DUBLIN? More like PUBLIN!

Dublin

**this text is in green because...welll... it's IRELAND!***

Off to Dubcity!! I was so excited to go to Ireland, mainly because I know my mother is obsessed with Ireland and it’s cool to make her jealous sometimes.. hehe jk. Anyway, this was the first time I was traveling via PLANE in Europe.

The cheapest flights you can take around Europe are through this airline company “Ryanair”. Tickets to Dublin were about 20 euros (not too shabby!).  Now… I am not a fan of flying in the first place, and when I found out that Ryanair is a cheap airline it did not sit too well with me because I wanted to make sure we were going to be flying safe and sound. Basically… Ryanair is the Greyhound’s of airlines in Europe. They may not have the best service but they will get you where you need to go. Ryanair is very strict about weight limits for checking bags. Bags HAVE to be no more than 15 lb or else you have to pay 40 extra euros. Me and the group of girls I went with went to go weigh our bags on the weigher-thing and low and behold… every single girls’ bag was overweight. NOT MINE! Because I am efficient. And I am too poor to try and spend an extra 40 dollars, excuse me EUROS, on a 15 lb bag.  Not to boast… but I did check my bag at 11.6 lb. BOOM! All the girls’ bags were about 17-19 pounds. So, right in the middle of the airport in front of the checked baggage area…. There are 5 girls on the ground pulling out shoes, clothes, ANYTHING, that would make their bags less heavy. I stood and watched them while eating some oreos (that Ryan shipped to me previously. Oreos here are either too hard to find or else way too expensive…). I am smart and definitely and an experienced world traveler by now!

We finally land in Dublin!! At this time it is about noon and we checked into our hostel --- The Four Courts --Bunk bed style, very cramped. Oooooh 6 girls trying to get ready in a 15 by 9 room….. yep. I already have a sweating disorder, but when there are 2 hair-blow dryers, 3 straighteners on, AND girls going in and out of the shower which then turns into a sauna…. Melting does not describe how much I was sweating. Let’s just say the Niagra Falls is located in two places… Canada and MY BODY. It was a worthless cause trying to apply makeup. Anywaaaaay after we got situated, we had to grab a quick lunch because I had to make my tattoo appointment at 4pm!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was by far the best experience ever!! (Getting my tattoo) !!! So we got to the tattoo place, Zulu’s, on time. It was a standard tattoo/pericing place… all the artists were tatted and pierced up. I checked in at the desk and the guy was just asking all of us where we were from. After we told him that we were from Virginia, he was silent and responded “Really?! Ha Ha Ha, I am from Alexandria, Virginia!” TALK ABOUT A SMALL WORLD! We flew all the way to Dublin and we meet someone from Virginia! I knew everything was going to be good from then on. I went to the tattoo place knowing that I wanted to get a 4 leaf clover. My mom is born on St. Patrick’s day, and it seemed only fitting to get a FOUR leaf clover (family of 4 – Lorraine, van, phil, and me and also for good luck) because I was in IRELAND DUH! I did not have a specific design in mind, but I had a good feeling the people of Dublin had some clovers they have tattooed before. I was right. My original artist, Duane, was backed up, so they placed me with Sean instead. BEST DECISION EVER! I was very lucky to have Sean because Sean is the tattoo artist for Green Day AND Xenophilius Lovegood (from HARRY POTTER!!). I was literally in good hands. Before I got my tattoo, I was feeling very jittery and nervous. Alexandria guy told me that if I wanted, I could have a beer while I got it done. Well… I sure enough took him up on his offer. Me and my girl friends all drank a beer. I got on the chair, was drinking my beer with one hand, my friend Katie was holding my other hand, and all of a sudden I felt a razor blade carve my skin (it wasn’t aaccttually a razor blade. But it felt like it!) Luckily, the tattoo only took 15 minutes!! Sean was done tattooing me before I could even FINISH my beer… such a shame ( I was drinking Budweiser…). SO that that was my tattoo! 15 minutes of pure pain for the best everlasting European souvenir!! You’re welcome, Lorraine.

After the tattoo, we all went back to the hostel and got ready for the evening. In Dublin, the best street/area to go to at night is this place called “Temple Bar”. Temple Bar is this long street filled with pubs and great live music! This was by far my favorite place I have been so far in Europe. Every single pub had live music with someone playing the guitar and someone singing. Btw, I thought the Germans could drink. HA! The Irishmen will drink the Germans under the table! I realized it is only acceptable to be drunk at 10am on 2 occasions. 1. If you are in Ireland/ are Irish. 2. If you are at a football tailgate. It didn’t hurt the fact that we were visiting Ireland during the biggest rugby matches Ireland was playing all weekend! Such a good time with good music and good friends!

