Feck! Arse! Drink! Girls!
So, I decided to treat myself to a trip to Ireland for my birthday. Even though my birthday was Tuesday the 15th, and we didn’t actually get to Dublin until Thursday the 17th . Unfortunately I had to spend the entire weekend before preparing for all of the exams I had that week. So, I wasn’t really thinking anything grand was going to happen. The last two birthdays were so much fun, I figured it was asking too much to expect a third. April was a sweetie and offered to take me to dinner the night of. So, Collette, Dawn, April and I all toasted to my 23rd year with Asti (an Italian champagne I really like) and Limoncello (an Italian lemon liqueur). Dinner was absolutely delicious, and the company was nice. The fun didn’t really start, though, until Dublin.
Dawn, Kelly, Collette and I began our adventure Wednesday night, March 16. I jokingly called it our “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” trip because we had to kind of hop from place to place in order to save money. However, when I said that, I didn’t really know how true it would be… Just to give you a little taste of what it was like, I’ll tell you what Day 1 was like:
Bus from Aix to Marseille, train from Marseille to Montpellier, tram from Montpellier train station to what we thought would be the airport, taxi ride from random tramstop to airport, plane from Montpellier to London Stansted Airport, train from airport to downtown London, bus from train station to random neighborhood, another bus from there to close to where we were supposed to meet Dawn’s friend, small pause for a kebab at a 24 hour kebab place, bus to Dawn’s friend’s place, 4 hour break for what you might call a nap, taxi from house back to the airport, plane from London to Dublin, bus from airport to downtown. (Phew!)
It was then about 8 or 9 in the morning and we were all absolutely exhausted, however, we didn’t want to spend St. Patrick’s Day sleeping. So, after we checked into the hostel, we trudged on to get our first great meal in a real Irish Pub. The girls all had genuine Irish stew, whereas I had weird little sausages and “chips.” Then, of course, we toasted to Ireland with our first pints of Guiness. After that, we went back to the hostel, took a little nappy, showered, and got ready for an awesome night out on the town.
Dublin is huge, and probably has about 1000 pubs/bars, but the most famous is the Temple Bar area. There is an actual Temple Bar, but the name is also used for that whole street of bars and pubs. At about eight we were hungry again and had a really good dinner at a diner that Sinead O’Connor used to work at, called the Badass Café. It’s not all that impressive when you walk in, and the walls and menus are covered with cartoon donkeys in precarious situations, but the food was really friggin’ good. We then trudged about half a block over to that infamous Temple Bar, as it seemed to be the most happening. At dinner, I jokingly said, “We need to get up, go to a pub, and have some Irish people say nice things to us.” (Why did I say that? I don’t know, but somehow it was in the context of what we were talking about) Anyway, we get into Temple Bar, the place is jam-packed with people, tall, strapping young Irishmen, that is… We get our first round, decide to go to the beer garden, and as Kelly and I are walking out, I hear, “Now that’s a fine arse.” Another voice says, “Oh yes, that is a fine arse. You could play a flute with that arse!” I turned around to see who was talking and who they were talking to… Yeah, as it turns out it was me. These same guys also, after Collette introduced herself, addressed her as “smelly breath.” And, when learning Dawn’s name, said “I’d like to wake up at the crack of Dawn!!” Clever, don’t ya think?
That night we met lots of guys, but for some reason, they weren’t the cute Irish guys we had pictured. Collette and Dawn kept getting Americans from Texas and Georgia, Kelly kept getting old English dudes, and I kept getting Italians…Boy when Italians find out that you speak a little of their native tongue, they get sooooo excited! I unfortunately could not get rid of one of them, despite my efforts to signal to the girls that I needed help. However, they didn’t get it, and I could not escape this dude. Eventually, I, sly girl that I am, tricked him into talking to some other Italian dude, and got away from him.
