Welcome to Dublin! (September 7)

So I was saying, early flight...3 hours of sleep!! I finally finished packing and got to bed by about 1:30 am. And woke up at 4:30. In the morning. TOO EARLY. I got ready, called a taxi, attempted to deliriously carry on a conversation with the taxi driver as he asked my plans in Dublin and insisted I drink my own pint of Guinness at the Guinness Factory. He was really nice, but to be honest it was WAY too early and I couldn't understand half of what he was saying. Understanding accents takes effort sometimes! And that's asking a lot at 5 am. I mean, come onnnn. So anyway, I got to the train station, met Romain and his friend Maxime, and we hopped on the train to get to the airport. They fell asleep right away, but I fought to stay awake - thankfully, because 45 minutes later we would have missed our stop if I wasn't looking out the window checking for signs! We got through security at the airport and got on the plane...thankfully with my bag. Let's just say I didn't take time to condense my bag in my hurry to pack the previous night so I was pushing it on the "one carry-on item 20 cm by something by something and no heavier than 10 kg." And hey, it fit under the seat! (Somehow!) 





....AND we were off to Dublin! As soon as the seatbelt signs went off, they went right back on to prepare for landing. I think the flight was only 45 minutes or something! We landed, had to take a bus into the city centre, and FINALLY were there. 

First things first, coffee. Second, hostel. There was no way I was lugging my backpack around Dublin. It was too early to check in, so I stored my bags. Compared to my London hostel, this place was niiiiiice!!!! The lobby was huge and so nice, there were tons of really nice rooms, there was a bar and a kitchen and it was great. It was a youth hostel, so I think only young people could stay there - or at least I only saw young people around. Just as we were about to leave, there was a guy with a "free tour" shirt on just like the tour I went on in London. We decided to tag along and join the 3 1/2 HOUR walking tour. It was a good tour with lots of information, but MAN our legs and feet were tired after that! Not to mention the fact that we'd gotten hardly any sleep! But I'm glad we went. :) Lots of history and sightseeing! 

Ready for our tour!

 Dublin Castle

 Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

 So many different styles of architecture in one picture

 This is the "weeping alley" in P.S. I Love You, as our tour guide described it. When she is crying in the bar and goes outside to cry alone, this is where she is. But fun fact, the bar she was in is actually 15 minutes across town. Oh, the magic of Hollywood.

 Dublin Cathedral...that is really a Protestant church now, and the Catholic church just refuses to acknowledge it. So there is technically not a cathedral in Dublin. Another fun fact. See, tour guides are full of information! That's him in the red, by the way. 

 Love the cobblestone & moss!

 Pretty colors!

 Temple Bar area

 Temple Bar

 Trinity College - our tour guide went there, and made sure we knew!

Trinity College 

 Trinity College

 Trinity College

 St. Stephen's Green - "Famine"

Irish History

 Some more history in the park! St. Stephen's Green

Three and a half hours later, our tour ended. We were exhausted! We found a cafe to rest in for a bit, then continued on our way!

 Grafton Street

I loved this street! It's for foot-traffic only and for SOME REASON reminds me of New Orleans. Okay, that statement is not valid because I have not been to New Orleans. Let me re-phrase. Grafton Street reminds me of the New Orleans area of Disneyland. Using this and my perception and knowledge of New Orleans, I have come to this conclusion. :) Anyway, it was great. There were street performers, mostly jazz. It was such a fun street! Hard to describe though. I guess you'll just all have to go visit! 

 Grafton Street

Grafton Street

 Back to Trinity College

 Trinity College

 Dublin City Centre

 Sometimes you're the bird, sometimes you're the statue. 

Earlier in the morning, we noticed that the Old Jameson Distillery backed up to our hostel. So, on the way back to our hostel, we decided to go there and have ourselves a little whiskey tour! We had to wait around for awhile, so we wandered around the shop and the two guys wanted EVERYTHING because EVERYTHING in there would make them feel manly. Oh, men. We waited and wandered and took pictures with/of everything there.

Tour time! Finally, our tour number was called. We watched a movie clip in a comfy theater, then walked through the distillery. It actually is not still a running distillery, but it was remodeled as one was in the past so we could see everything. It was really interesting. 

At the end of the tour, the tour guide picked a few female volunteers for a Whiskey tasting. We were seated at a long table with three kinds of whiskey in front of us. Once-distilled Jack Daniels, twice-distilled Scotch whiskey, and three-times distilled Jameson. He taught us how to taste whiskey correctly, which involved smelling it, sipping it....and letting it SIT in your mouth. That part wasn't so fun!! We tried Jameson first, and it wasn't too bad. Can't say I enjoy keeping hard liquor in my mouth to taste. Next, Scotch. Eh, a little worse. All the men found it entertaining to watch as the women twisted their faces at the...lovely...taste of whiskey. And finally, third, the American whiskey. Let me tell you - NOT something you want to let sit in your mouth! I'm sure all of us ladies had the most delightful faces while we tasted this one. We had to say what our favorite was and the Jameson really was the best compared to the others. The guide left the room and returned with personalized certificates since we were now officially Qualified Irish Whiskey Tasters! Then everyone on the tour got a free drink. I won't tell you what my mixer was because apparently "you're not allowed to mix Jameson with anything but ice" but hey - they were serving it with some mixers! Get mad at the distillery, not me! :)

Whiskey Tasting

Whiskey Tasting

 Certificate!

