events that occurred this weekend:
-- went to cork. fo free. thanks, ifsa!
-- stayed at a BALLIN' hotel. i have never slept more wonderfully or in such an incredible bed. what i would do to bring that thing back to dubtown...
-- saw some of the greatest little bands. fo free. including, but not limited to, a bob marley wannabe, a 90s cover band called 'smash hits' (they did backstreet's back and it was epic), a tap dancing 80-year-old man who sang along to a cassette tape, an incredible jazz band who just set up shop on the sidewalk, another jazz band made up entirely of cute men aged 65 or older, and possibly one of the greatest swing bands i've ever heard.
-- saw a man i'm pretty sure could pass as cousin it. he was the saxophonist in said swing band.
-- mama got a new bag. and it is b-e-a-uuutiful.
-- rang the bells at st. anne's cathedral. played 'three blind mice' to be more specific.
-- climbed to the top of the bell tower at st. anne's. got to wear some sexyyyy headphones. and in the words of martha, "paid 5 euro to touch some bird shit." we had to climb up the itty bittiest staircase, past the clanging bells, and out a mini door where we were nearly blown away by the gale force winds, but it was pretty much worth it.
-- walked through two wonderful markets and picked up a few christmas prezzies. speaking of, i still need to find a good market here...
-- saw more varieties of meat, ie lamb's kidneys and an entire pigs head, than i'd really like to ever see again. i understand now why vegetarians exist.
-- found a store whose little treasures NEED to be in my house. they are of the old, sparkly, and brightly colored variety.
-- we fell back. god, i love falling back.
-- read a book.
-- realized how thankful i am to be in dublin and not cork. don't get me wrong, it was a great town, just too little for my liking.
events that will happen this week:
-- a leinster rugby game.
-- halloween celebrations.
-- EMILY IS COMING!!!!
a top weekend for sure. and i'm so excited for this next one that i can hardly stand it. but i've gotta say it, i am missing fall in nashy - there's something about it that makes me smile from ear to ear. maybe it's the super crunchy leaves, or just how it smells so fally. either way, there are days when i wish i was walking across peabody bridge, seeing 1000 different shades of red and yellow leaves around me, and not sloshing through rain puddles. but no matter, i'm carpe-ing that diem, baby.
10/26/2009
10/18/2009
reunions in europeland. and a couple diggers.
FUN weekend, y'all!! one of my best friends, hannah, is studying in barcelona this semester and she came to visit!! she and her friend elsa, who goes to asu (shout out to momma and richie), stayed at my apartment. we had the best time! on thursday night we went to the whelan bar, which is where part of ps. i love you was filmed. sadly, no sightings of gerard. i guess they have great live music thursday and friday nights, so i'd love to go back and check it out. but we shut the place down - checking that one off the list - and had a blast!
on friday we toured around the city and i FINALLY saw a lot of the dublin sites! everything is so walkable, i love it. we meandered along the river liffey and into temple bar, then over to the castle. let me tell ya, this castle is a shame to all other castles. it's basically in the middle of an office complex, surrounded by a massive parking lot, and parts of it are painted bright colors. NOT what i was expecting. i will say that the chester beatty library and front lawn are pretty cool and worth seeing. but honestly, when you call something a castle, it sure as heck better be large and castley and not overtaken by an ugly office complex. and that's the world according to kendra... after that less than climactic experience, we headed over to st. patrick's cathedral. TOTALLY made up for the castle. it's stunning, and the park next to it is perfect and precious. we went inside for a second, but it cost like 5 euro to tour around it. nooo, thank you. after pictures, we walked to st. stephen's green and tried to soak up all we could of the gorgeous day it turned out to be! it was sunny and warm - the perfect day for a stroll in the park. next we walked grafton st. and did some window shopping, then met grace and her friends who were visiting from florence for some sushi. also a bit of a let down - they make it fresh, but then stick it in a fridge where you go and pick it out? strange. later that night we went to WAR - a rockin' club where they paint your face when you walk in the door. there was a group of like 5 guys dressed like gypsies... ha, the things you see at night in dubtown. ridonkulous.