Day Two we spent exploring Dublin. We just walked around, had a nice leisurely lunch, went to Dublin Castle. We had the most adorable tour guide, he would close his eyes every so often when he was talking. So cute, so informative, and so…married.
That night, we went out again. We hit up Temple Bar again because we had had such good luck there the previous night but had left early to go to another bar. So, that night I insisted we go again, and this time, stay if we were having a good time. Well, we did. You see, we came up with a little system in Dublin: since it was so busy and so difficult just to get up to the bar, everybody would just buy a round for everyone else. Four girls equals four rounds, which equals a good buzz, right? Well, honestly, four rounds became six, usually consisting of five pints of good beer and a nice shot of whiskey.
This was an especially fun night, as we met a whole bunch of Irish boys who loved to talk. We were outside again, and out of nowhere, these Irish dudes just turned around and started talking to us. Although, bumping into random friendly strangers in a pub isn’t all that uncommon in Ireland, especially during St. Patty’s. And so it was, the meeting of Patrick, Pious, and Australian dude (never got his name, but hey, let’s call him Mick). Patrick seemed to take a liking to me, and he and I talked for a good hour or so. He was a cute taxman from Northern Ireland, and although he was really friendly and sweet, he was too short for me and kept talking about politics. (He also had a girlfriend and reminded me a lot of my brother). As I was talking to Patrick, Collette and Kelly were very happily engrossed by the amusing tales of Pious, who claimed he had swam from Alcatraz to the mainland without a wetsuit just because some “Amarecan fella” had offered him $50. Dawn however, was having trouble amusing or being amused by anyone. Even though she attempted witty repartee with the short, orange Australian, he just wasn’t having it. She eventually gave up and found some boring Welschmen to talk to. Unfortunately, she felt she needed a wingwoman to do so and stole Collette from her newfound friend.
All of the sudden, it was last call, and Kelly came out with a beer and told me to run in and get myself one. I went up to the bar, found Collette and Dawn finally, and asked for a Guiness. The bartender looks at me and says, “Not on my life, love.” (SO ADORABLE how they always call you “love.”) I turn back to the girls and their Welschmen for sympathy but received none. But then I hear, “You can have a sip o’ my cider if ya want.” I turn to my right to see two cute little Irish dudes sitting right next to me. James and Frankie. Oh! they were adorable, and hilarious! But I can’t remember for the life of me what was so damn funny… Anyway, the bouncers were pushing us out at this point, so I walked out with James and Frankie, and somehow got separated from the girls. Frankie says to me, “ So, where are you going to, Heidi?” (He called me Heidi because when he asked my name and I said “Emily,” he said, “Emily? No, ya can’t be an Emily, ya look mar like a Heidi.” ) I tell Frankie I’m just waiting for my friends, then I didn’t know where we were going. He gets real close to me, and says, “Do ya wanta kiss, Emily?” He leaned in, then stopped for a minute, turned me so I had to step down the curb, thus making him the taller one, and kissed me. The girls came out, I said goodbye to Frankie and James and we were off to the next bar.
At the next bar, we walked into what seemed like an entire bar of guys coupled up. One of the girls turns to me and tells me we’re in a gay bar. I was like, “What? Cool!” Well, we weren’t in a gay bar, it was just dudes on the hunt, hanging out with their wingmen. (The term “wingman” came up often during this trip). Anyway, they were playing strange music. It was some strange techno mix of Elvis, the Beatles, and disco; it was really quite confusing. We get another round of beers, and then somehow got separated. Collette and Dawn found some more Americans, Kelly found a Welcshman with a really crooked nose, and I bumped into a very tall German from Bavaria, and his creepy, little wingman. So I talked to Andréus for awhile, and even though his wingman never left his side, he couldn’t really take part in the conversation with us as he didn’t speak English. After awhile it was time to go, so I started to say my goodbyes but and Andréus didn’t want me to go and told me that I should stay and have a threesome with him and his friend Tiny. Needless to say, I said goodbye, found the girls and left.
