Sláinte, Dublin.

Friday evening I took off with a group of 13 people for Dublin. (The group split into two smaller traveling parties of 8 and 6 later on.) We flew out of Girona with Ryan Air--an airport and an airline I do not much care for. But there were pretty much no problems and we made it to the hostel without much trouble.

We stayed at Abbey Court right in front of the O'Connell street bridge. It was really nice to look out the window and see the flowing Liffey river. It was my friend Joe's birthday and we started celebrating as soon as it turned to midnight (Barcelona time) on the plane. The flight attendant came on the PA system and said, "Happy birthday to Joe, who is celebrating his 21st birthday." It was awesome.

On the way to the hostel we encountered a drunken, random singing girl called Natalie who was singing the catchy opening to the Rihanna song Disturbia, substituting the beat with the word "Dub." As a result, we all sang this constantly the whole weekend long. On top of this, she informed us that Dubliners are sometimes called "Dub Dubs," a fact confirmed many times over by natives we met.

We started boozing pretty much immediately, heading from the hostel to a bar called Fitzsimmons. I had some Guinness and ordered a hard cider, called Strongbow. It was really good. The first song to come on was Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis. I took a movie on my camera but I must have accidentally deleted it. It felt great to be drinking Bulmers in an Irish bar shouting "Da-duh-dum-da-duh-dum-da-duh-duh-duh-dum-da-duh-dum-da-duh-dum-da-duh-duh!" This will only make sense if you know the song. This was however the only local (sort of) music, and it soon switched to the usual hip hop.

When we got back to the hostel the conversation turned to these cage cubbies/drawers underneath the hostel's bunk beds. For some reason earlier in the day Joe and I had joked that these cages were suitable for holding pets, children, and women. When my pal Caryn heard this she decided to try to fit into the cage/cubby/drawer. She succeeded, and the hilarious result is on Facebook in video form. After Caryn got out of the cage, someone said, "I bet Nicole could fit in there too," and for some strange reason I felt compelled to test this theory. Hence I climbed into the cage. I made the mistake of going in head first and leaving my feet exposed to merciless tickling, so the entire video is pretty much me shrieking hysterically.

On Saturday morning we got up and took the train to Howth, a small nearby fishing village. This is where most of the pictures up to this point came from. It was super cute but also cold and windy. There were several sea lions swimming in the dock, which was unexpected and exciting.

We walked around for a good long while before ending up with some fish and chips. Being the resident fish and chips expert I deemed them tasty and authentic. (Although they were served in sacks instead of take away containers, so I just had to dump salt in the bag and shake it.)

After Howth we headed back to Dublin proper and ended up at the Guinness Storehouse. It was a massively touristic experience, but it was still fun to learn about how Guinness is made. The building is huge and shaped like a pint glass.

You get a small sample of the draught and a free pint at the top.

I had never before seen Guinness poured from the tap (at least not that I remember) and was really startled by the coffee-esque coloring as it comes together into the familiar dark color. I like Guinness but I just couldn't finish a whole pint. Luckily Joe was happy to drink it for me.

After the Guinness factory we headed for the hostel. I took an ever-so-brief nap before getting up to start our second night in Dublin. We had dinner at a pub and the food was surprisingly delicious. We had the waitress bring out an apple tart with candles and sang Joe happy birthday (for at least the third or fourth time).

After dinner we went back to the hostel for some partying and drinking games. I ended up turning in earlier than almost everyone else, so I missed out on the truly wild late night hijinks, but I got to hear the funny stories later.

On Sunday we walked over to the campus of Trinity College. It looked a lot like the Ivy League schools. We got very lucky and the majority of both days was sunny and dry. It drizzled a little but it basically did not rain heavily when we were outside. We intended to see the Book of Kells but did not want to pay the steep price of admission.

From there we went to Dublin Castle, which according to a guidebook is more "higgledy-piggledy Georgian palace" than castle. There we ran into a random tour guide named Connor who was amazing. He told all the historical stories so interestingly. For example, the statue of Justice above is actually a quiet condemnation of the British legal system. The statue is not blindfolded as she should be and the scales tip when it rains.

We piggy backed off Connor's tour for a while and headed to Christ Church Cathedral. By this time I was numb with cold and looking forward to lunch.

We went to a place suggested by Caryn's guidebook, nicknamed The Bible because it has the best recommendations ever. It was a "supremely feminine hideout" bakery. I had a delicious potato, onion and cheddar tart with a couscous salad and focaccia, as well of lots of wonderful cream tea. The place was adorable.

Now for the sad part of this tale. I lost my phone at the hostel! This was my (almost) brand new phone that I had received as a gift before going to Europe. I could not be more disappointed. It was very important to me and held both monetary and sentimental value.

I was interested to see whether there would be a lot of anti-British sentiment, and I think there was certainly an element of it here and there. I told some Irish guy I was English and he jokingly said he would have to hate me, and another guy confessed he was part English and made a "Shh, don't tell!" gesture. And on the tour of Dublin Castle a lot of the stories related to British oppression. But overall it didn't seem like too big of a deal.

This week I have another midterm, but I will definitely have time for a little fun. (I got a high A on the Spanish final, so no worries Mom and Dad!) Beer pong and trivia are in the works. This weekend we travel to Valencia. Stay tuned.