oh, also ridonkulous is the girl who TRIPPED HER SWEET, OLD GRANDPA IN A FIT OF BRATTY RAGE. yes. it happened. during our little sightseeing tour, hannah, elsa and i happened to be walking behind this family and the girl was throwing a fit. her grandpa and grandma were holding her hands and basically dragging her down the sidewalk because she refused to walk. the mother was behind them with 1000 bags, clearly struggling and embarrassed. then outta no where, the child sticks her foot out and grandpa goes down. hard. we were all in shock. he was on the ground for a while as grandma had that little hot mess to deal with, and the mom had those 1000 bags. luckily he was ok, but i thought he was going to strangle that little girl. let me tell you, if my child displays any sort of tantrum like this one did, helloooo boarding school.
on saturday, hannah and elsa headed down to cork to see some other friends, and grace and i went off to explore the national gallery. they had a ton of great pieces, but it definitely wasn't as good as scotland's. also, WAY more confusing. grace and i got turned around so many times. however, they have an awesome gift shop and i need to go back there asap.
but let's please just talk for a second about the exceptionally high levels of procrastination that i've reached. it's pretty terrible, even for my standards. for example, i chose to fill out spring break applications, write postcards, vacuum, clean the kitchen, shower, and blog all before i even considered touching the mountains of homework staring me in the face. i blame it on the fact that EVERYTHING is closed on sunday. sunday is my work day where i pack up my longchamp and head off to a nice little study spot. i'm just not a room worker - clearly i get a little distracted - and need a library or cubicle. ucd, why do you not provide these services? i'm blaming you for the state i'm in...
and now that that's covered, i am blaming my laundry and laundry bag for the bump on my head. much like gramps, i took a bit of a digger except it was into my bedroom wall and not a sidewalk. possibly one of the most embarrassing things i've ever done. writing about it is therapeutic. and if it's not an indication i need to do laundry, i don't know what is. over and out.
on friday we toured around the city and i FINALLY saw a lot of the dublin sites! everything is so walkable, i love it. we meandered along the river liffey and into temple bar, then over to the castle. let me tell ya, this castle is a shame to all other castles. it's basically in the middle of an office complex, surrounded by a massive parking lot, and parts of it are painted bright colors. NOT what i was expecting. i will say that the chester beatty library and front lawn are pretty cool and worth seeing. but honestly, when you call something a castle, it sure as heck better be large and castley and not overtaken by an ugly office complex. and that's the world according to kendra... after that less than climactic experience, we headed over to st. patrick's cathedral. TOTALLY made up for the castle. it's stunning, and the park next to it is perfect and precious. we went inside for a second, but it cost like 5 euro to tour around it. nooo, thank you. after pictures, we walked to st. stephen's green and tried to soak up all we could of the gorgeous day it turned out to be! it was sunny and warm - the perfect day for a stroll in the park. next we walked grafton st. and did some window shopping, then met grace and her friends who were visiting from florence for some sushi. also a bit of a let down - they make it fresh, but then stick it in a fridge where you go and pick it out? strange. later that night we went to WAR - a rockin' club where they paint your face when you walk in the door. there was a group of like 5 guys dressed like gypsies... ha, the things you see at night in dubtown. ridonkulous.
oh, also ridonkulous is the girl who TRIPPED HER SWEET, OLD GRANDPA IN A FIT OF BRATTY RAGE. yes. it happened. during our little sightseeing tour, hannah, elsa and i happened to be walking behind this family and the girl was throwing a fit. her grandpa and grandma were holding her hands and basically dragging her down the sidewalk because she refused to walk. the mother was behind them with 1000 bags, clearly struggling and embarrassed. then outta no where, the child sticks her foot out and grandpa goes down. hard. we were all in shock. he was on the ground for a while as grandma had that little hot mess to deal with, and the mom had those 1000 bags. luckily he was ok, but i thought he was going to strangle that little girl. let me tell you, if my child displays any sort of tantrum like this one did, helloooo boarding school.
on saturday, hannah and elsa headed down to cork to see some other friends, and grace and i went off to explore the national gallery. they had a ton of great pieces, but it definitely wasn't as good as scotland's. also, WAY more confusing. grace and i got turned around so many times. however, they have an awesome gift shop and i need to go back there asap.