Day three was a little different. We decided our third day, Saturday, we would spend in the country. So, we woke up a little late, went to the tourism office and just told them we wanted to go to the country. This really nice lady told us to hop on a bus to Howth. A half an hour later, we were on a bus to a small fishing village on the East coast of Ireland. We didn’t know what to expect, so we asked the bus driver where we were headed exactly. She seemed to know exactly what we were looking for, because she told us to get off at the very last stop, and then told us to walk straight ahead where we would find a trail that would lead us back to the village. We didn’t know what to expect, but were handsomely rewarded with a beautiful hike along the cliff with our very own guide dog. We met some Italians on the way, of course, who crashed into each other on their bikes and fell into a bush. It was pretty funny, and the girls and I were kind of hysterical at that point, so poor dudes were a little embarrassed.
We finished our beautiful hike and then we were on the hunt for some nourishment. Kelly wanted a beer, Dawn wanted nachos, I wanted an Irish coffee, and Collette just wanted to watch the rugby game (Ireland vs. Wales). We took a turn that Kelly wasn’t all that sure about, but I assured her that we would find something if we went the way I had suggested. We walked about five blocks and stumbled upon KRUGER’S PUB. (How cool is that? As if I needed another reason to love Ireland!!) We walk inside, they had a huge flat screen playing the rugby game, we sit down, Kelly and I get our drinks right away, and Dawn opens up the menu and sees “nachos.” Needless to say, we were all completely satisfied with Kruger’s Pub.
The next day we had a flight pretty early in the morning, so we didn’t want to stay out too late. Well, we got to the first bar, had a pint, then another, then another… Pretty soon we knew we weren’t going home when we had intended. It was a really cool night though, because we got to see an Irish band play live. Kelly danced the traditional Irish dance, I slapped a bouncer because a waitress asked me to, and we didn’t get home until 4 in the morning. Our flight was at 7. It was a dumb idea, but we all decided to take a little nap. None of us woke up on time, despite the 5 alarm clocks that we had set. It was 6 AM. We ransacked the room, ran downstairs, had the office call a cab, and prayed we’d make it. It was a pretty close call, but we did make our flight. That day was another day of hopping from one place to another, and it was absolutely ridiculous and exhausting… But we all agreed every bit of it was worth it. I love Ireland!!!
Dawn, Kelly, Collette and I began our adventure Wednesday night, March 16. I jokingly called it our “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” trip because we had to kind of hop from place to place in order to save money. However, when I said that, I didn’t really know how true it would be… Just to give you a little taste of what it was like, I’ll tell you what Day 1 was like:
Bus from Aix to Marseille, train from Marseille to Montpellier, tram from Montpellier train station to what we thought would be the airport, taxi ride from random tramstop to airport, plane from Montpellier to London Stansted Airport, train from airport to downtown London, bus from train station to random neighborhood, another bus from there to close to where we were supposed to meet Dawn’s friend, small pause for a kebab at a 24 hour kebab place, bus to Dawn’s friend’s place, 4 hour break for what you might call a nap, taxi from house back to the airport, plane from London to Dublin, bus from airport to downtown. (Phew!)
It was then about 8 or 9 in the morning and we were all absolutely exhausted, however, we didn’t want to spend St. Patrick’s Day sleeping. So, after we checked into the hostel, we trudged on to get our first great meal in a real Irish Pub. The girls all had genuine Irish stew, whereas I had weird little sausages and “chips.” Then, of course, we toasted to Ireland with our first pints of Guiness. After that, we went back to the hostel, took a little nappy, showered, and got ready for an awesome night out on the town.
