWHOOOOOO...
After that we walked around Dame Street and Grafton Street and took it all in! The weather was glorious and we went to St. Stephen’s Green and IT WAS SO GREEN AND PRETTY AND PERFECT! PERFECT!
Sigh.
We spent a lot of time there and just wandering through Dublin in general. Mandy’s friend had met up with us because he is studying there and he was able to give us a little tour, it was really nice!
That night we had dinner at O’Neil’s it was quiteeeeee good. I got beef and Guinness stew with extra mashed potatoes…EXTRA EXTRA mashed.
(Dad and Granny, yours are better!)
Seeing as it was our last night and we were leaving at like 4 am,
we decided it was only appropriate and convient to go to the bar right next to the hostel- if you have been paying attention you know I am referring to-- TEMPLE BAR LADIES AND GENTS!
Home of the most beautiful boy on the planet …doubleeeee sigh!
GREAT NEWS! He remembered us (im sure it was just me specifically) and he waved hello!
Ohhhh la la!
It was a lot of fun, Matt came with us and we just hung out/talked/made silly faces and told stories and it was great times! Then it was off to bed for a couple hours and
TIME TO GO TO EDINBURGH!
Brigid, This was the best yet. I felt I was in Ireland with you while reading it. Bunny & I love to read your blogs. Oh well, back to boring Florance. Love, Poppy
ReplyDelete