but let's please just talk for a second about the exceptionally high levels of procrastination that i've reached. it's pretty terrible, even for my standards. for example, i chose to fill out spring break applications, write postcards, vacuum, clean the kitchen, shower, and blog all before i even considered touching the mountains of homework staring me in the face. i blame it on the fact that EVERYTHING is closed on sunday. sunday is my work day where i pack up my longchamp and head off to a nice little study spot. i'm just not a room worker - clearly i get a little distracted - and need a library or cubicle. ucd, why do you not provide these services? i'm blaming you for the state i'm in...
and now that that's covered, i am blaming my laundry and laundry bag for the bump on my head. much like gramps, i took a bit of a digger except it was into my bedroom wall and not a sidewalk. possibly one of the most embarrassing things i've ever done. writing about it is therapeutic. and if it's not an indication i need to do laundry, i don't know what is. over and out.
10/12/2009
met my future hubby. he goes by adam the braveheart.
it's true. he gave me his business card and everything. i'm thinking it will be a late-spring wedding in the highlands. kilts mandatory.
since i am a terrible blogger, this little entry might just go on for miles. i advise you to use my preferred method of reading - skimming and paying attention to the bold words. gets the job done, right?
let's start with saturday morning. grace and i left for our day in the wicklow mountains, where we got to hike around glendalough and see the ruins of the monastic settlement started by st. kevin. it was absolutely stunning. i thought i had seen some pretty places before - growing up with tahoe right next door, traveling to park city in the winter, going to family reunions in the smoky mountains and in san diego, and working in montreat this summer. i've been so fortunate to see all of these great places so often, but i really do take it for granted most of the time. lesson learned, because glendalough just took my breath away. it's only about an hour south of dublin, but it feels so different. the name literally means 'the glen of two lakes', and sure enough, there are two lakes. creative names too - the upper lake and the lower lake. the upper lake is MASSIVE and surrounded by some equally impressive mountains. we started our hike on one of the penance roads - looong, gravel roads the monks had to walk if they had been naughty. however, i think that kind of goes against monkish nature... hmm. we turned and headed up a not-so-easy trail to reach the top of the mountain. it reminded me a lot of the movies ella enchanted or ever after; kind of medieval, and very forresty and green. we reached the top very winded and followed our guide back down. oh also, the whole time we were being smacked with a heavy mist/rain. not the nicest day i've seen, but no matter. when we reached the bottom, we were literally standing on the edge of the lake. we made our way around the lake on this itty bitty trail, took some pics on the beach, then headed up to see kevin's cell and a pretty little waterfall. let's talk about kevin for a second. homie lived in a cave he carved into the side of the mountain and meditated a whole lot. not much of a people person. we toured around the cemetery, the ruins of the old cathedral, and learned about the round tower. this place is SO old - it's just amazing to me how it's still standing in such good condition after all these years. the cemetary was awesome, too. normally they really creep me out but i could appreciate this one, mainly because of all the pretty celtic crosses. overall, an AWESOME experience in little glendalough and something i'm very thankful i got to do! take a looksie at my pitchas --
and now, it's edinburgh time!! ohmyGOSH - one of my favorite cities on the planet!! first of all, it's pronounced 'edinburra.' if you say 'burgh', people really judge you. noted. we arrived latelate thursday night, and went right to our b&b. let me tell you, b&b's are totally the way to go! we stayed at this little place called the valentine guest house and it was so great. martha, grace and i had our own room with three little beds, complete with scottish flag bedding. makes the claddagh hostel look like a halfway house. we had a great free breakfast every morning and the people were super nice. oh don't worry, i was served a full scottish breakfast the first morning, complete with haggis and black pudding. didn't get near that nasty biz. grace and i did have a bit of a sausage situation though... we thought we were biting into a perfectly good breakfast sausage, ya know, ihop style. FALSE. we literally had a piece of meaty mush into our mouths and almost caused a major scene trying to swallow it. i now understand why those people on fear factor make such strange noises while trying to swallow the terrible things they had to eat. needless to say, sausage might forever be on the blacklist for us.