Dublin is huge, and probably has about 1000 pubs/bars, but the most famous is the Temple Bar area. There is an actual Temple Bar, but the name is also used for that whole street of bars and pubs. At about eight we were hungry again and had a really good dinner at a diner that Sinead O’Connor used to work at, called the Badass Café. It’s not all that impressive when you walk in, and the walls and menus are covered with cartoon donkeys in precarious situations, but the food was really friggin’ good. We then trudged about half a block over to that infamous Temple Bar, as it seemed to be the most happening. At dinner, I jokingly said, “We need to get up, go to a pub, and have some Irish people say nice things to us.” (Why did I say that? I don’t know, but somehow it was in the context of what we were talking about) Anyway, we get into Temple Bar, the place is jam-packed with people, tall, strapping young Irishmen, that is… We get our first round, decide to go to the beer garden, and as Kelly and I are walking out, I hear, “Now that’s a fine arse.” Another voice says, “Oh yes, that is a fine arse. You could play a flute with that arse!” I turned around to see who was talking and who they were talking to… Yeah, as it turns out it was me. These same guys also, after Collette introduced herself, addressed her as “smelly breath.” And, when learning Dawn’s name, said “I’d like to wake up at the crack of Dawn!!” Clever, don’t ya think?
That night we met lots of guys, but for some reason, they weren’t the cute Irish guys we had pictured. Collette and Dawn kept getting Americans from Texas and Georgia, Kelly kept getting old English dudes, and I kept getting Italians…Boy when Italians find out that you speak a little of their native tongue, they get sooooo excited! I unfortunately could not get rid of one of them, despite my efforts to signal to the girls that I needed help. However, they didn’t get it, and I could not escape this dude. Eventually, I, sly girl that I am, tricked him into talking to some other Italian dude, and got away from him.
Day Two we spent exploring Dublin. We just walked around, had a nice leisurely lunch, went to Dublin Castle. We had the most adorable tour guide, he would close his eyes every so often when he was talking. So cute, so informative, and so…married.
That night, we went out again. We hit up Temple Bar again because we had had such good luck there the previous night but had left early to go to another bar. So, that night I insisted we go again, and this time, stay if we were having a good time. Well, we did. You see, we came up with a little system in Dublin: since it was so busy and so difficult just to get up to the bar, everybody would just buy a round for everyone else. Four girls equals four rounds, which equals a good buzz, right? Well, honestly, four rounds became six, usually consisting of five pints of good beer and a nice shot of whiskey.
This was an especially fun night, as we met a whole bunch of Irish boys who loved to talk. We were outside again, and out of nowhere, these Irish dudes just turned around and started talking to us. Although, bumping into random friendly strangers in a pub isn’t all that uncommon in Ireland, especially during St. Patty’s. And so it was, the meeting of Patrick, Pious, and Australian dude (never got his name, but hey, let’s call him Mick). Patrick seemed to take a liking to me, and he and I talked for a good hour or so. He was a cute taxman from Northern Ireland, and although he was really friendly and sweet, he was too short for me and kept talking about politics. (He also had a girlfriend and reminded me a lot of my brother). As I was talking to Patrick, Collette and Kelly were very happily engrossed by the amusing tales of Pious, who claimed he had swam from Alcatraz to the mainland without a wetsuit just because some “Amarecan fella” had offered him $50. Dawn however, was having trouble amusing or being amused by anyone. Even though she attempted witty repartee with the short, orange Australian, he just wasn’t having it. She eventually gave up and found some boring Welschmen to talk to. Unfortunately, she felt she needed a wingwoman to do so and stole Collette from her newfound friend.