The food was all pretty “normal”. I think Ireland and London definitely take on a lot of American style restaurants. Nothing particularly stood out. But the one thing I did have for the first time was FISH AND CHIPS! (btw… fries in Europe are called chips… EVERYWHERE. Sooo if I want fries I ask for chips and if I want chips… I still ask for chips. I don’t know.. its confusing. Luckily they know what I am asking for when I ask for fries) So the place we went to was the famous fish and chips! Literally, famous. They had a plaque on the wall of alllll the famous people that had eaten in their tiny tiny shop. From Sandra Bullock to U2 to Brad Pitt’s parents. It was cool. And deliciously fried.

All day Sunday we did a walking tour of Dublin. We were able to see this old castle place, Trinity College, Christ Church, this other old building, some green grass, annndd some cathedrals in the mix. Me and the girls broke off half way because we wanted to go see this really old jail. (Gah I wish I paid more attention to the history and what the names of everything is).. anyway, the jail was so cool!!!! The tour of the jail was about an hour and the tour guide was such a character. He as this old guy that looked like santa claus, but was legit and he knew his jail history. Sooo after the jail we went by St. Patrick’s cathedral and then walked back to our hostel to get ready for Super BOWLLLLL That night, there was one pub open specifically to cater to the American Football lovers (americans.) We watched 15 minutes of the super bowl. Go Giants!

On our last day in Dublin, we went on the Guinness Factory Tour! (beer). It was wicked cool! It was a self-tour and they walked you around 5 levels of how they make and produce beer. Only 4 ingredients! Water, barley, hops, and yeast. Something about a fermentation process and something else about letting it sit for a couple day…. Idk. All I know is that we got free beer on the way (not really free because I spent fricken 12 euros on this tour…). I have never had Guinness before… and lets just say the tour made it sound like it was going to taste amazing. False. Lies. Erroneous. Guinness tastes like Sh*t. I am sorry. But that is some nasty stuff. But I drank my beers anyway because I wasn’t letting that 12 euros go to waste. Oooohhh it was yucky beer. Then again… I’m not a big beer girl anyway. I like Natty Light….. you can see how mature my taste buds are. But once we got to the top gof the building, we were in a 360 cylinder room of glass overlooking all of Dublin! THAT was worth ATLEAST 9 of my 12 euros…. The last 3 euros went to the cute boys that were everywhere and the wonderful accents. (love ya ryan)

Before we left for our second flight on Ryainair (yes… another 30 minutes spent on the floors while girls tried to make weight… again) we stopped at this local shop that would print out the meaning and history of your last name on a scroll of parchment. So…. I decided I would step in and ask the man to look up the meaning of Weisner (my mom’s maiden name). Low and behold…. He had some info on weisner and it all came up in about 6 paragraphs. What makes this place extra special is that you can put designs and fun pictures on the background of the text. You see, my mom is obsessed with Ireland.  Some people may even say that she wishes she were Irish. (She really does wish she were Irish.  She wants to be Irish like I want to stop sweating the Niagra Falls every day) I thought it would be quite comical to have the man print off the history of the “weisner family” WITH a picture of Ireland as the background. Clever, eh? More like hilariously brilliant! What makes this story almost perfect is that I was then going to see if he could change the name from Weisner to… “O’Weisner”. I mean, nothing screams Irish like putting “o” in front of it! Sadly enough, the computer system wouldn’t let the change. So I settled with the history of the german name “weisner” with an Irish flag in the background…. LOVE IT!

Dublin was a great time! Even though it was rainy, the Irish accents definitely put everyone in a better mood. So far Dublin has been my favorite place and I would love to go explore other parts of Ireland in the Future!! Next stop, LONDON!!!!!

FUN FACTS!

1.       Irish accents are great when you can actually understand them. Some of these irish accents were so think, I may as well been in Germany because I could not understand them!

2.       Irish people are the nicest people I have met so far in Europe. It’s probably because they love their irish accents as much as I do which puts them in a good mood.

3.       Guinness is disgusting

4.       Even though predominately catholic (98%), there is no official catholic church in dub city

5.       Cheers!