on friday, we hit the town hard. before we went to the castle, we did a little shopping on the royal mile. hello cashmere and tartan. i bought a blanket (i know what you're thinking - a blanket, really, kendra? really. i needed to bring back some authentic scotland with me, and i'm certainly not wearing a kilt.) i also bought a cashmere scarf, and a set of mini bagpipes in the tartan belonging to the farquharson clan. it was the coolest name i could find. after our little shopping adventure, we went into the tartan mill at the bottom of the castle. it. was. AWESOME. we watched the fabric being made, and saw the walls and walls of the bajillion kinds of tartans. very neat. then we made it to the castle - it's really like it's own village, but it looks so majestic on top of that hill. we toured around, took pictures on top of cannons (for you, momma - 11 years later!), and went into some of the exhibits. next, we meandered down the royal mile, aka high street, and saw my husband, adam the bravehart. adam dresses up in full scottish gear, large furry boots included, and hangs out at the bottom of the castle. he's hilarious and very chatty, and has some large swords you get to hold when you take a picture with him. oh and fun fact, his bum is all over scotland. he lives off royalties from this very famous postcard pictured below:
yep, that's adam's bootay. and he proved it to us. it's a very detailed tattoo. after adam and his bum, we visited st. giles church, the mercat cross, and loads of other famous sites. next, we went to one of my favorite places, the elephant house. it's where jk rowling wrote harry potter! we stopped in for a bit, and it really has an awesome view of the castle. hogwarts wouldn't be hard to imagine after looking at that all day! after that, we went to the national gallery. kind of a let down since the top floor was randomly closed for the day, so we didn't get to see any of the good stuff including degas, da vinci, and monet. sad. we checked out the walter scott monument, and then went to a great italian dinner with some of grace's family friends. that night, we went on a ghost tour around the old town. i was scared outta my mind before it started, but thankfully it wasn't that scary! we heard some great stories, and went down into these vaults, which are supposedly the "most haunted area in all of britain". not gonna lie, i believe in ghosties. thankfully i didn't see anything creepy down there, otherwise i would have probably had a heart attack.
on saturday, we woke up and could hardly move. edinburgh is not a flat city in the least, and our little leggies were feeling it! we explored the shops in grassmarket, and found the most miraculous bookstore EVER. don't worry about it, i bought a copy of emma by jane austen, my most favorite book, that's from 1872. ohmygod, i almost had a heart attack. after, we walked down the other end of the royal mile to the holyrood house, the royal palace of scotland. it's a working palace, so a bunch of official royal stuff goes down all the time. some of the rooms are ridiculously extravagant, but it was all so awesome to see. got to walk through mary queen of scots bedroom, and see the dining room where queen elizabeth actually eats dinner and hangs out. gosh, i want to meet her! thankfully it was a beautiful day (unlike friday - GROSS), and we got to spend a bunch of time outside on the grounds. the palace sits right below arthur's seat, which we were gonna hike it but it is no small endeavor. after, we stumbled onto some strange parade going across the bridge, i think it was celebrating women's rights? but it literally just came out of no where. so we followed it across and got to listen to the accordion band. pretty rockin'. later on, we went on a pub crawl (they love those in area of the world), but grace and i just followed the tour and hung out. call us cheap, but 10 pounds wasn't worth it. ps, the old town is 1000x better than the new town. just throwing that out there.
sunday was st. andrews day! we took the train along the coast and got in that afternoon. it's only an hour away, so it's a perfect day trip. it was a really pretty ride, too! we walked around the ruins of the cathedral on the harbor, and saw the ruins of the castle, and then made it to the big bad golf course. it was gorgeous, and the six courses are probably bigger than the size of the entire town. it's definitely pretty snooty but that's expected. very glad i saw it though! we took the train back a couple hours later, and then hopped on our flight back home! gosh, i just loved it so much. i had to keep telling myself that it was colder and more expensive than dublin so i wouldn't feel so sad leaving! edinburgh - i'm coming back asap, baby.
since i am a terrible blogger, this little entry might just go on for miles. i advise you to use my preferred method of reading - skimming and paying attention to the bold words. gets the job done, right?