All of the sudden, it was last call, and Kelly came out with a beer and told me to run in and get myself one. I went up to the bar, found Collette and Dawn finally, and asked for a Guiness. The bartender looks at me and says, “Not on my life, love.” (SO ADORABLE how they always call you “love.”) I turn back to the girls and their Welschmen for sympathy but received none. But then I hear, “You can have a sip o’ my cider if ya want.” I turn to my right to see two cute little Irish dudes sitting right next to me. James and Frankie. Oh! they were adorable, and hilarious! But I can’t remember for the life of me what was so damn funny… Anyway, the bouncers were pushing us out at this point, so I walked out with James and Frankie, and somehow got separated from the girls. Frankie says to me, “ So, where are you going to, Heidi?” (He called me Heidi because when he asked my name and I said “Emily,” he said, “Emily? No, ya can’t be an Emily, ya look mar like a Heidi.” ) I tell Frankie I’m just waiting for my friends, then I didn’t know where we were going. He gets real close to me, and says, “Do ya wanta kiss, Emily?” He leaned in, then stopped for a minute, turned me so I had to step down the curb, thus making him the taller one, and kissed me. The girls came out, I said goodbye to Frankie and James and we were off to the next bar.
At the next bar, we walked into what seemed like an entire bar of guys coupled up. One of the girls turns to me and tells me we’re in a gay bar. I was like, “What? Cool!” Well, we weren’t in a gay bar, it was just dudes on the hunt, hanging out with their wingmen. (The term “wingman” came up often during this trip). Anyway, they were playing strange music. It was some strange techno mix of Elvis, the Beatles, and disco; it was really quite confusing. We get another round of beers, and then somehow got separated. Collette and Dawn found some more Americans, Kelly found a Welcshman with a really crooked nose, and I bumped into a very tall German from Bavaria, and his creepy, little wingman. So I talked to Andréus for awhile, and even though his wingman never left his side, he couldn’t really take part in the conversation with us as he didn’t speak English. After awhile it was time to go, so I started to say my goodbyes but and Andréus didn’t want me to go and told me that I should stay and have a threesome with him and his friend Tiny. Needless to say, I said goodbye, found the girls and left.
Day three was a little different. We decided our third day, Saturday, we would spend in the country. So, we woke up a little late, went to the tourism office and just told them we wanted to go to the country. This really nice lady told us to hop on a bus to Howth. A half an hour later, we were on a bus to a small fishing village on the East coast of Ireland. We didn’t know what to expect, so we asked the bus driver where we were headed exactly. She seemed to know exactly what we were looking for, because she told us to get off at the very last stop, and then told us to walk straight ahead where we would find a trail that would lead us back to the village. We didn’t know what to expect, but were handsomely rewarded with a beautiful hike along the cliff with our very own guide dog. We met some Italians on the way, of course, who crashed into each other on their bikes and fell into a bush. It was pretty funny, and the girls and I were kind of hysterical at that point, so poor dudes were a little embarrassed.
We finished our beautiful hike and then we were on the hunt for some nourishment. Kelly wanted a beer, Dawn wanted nachos, I wanted an Irish coffee, and Collette just wanted to watch the rugby game (Ireland vs. Wales). We took a turn that Kelly wasn’t all that sure about, but I assured her that we would find something if we went the way I had suggested. We walked about five blocks and stumbled upon KRUGER’S PUB. (How cool is that? As if I needed another reason to love Ireland!!) We walk inside, they had a huge flat screen playing the rugby game, we sit down, Kelly and I get our drinks right away, and Dawn opens up the menu and sees “nachos.” Needless to say, we were all completely satisfied with Kruger’s Pub.
The next day we had a flight pretty early in the morning, so we didn’t want to stay out too late. Well, we got to the first bar, had a pint, then another, then another… Pretty soon we knew we weren’t going home when we had intended. It was a really cool night though, because we got to see an Irish band play live. Kelly danced the traditional Irish dance, I slapped a bouncer because a waitress asked me to, and we didn’t get home until 4 in the morning. Our flight was at 7. It was a dumb idea, but we all decided to take a little nap. None of us woke up on time, despite the 5 alarm clocks that we had set. It was 6 AM. We ransacked the room, ran downstairs, had the office call a cab, and prayed we’d make it. It was a pretty close call, but we did make our flight. That day was another day of hopping from one place to another, and it was absolutely ridiculous and exhausting… But we all agreed every bit of it was worth it. I love Ireland!!!
<< Home