St. Patrick's Day weekend in Ireland. Did that really just happen?
What a great weekend we had. I think we must be getting better at this traveling thing because everything went smoothly on the way there and back. No funny airport stories to share this time. Once we got into Dublin it was obvious that it was St. Patty's Day weekend. There were green balloons everywhere! I kept saying to myself. WE ARE IN IRELAND! This is crazy!
This trip we had a pretty big crew. The Michigan girls even went. It was Jessica, Ellen, Kassidy, Evan, Katie, Erin, Emily, and Teresa. We were excited because it is the only trip we are all going together. We stayed at a local hotel called Cassidys. It was right in the downtown area and only 3 blocks away from the river. This trip was all about celebrating. We put our stuff in our rooms, freshened up a bit and then went to the Temple Bar area. I happened to be the one that got the directions to the area so everyone was following me. This is always interesting because you think you know where you are going but when things don't look the way there were described to you, you start to get nervous because you have a whole crew of people following your lead.
Needless to say I was leading the pack and everyone started to question me because we weren't seeing many people. I started to get a little worried but I just kept walking. "I promise you guys, it's got to be this way." Just as everyone started to really doubt me, we turned the corner and BAM, a sea of people were standing in the streets just a couple blocks up. Thank goodness! I didn't want to hear from the others for the rest of the night. Ha!
As we walked into the sea of people we decided to just go inside the first bar we saw. It was packed. I'm not talking about there is no where to sit packed, I'm talking there was nowhere to stand! It was shoulder to shoulder and definitely a fire hazard. We didn't care though as we swam up stream through all the people, ordered a drink, and established ourselves in the back of the room. We were enjoying ourselves and the live music when Ellen pulled out her camera to take a picture. There was a group of 26 guys from France yelling all sorts of funny chants behind us. I thought it was only fitting to ask them if they would want to be in a picture with us. Of course they said yes, and we took a picture. After the picture they asked where we were from and we told them America. Before we could talk about anything else all 26 of them started chanting USA-USA-USA. It was hilarious. I was a little nervous at first. "Stop pointing out to everyone that we Americans." "Now we're probably targets." If you can't tell, we have been preached to about being safe and not making ourselves targets and I just walked right into this one. Way to go Kaylyn! It turned out being fine though because we realized there were a lot of Americans in the bar. We would have had each others backs. HA!
The next day we woke up and went downstairs for breakfast. I literally crave hot tea in the mornings now. When I first got here, I would order tea and drink about a cup and a half out of the kettle. Now I can drink the whole kettle and probably a little bit more if it were available. It is so good here. After breakfast, Jessica, Ellen, Emily and myself went out for the day. Our first stop was the Guinness Brewery. I absolutely hate Guinness but everyone had told us we had to go there, and I'm so glad we did! I normally wouldn't have any interest in it just because I know it taste so bad but it was so fun.
It was 6 stories high and each level was something different. The first two levels was a tour of how Guinness is made. I took pictures of the whole process. First it starts off as barley, and then they add something else, and then water, and then it goes through fermentation....or something like that. On the third floor we got our faces painted. We weren't sure if we wanted to stay in line just to get our faces painted but it was free and we weren't in a hurry. We probably waited about 30 minutes and it was well worth it because the rest of the night people kept asking us where we got our faces painted. Everyone was jealous when we said at the brewery and it was free! We were way under-dressed for the green theme so we had to get festive somehow.
The forth floor was my favorite. It was the taste testing floor. We went through the tasting line and about gagged ourselves after they had us try fried quail eggs. It was terrible. I couldn't even swallow it. After we got over the shock of how bad quail eggs were, we went to the other side of the floor were they were teaching people how to Irish dance! We walked in the room and they told us to set our stuff down and walk out to the dance floor. I was hoping I would be able to Irish dance at some point while I was in Ireland so I was so excited about learning. There were about 100 people lined up ready to learn the dance. The music started and it was total chaos. We had to go in and out and left and right and up and down and under peoples arms all while chopping our feet. It took me about 5 rounds until I FINALLY got the hang of it. Once I mastered the art of Irish dancing, I declared it the most fun activity we encountered on this trip. I wish I had some pictures but we were all getting our dancing on that no one had time to snap a picture. It was a blast. The music was being played by a live band and once they saw us getting the hang of it they sped up and music and we started dancing faster! It was intense. We were sweating when we were done. It was such a fun time.
On the fifth floor they taught you how to pour our own glass of Guinness, and on the sixth floor is where you could get your free glass of Guinness. We basically made ourselves drink it, but by the time you forced one down, you realize you can tolerate anything else after that, and think it's better than what you just had. lol Guinness was a fun experience and we were all really happy we went.
After that we walked to Ireland's oldest pub and had some lunch. We then walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral and went inside. It was a little different from another cathedrals we have been to. It had a very Gothic look to it. It was still very cool though. By that time the sun was setting and we needed to get off our feet for a bit so we went back to the hotel to rest.
We went out again that evening. Everyone was dressed in green to the max. It was insane. The streets were even more packed that night. It was wild. We were all worried about loosing someone, but we ended up having a great night and everyone made it home safely.
The next day we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel again. After breakfast we checkout and went to see the Book of Kells and get some ice cream for Ellen. The Book of Kells is an old manuscript of the gospel. They keep it at Trinity College. Just a couple blocks away there was a delicious ice cream shop. Ellen had been on a mission to get some Baileys ice cream since it was created in Ireland. It was such a cute store! The employees there were so nice and even danced for us for my video I am making.
Ireland treated us well. We had a great time. We didn't get to see much of the Ireland's culture but we did get to celebrate a holiday I normally don't celebrate and we did it in grand fashion in the country that is know for its green. We had a blast!