let's start with saturday morning. grace and i left for our day in the wicklow mountains, where we got to hike around glendalough and see the ruins of the monastic settlement started by st. kevin. it was absolutely stunning. i thought i had seen some pretty places before - growing up with tahoe right next door, traveling to park city in the winter, going to family reunions in the smoky mountains and in san diego, and working in montreat this summer. i've been so fortunate to see all of these great places so often, but i really do take it for granted most of the time. lesson learned, because glendalough just took my breath away. it's only about an hour south of dublin, but it feels so different. the name literally means 'the glen of two lakes', and sure enough, there are two lakes. creative names too - the upper lake and the lower lake. the upper lake is MASSIVE and surrounded by some equally impressive mountains. we started our hike on one of the penance roads - looong, gravel roads the monks had to walk if they had been naughty. however, i think that kind of goes against monkish nature... hmm. we turned and headed up a not-so-easy trail to reach the top of the mountain. it reminded me a lot of the movies ella enchanted or ever after; kind of medieval, and very forresty and green. we reached the top very winded and followed our guide back down. oh also, the whole time we were being smacked with a heavy mist/rain. not the nicest day i've seen, but no matter. when we reached the bottom, we were literally standing on the edge of the lake. we made our way around the lake on this itty bitty trail, took some pics on the beach, then headed up to see kevin's cell and a pretty little waterfall. let's talk about kevin for a second. homie lived in a cave he carved into the side of the mountain and meditated a whole lot. not much of a people person. we toured around the cemetery, the ruins of the old cathedral, and learned about the round tower. this place is SO old - it's just amazing to me how it's still standing in such good condition after all these years. the cemetary was awesome, too. normally they really creep me out but i could appreciate this one, mainly because of all the pretty celtic crosses. overall, an AWESOME experience in little glendalough and something i'm very thankful i got to do! take a looksie at my pitchas --
after we got back from glendalough, it was literary pub crawl time. we got to the duke and met our guides upstairs. they were two professional actors who knew loads about joyce, wilde, beckett, yeats, and other people who i've never actually heard of. personally, joyce fascinates me, yeats is a genius, and beckett is too strange for me to even begin to comprehend. nonetheless, all important people! our guides performed little scenes and told us short histories of each writer. we hit up four different pubs - the duke (loved it - lotsa character and pizazz), o'neill's, davy byrnes, and another whose name i forget. at the end, kathleen won a t-shirt for being a pop culture genius! very exciting.
and now, it's edinburgh time!! ohmyGOSH - one of my favorite cities on the planet!! first of all, it's pronounced 'edinburra.' if you say 'burgh', people really judge you. noted. we arrived latelate thursday night, and went right to our b&b. let me tell you, b&b's are totally the way to go! we stayed at this little place called the valentine guest house and it was so great. martha, grace and i had our own room with three little beds, complete with scottish flag bedding. makes the claddagh hostel look like a halfway house. we had a great free breakfast every morning and the people were super nice. oh don't worry, i was served a full scottish breakfast the first morning, complete with haggis and black pudding. didn't get near that nasty biz. grace and i did have a bit of a sausage situation though... we thought we were biting into a perfectly good breakfast sausage, ya know, ihop style. FALSE. we literally had a piece of meaty mush into our mouths and almost caused a major scene trying to swallow it. i now understand why those people on fear factor make such strange noises while trying to swallow the terrible things they had to eat. needless to say, sausage might forever be on the blacklist for us.
