Struggles at Stansted

The weekend trip to Dublin definitely started off on the wrong foot. To begin with, our flight left at 6:30 from an airport an hour away from our house. My roommate Kara and I were both going, so we set our alarms for 3 AM. We went to sleep around 10, so we got less than 5 hours of sleep because we were so excited. We took a cab to a bus station because the tube wasn't open, then a  bus to the airport. The bus was FREEZING! When we got to the airport, Kara had forgotten to get small sized things, so they threw away all of her toiletries. I got through okay, and once that was over, so did Kara. But our friends Fiona and Lucy were in another line. Kara and I went through to the sitting area and waited for about 10 minutes, thinking that was really weird. Turns out (for no apparent reason), when Fiona went through, a security officer took out every single thing in her carry on and checked it. It was ridiculous. Once we were back together, we got a bite to eat and headed to our gate. Once we got to the gate, Fiona realized she didn't have her boarding pass (along with everything else she needed for the rest of the trip paper-wise). She must have left it at security. Luckily, she was able to just have the boarding person print her one, but Kara and her ended up being the last people on the plane.

Everything completely turned around once we got to Ireland. We were surprised to see all the signs in Gaelic (actually called Irish in Ireland) and then in English. All of the airport staff were really nice, and getting through customs took all of 1 minute-the guy literally just stamped our passports without asking questions. Not sure how safe that was, but we weren't complaining. We caught a bus from the airport to the City Center, where we were dropped off by Trinity College. We got a little mixed up, so we went into the tourist center and got directed to our hostel, the Avalon House. It was a little bit away from the main drag of Temple Bar, but it was a nice building.

Our hostel

We couldn't check in until 2 (it was currently 9:30), but we were able to store our bags in the luggage room. We got breakfast at the cafe attached to the hostel and saw there was a free walking tour at 10:30. Our tour guide was an adorable Irish girl, and had bright red hair and blue eyes. She was 22, and really friendly and talkative. We met up with a couple other groups from other hostels and began our tour. 

Dublin was established as a Viking settlement in the 9th century and remained under Viking rule until Norman invasion in the 12th century. The King of Leinster (a province in Ireland) decided he wanted to rule all of Ireland, so he enlisted the help of a man called Strongbow to do so. Strongbow kicked out the Vikings and became king of Ireland, until King Henry II of England decided that he wanted to rule instead. The English ruled in Ireland until 1922, when Ireland gained their independence through the Eater rebellion. Dublin is the capital and most populated city in Ireland!

We went to Trinity College first.

Trinity College was built in 1592 and was the first university in Dublin. Today, the Book of Kells is held in the library. I wish we could have seen it, but you have to pay to do so. The college had really beautiful architecture, especially the arch in the middle. There's a superstition at the college that if a freshman walks under it, they'll fail all of their exams. So if you see people walking under the arch, you know they're tourists.

Next we walked to the Dublin Castle. It was founded in the 13th century after the Norman invasion as a strong hold. Unfortunately, the only original thing from this time period remaining is the large tower.  Until 1922, when the Irish gained their independence from England, it was the center of British rule in Ireland. Today it is used for the Irish government. Usually you can take a tour of the castle, but there is the EU Presidency next year (though I don't really understand what that means). 

The Dubh Linn Garden used to be a big black lake during the time of the Vikings. Dubh Linn is actually literally translated to "black pool." Now it's a pretty garden!

Next up was Christ Church Cathedral. It's one of the oldest cathedrals in Dublin, along with St.Patrick's Cathedral. The Tom and Jerry cartoon was actually inspired by bones of a cat and mouse found behind an organ in this church!

Eva, our tour guide, took us up to Temple Bar after Christ Church, where we stopped in at a pub for some lunch. We had signed up for a pub crawl through the hostel that morning, and she told us she was running it that night!

We were EXHAUSTED, so we headed back to the hostel and checked in and napped. I don't think we had really thought about how strange staying in a hostel would be. We signed up for a 12 bed room because it was the cheapest. We ended up having a few male roommates-one 40 year old French man and a few from Sweden. It was really bizarre. And everyone on the hall shared the same bathroom. So awkward. Luckily, our roommates were quiet and nice. Another group from JMU came that weekend too, and while their roommates were guys our age, they were really noisy. We're definitely spending a bit more money to have more private rooms in the future. 

We headed out in search of food before the pub crawl and ended up at this great place where I got an awesome salad. They had things all over their menu indicating what allergens were in it! After we finished, we went to Fitzsimons, where the pub crawl was starting. We met up with Eva, who told us that we would be going to 4 pubs, getting a free shot at each, and then ending up at a night club. We started with a shot of whiskey from Fitzsimons and enjoyed the live music at the bar. After a little while, Eva rounded us up and we went to get a free slice of pizza. The second bar we went to was a bit more low key, with a guy playing his guitar. We got a shot of Bailey's here and hung out at a table talking. All 9 of us went on the crawl, and we met quite a few people from Holland! The third bar wasn't as fun, but we got Kamikaze shots which were very tasty. We could definitely tell that we were able to get free alcohol and use the areas we could because we were there much earlier than the usual crowd. It was really fun going with everyone, but it might have been more "real" to go later. The last bar was getting more crowded, and it had more of a "rocker" feel. Here we got free shots of tequila. Finally we ended up at the night club; even though it was already 12, it was  dead. They played some good music, but we had to be up really early for our Cliffs of Moher tour, so we called it a night after about a half an hour. Definitely a fun time at Temple Bar!