What a great weekend we had. I think we must be getting better at this traveling thing because everything went smoothly on the way there and back. No funny airport stories to share this time. Once we got into Dublin it was obvious that it was St. Patty's Day weekend. There were green balloons everywhere! I kept saying to myself. WE ARE IN IRELAND! This is crazy!
This trip we had a pretty big crew. The Michigan girls even went. It was Jessica, Ellen, Kassidy, Evan, Katie, Erin, Emily, and Teresa. We were excited because it is the only trip we are all going together. We stayed at a local hotel called Cassidys. It was right in the downtown area and only 3 blocks away from the river. This trip was all about celebrating. We put our stuff in our rooms, freshened up a bit and then went to the Temple Bar area. I happened to be the one that got the directions to the area so everyone was following me. This is always interesting because you think you know where you are going but when things don't look the way there were described to you, you start to get nervous because you have a whole crew of people following your lead.
Needless to say I was leading the pack and everyone started to question me because we weren't seeing many people. I started to get a little worried but I just kept walking. "I promise you guys, it's got to be this way." Just as everyone started to really doubt me, we turned the corner and BAM, a sea of people were standing in the streets just a couple blocks up. Thank goodness! I didn't want to hear from the others for the rest of the night. Ha!
As we walked into the sea of people we decided to just go inside the first bar we saw. It was packed. I'm not talking about there is no where to sit packed, I'm talking there was nowhere to stand! It was shoulder to shoulder and definitely a fire hazard. We didn't care though as we swam up stream through all the people, ordered a drink, and established ourselves in the back of the room. We were enjoying ourselves and the live music when Ellen pulled out her camera to take a picture. There was a group of 26 guys from France yelling all sorts of funny chants behind us. I thought it was only fitting to ask them if they would want to be in a picture with us. Of course they said yes, and we took a picture. After the picture they asked where we were from and we told them America. Before we could talk about anything else all 26 of them started chanting USA-USA-USA. It was hilarious. I was a little nervous at first. "Stop pointing out to everyone that we Americans." "Now we're probably targets." If you can't tell, we have been preached to about being safe and not making ourselves targets and I just walked right into this one. Way to go Kaylyn! It turned out being fine though because we realized there were a lot of Americans in the bar. We would have had each others backs. HA!
The next day we woke up and went downstairs for breakfast. I literally crave hot tea in the mornings now. When I first got here, I would order tea and drink about a cup and a half out of the kettle. Now I can drink the whole kettle and probably a little bit more if it were available. It is so good here. After breakfast, Jessica, Ellen, Emily and myself went out for the day. Our first stop was the Guinness Brewery. I absolutely hate Guinness but everyone had told us we had to go there, and I'm so glad we did! I normally wouldn't have any interest in it just because I know it taste so bad but it was so fun.
It was 6 stories high and each level was something different. The first two levels was a tour of how Guinness is made. I took pictures of the whole process. First it starts off as barley, and then they add something else, and then water, and then it goes through fermentation....or something like that. On the third floor we got our faces painted. We weren't sure if we wanted to stay in line just to get our faces painted but it was free and we weren't in a hurry. We probably waited about 30 minutes and it was well worth it because the rest of the night people kept asking us where we got our faces painted. Everyone was jealous when we said at the brewery and it was free! We were way under-dressed for the green theme so we had to get festive somehow.
The forth floor was my favorite. It was the taste testing floor. We went through the tasting line and about gagged ourselves after they had us try fried quail eggs. It was terrible. I couldn't even swallow it. After we got over the shock of how bad quail eggs were, we went to the other side of the floor were they were teaching people how to Irish dance! We walked in the room and they told us to set our stuff down and walk out to the dance floor. I was hoping I would be able to Irish dance at some point while I was in Ireland so I was so excited about learning. There were about 100 people lined up ready to learn the dance. The music started and it was total chaos. We had to go in and out and left and right and up and down and under peoples arms all while chopping our feet. It took me about 5 rounds until I FINALLY got the hang of it. Once I mastered the art of Irish dancing, I declared it the most fun activity we encountered on this trip. I wish I had some pictures but we were all getting our dancing on that no one had time to snap a picture. It was a blast. The music was being played by a live band and once they saw us getting the hang of it they sped up and music and we started dancing faster! It was intense. We were sweating when we were done. It was such a fun time.
On the fifth floor they taught you how to pour our own glass of Guinness, and on the sixth floor is where you could get your free glass of Guinness. We basically made ourselves drink it, but by the time you forced one down, you realize you can tolerate anything else after that, and think it's better than what you just had. lol Guinness was a fun experience and we were all really happy we went.
After that we walked to Ireland's oldest pub and had some lunch. We then walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral and went inside. It was a little different from another cathedrals we have been to. It had a very Gothic look to it. It was still very cool though. By that time the sun was setting and we needed to get off our feet for a bit so we went back to the hotel to rest.
We went out again that evening. Everyone was dressed in green to the max. It was insane. The streets were even more packed that night. It was wild. We were all worried about loosing someone, but we ended up having a great night and everyone made it home safely.
The next day we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel again. After breakfast we checkout and went to see the Book of Kells and get some ice cream for Ellen. The Book of Kells is an old manuscript of the gospel. They keep it at Trinity College. Just a couple blocks away there was a delicious ice cream shop. Ellen had been on a mission to get some Baileys ice cream since it was created in Ireland. It was such a cute store! The employees there were so nice and even danced for us for my video I am making.
Ireland treated us well. We had a great time. We didn't get to see much of the Ireland's culture but we did get to celebrate a holiday I normally don't celebrate and we did it in grand fashion in the country that is know for its green. We had a blast!