on friday, we hit the town hard. before we went to the castle, we did a little shopping on the royal mile. hello cashmere and tartan. i bought a blanket (i know what you're thinking - a blanket, really, kendra? really. i needed to bring back some authentic scotland with me, and i'm certainly not wearing a kilt.) i also bought a cashmere scarf, and a set of mini bagpipes in the tartan belonging to the farquharson clan. it was the coolest name i could find. after our little shopping adventure, we went into the tartan mill at the bottom of the castle. it. was. AWESOME. we watched the fabric being made, and saw the walls and walls of the bajillion kinds of tartans. very neat. then we made it to the castle - it's really like it's own village, but it looks so majestic on top of that hill. we toured around, took pictures on top of cannons (for you, momma - 11 years later!), and went into some of the exhibits. next, we meandered down the royal mile, aka high street, and saw my husband, adam the bravehart. adam dresses up in full scottish gear, large furry boots included, and hangs out at the bottom of the castle. he's hilarious and very chatty, and has some large swords you get to hold when you take a picture with him. oh and fun fact, his bum is all over scotland. he lives off royalties from this very famous postcard pictured below:
yep, that's adam's bootay. and he proved it to us. it's a very detailed tattoo. after adam and his bum, we visited st. giles church, the mercat cross, and loads of other famous sites. next, we went to one of my favorite places, the elephant house. it's where jk rowling wrote harry potter! we stopped in for a bit, and it really has an awesome view of the castle. hogwarts wouldn't be hard to imagine after looking at that all day! after that, we went to the national gallery. kind of a let down since the top floor was randomly closed for the day, so we didn't get to see any of the good stuff including degas, da vinci, and monet. sad. we checked out the walter scott monument, and then went to a great italian dinner with some of grace's family friends. that night, we went on a ghost tour around the old town. i was scared outta my mind before it started, but thankfully it wasn't that scary! we heard some great stories, and went down into these vaults, which are supposedly the "most haunted area in all of britain". not gonna lie, i believe in ghosties. thankfully i didn't see anything creepy down there, otherwise i would have probably had a heart attack.
on saturday, we woke up and could hardly move. edinburgh is not a flat city in the least, and our little leggies were feeling it! we explored the shops in grassmarket, and found the most miraculous bookstore EVER. don't worry about it, i bought a copy of emma by jane austen, my most favorite book, that's from 1872. ohmygod, i almost had a heart attack. after, we walked down the other end of the royal mile to the holyrood house, the royal palace of scotland. it's a working palace, so a bunch of official royal stuff goes down all the time. some of the rooms are ridiculously extravagant, but it was all so awesome to see. got to walk through mary queen of scots bedroom, and see the dining room where queen elizabeth actually eats dinner and hangs out. gosh, i want to meet her! thankfully it was a beautiful day (unlike friday - GROSS), and we got to spend a bunch of time outside on the grounds. the palace sits right below arthur's seat, which we were gonna hike it but it is no small endeavor. after, we stumbled onto some strange parade going across the bridge, i think it was celebrating women's rights? but it literally just came out of no where. so we followed it across and got to listen to the accordion band. pretty rockin'. later on, we went on a pub crawl (they love those in area of the world), but grace and i just followed the tour and hung out. call us cheap, but 10 pounds wasn't worth it. ps, the old town is 1000x better than the new town. just throwing that out there.
sunday was st. andrews day! we took the train along the coast and got in that afternoon. it's only an hour away, so it's a perfect day trip. it was a really pretty ride, too! we walked around the ruins of the cathedral on the harbor, and saw the ruins of the castle, and then made it to the big bad golf course. it was gorgeous, and the six courses are probably bigger than the size of the entire town. it's definitely pretty snooty but that's expected. very glad i saw it though! we took the train back a couple hours later, and then hopped on our flight back home! gosh, i just loved it so much. i had to keep telling myself that it was colder and more expensive than dublin so i wouldn't feel so sad leaving! edinburgh - i'm coming back asap, baby.
10/08/2009
sorry folks.
i have so many fun things that i need to update bloggerland on, but a) it's 1:20 in the am, b) i'm going to EDINBURGH this weekend and i feel like i shouldn't waste a perfectly good update or my energy just yet, c) i still have to pack, and d) i just don't want to right now. i will say that i had a great time in glendalough for the day last weekend, and managed to snap a couple of pretty pics while i was not being pelted in the face by mist/rain. also, the literary pub crawl was a blast, even though there weren't any dressed up actors. boo. so watch out for glendalough, pub crawl, and all things edinburgh very very soon!
lastly, and of no real importance, here are some duckies from glendalough. bye bye.
lastly, and of no real importance, here are some duckies from glendalough. bye bye.