Qualified Irish Whiskey Taster

Once we left there, we were hungry and ready for dinner. We heard Dublin was SUPER expensive so we were on a mission to save money. We went to the supermarket right by our hostel, bought some sandwiches, and ate them on the grass outside. Then we were exhausted and our plans of going out didn't seem quite as appealing anymore. Instead, we stayed in the hostel and spent the evening hanging out in the bar there, socializing, watching football, and playing some pool. It was a LONG day!

 Sunflowers in the supermarket - I HAD to take a picture, they're my favorites! :)

 Hostel Bar/Lounge

 Preparing for the Guinness Storehouse (tomorrow) with some Guinness pool!

Calamine Lotion & The Notebook (September 6)

When I woke up, I didn't feel so great. My hands and fingers were still swollen and itchy and I did not think I could make it through a day of research. I also had overall "ill" feeling, most likely brought upon by those stupid bites. I took a sick day and planned to do research from home. I took some benadryl around 8 am.......and woke up at 1 pm. So apparently my body needed "some" extra sleep! For the rest of the day, I sat/napped on the couch and was best friends with my calamine lotion. I also convinced Fiona to watch The Notebook because she hasn't ever seen it before!!!! She's crazy!!!! Oh, and I stayed in my PJ's ALLLL day! :) Then it got late and I realized I was going to Dublin in the morning, and I had to pack. And we had an early flight...

Loopy (September 5)

Today at Uni, there was an "Open Day" for students interested in applying. Since it's summer and there aren't that many students around campus, the research students got recruited to help sell the school and the Bioengineering Department. I know diddly-squat about the university's bioengineering program or classes, but I can sell bioengineering as a major so I went for it. It was fun, but exhausting. And by the end of the day, I had seen ENOUGH high schoolers!! 

I met up with Fiona for some afternoon tea at the Willow Tea Rooms! They are designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh and are so cool. Once we got there, we nixed the tea plan and got some hot chocolate and French Toast instead. 

 The Willow Tea Rooms :)

 French toast with afternoon tea?! Okay!

Oh, and I should mention the events prior to the tea room. Many of you know I traveled abroad last summer and got some insect bites on my arms and legs in the Bahamas that got super infected (I won't describe it, but just know it was gross and itchy and painful). They began spreading toward my heart and long story short I had to take a antibiotics and steroids, and it was miserable. And I figured it was just some freak bug that my body had a crazy reaction to.

Now fast forward a little over a year. Last weekend I went camping. You already know what midges are. Are you putting two and two together? Yeah, all day I started noticing a bunch of bites coming up on my hands, especially my knuckles. At first they were just itchy. Then they got worse. And worse. And at the Open Day, I looked down at my hands and my finger joints were so swollen!! It hurt to even bend my fingers, not to mention the ridiculous itch. I know what itchy feels like, and this was beyond it. It really reminded me of the beginning of my bites from last summer...yeah, not good. By the time I met up with Fiona, I was miserable and needed to do something about it. Healthcare is free for everyone here, woohoo blah blah blah...NOT FOR ME. So I had to be selective and careful with what I chose to do. First I decided to go to the pharmacy, and the pharmacist told me to try a topical steroid. I got it, and quickly realized that I use hydrocortisone cream on normal itchy bites and they still itch. SO I went back and got the heavy duty stuff I fell in love with last summer - calamine lotion and benadryl. And so, for the rest of the day, I looked like a pink-spotted weirdo. Whatever, I didn't care. It was helping....a little. And a little was a lot to me. 

So we went to the tea rooms, then headed to a bar/restaurant called Dram that we purchased vouchers for. It was only 5 pounds for a pizza and drink - either wine or beer. We'd had these plans for almost 2 weeks so we were both looking forward to it and didn't think twice about the day's events thus far. We ordered our pizza and glass of wine, and before I knew it I was beyond LOOPY. I'm talking chatter-box, full of giggles, loooopy. And that's when we realized the benadryl-wine thing. I pull out the box and sure enough, shouldn't be taken with alcohol. Well duh I knew that! I was just absent-minded and stupid, and so Fiona got to be entertained as I was super duper loopy for all of dinner. Thank goodness it wore off soon!!!

So we ordered sticky toffee pudding, the "must" at this place (I wasn't a huge fan) and headed out of there. 

 Sticky Toffee Pudding - A must-have in Scotland, but not my favorite!

Then we headed to CineWorld because it was Wednesday - free movie day! We decided to go with The Watch and it ended up being really funny. The un-drugged-up Fiona agreed!