10/01/2009
jeez louise, i'm practically a native.
just kidding. but i have been here for over a month! cuh-razy! i remember the beginning of this little journey like it was yesterday - frantically taking clothes from my only-slightly overweight bag, meeting everyone for the first time on the awkward group flight, getting my butt KICKED by jetlag. and now i'm spouting off bus routes, shopping at the moore st. fruit market, and going to rugby games. sometimes class. (kidding mother, i've only skipped one). gosh, i knew dublin and i would be friends. off topic, but making it over here with one suitcase UNDER 50 pounds is seriously one of my proudest achievements in life. now it certainly doesn't mean i will pack light forever - a girl's gotta have options - but at least i know i can. in other news, it hasn't rained in 20something days. a modern miracle i'd say.
but now let's talk guinness!! ohmygoodness. september 24, 2009 will certainly go down in the record books. it was a day to celebrate, that's for sure. classes were let out early, the city centre was swamped, and arthur guinness and his beloved drink were toasted to affectionately (sloppily...) all night long. the big 250th celebration was no small event - pubs had been selling tickets for a while, and all of them were sold out. typical, i thought we could just show up sans tickets, or at least buy them there. not so much the case. we got to temple bar and every place was jam packed. we stood in the plaza and joined the countdown until 5:59, the official time of arthur's day. it was like new years - as the clock hit zero, people threw their pints in the air and cheered their little hearts out. since every place was packed we couldn't get a pint to toast with, but just watching everyone raise their glasses at the exact same time was so, so fun. a little while later, we got our paws on a pint and went back into the crowd. of course by then it was starting to get a little rowdy. people had formed a big circle and were throwing their pint glasses into it? dunno why. and then a few really thought they needed to show off their white hineys and moon us all, so that happened quite a lot. shortly after, the garda came around to do a little crowd control. we stuck around a while longer, but then made our way to dame st. where there were places to get in. overall, one of the most fun times i've had. it sure is a great time to be in this town - there's so much going on!
lookie lookie, it's everyone toasting!
and now they're doing it with shoes!
the poor street covered in glass from the crazy irish shenanigans:
this weekend i'm going to glendalough and doing a half-day hike with a group of u.s. study abroad kids. it's this beautiful valley in wicklow county, like an hour away from dublin. there's a bunch of old, historic monuments and churches in the valleys, and two gorgeous lakes. definitely won't forget the camera. then i think a literary pub crawl is on the agenda? ha my friends and i have been dying to do one - people dress up like james joyce and oscar wilde and take you to all these different pubs in the city centre. i'll be like a chautauqua, but clearly 1000 times better. i haven't actually done many of the dublin sites yet, dumb, so that's what this weekend's all about! i am stoked.
but now let's talk guinness!! ohmygoodness. september 24, 2009 will certainly go down in the record books. it was a day to celebrate, that's for sure. classes were let out early, the city centre was swamped, and arthur guinness and his beloved drink were toasted to affectionately (sloppily...) all night long. the big 250th celebration was no small event - pubs had been selling tickets for a while, and all of them were sold out. typical, i thought we could just show up sans tickets, or at least buy them there. not so much the case. we got to temple bar and every place was jam packed. we stood in the plaza and joined the countdown until 5:59, the official time of arthur's day. it was like new years - as the clock hit zero, people threw their pints in the air and cheered their little hearts out. since every place was packed we couldn't get a pint to toast with, but just watching everyone raise their glasses at the exact same time was so, so fun. a little while later, we got our paws on a pint and went back into the crowd. of course by then it was starting to get a little rowdy. people had formed a big circle and were throwing their pint glasses into it? dunno why. and then a few really thought they needed to show off their white hineys and moon us all, so that happened quite a lot. shortly after, the garda came around to do a little crowd control. we stuck around a while longer, but then made our way to dame st. where there were places to get in. overall, one of the most fun times i've had. it sure is a great time to be in this town - there's so much going on!
lookie lookie, it's everyone toasting!
and now they're doing it with shoes!
the poor street covered in glass from the crazy irish shenanigans:
this weekend i'm going to glendalough and doing a half-day hike with a group of u.s. study abroad kids. it's this beautiful valley in wicklow county, like an hour away from dublin. there's a bunch of old, historic monuments and churches in the valleys, and two gorgeous lakes. definitely won't forget the camera. then i think a literary pub crawl is on the agenda? ha my friends and i have been dying to do one - people dress up like james joyce and oscar wilde and take you to all these different pubs in the city centre. i'll be like a chautauqua, but clearly 1000 times better. i haven't actually done many of the dublin sites yet, dumb, so that's what this weekend's all about! i am stoked.
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