gettin' lucky in Dublin, Ireland...

snappin' artsy shots with lizzie's camera

Okay...not really, but Lizzie got serenaded to by a bunch of Irish men...I realize I promised I would blog everyday after not blogging for a week and I realize I am already down on my game...so far, i've only missed a day, so we are getting somewhere. This being my second big trip within the Oxford portion of European Studies...it is very necessary to blog about...

After our third High Table dinner, I decided to stay in a write a paper seeing as how our wake up call was coming at 4 AM the next morning...well, were to meet at 4 am so the wake up call was coming at 3:30 am, much too early for me to be a functioning human let alone with a healthy dose of spirits inside of me...we left promptly for London-Heathrow at 4:23 am.  We arrived at Heathrow around 5:45 for our 6:45 departure from London to Dublin, got checked in and OBVIOUSLY got stuck in security because I tried to hide my liquids from them. Let's just say Heathrow is WAY stricter than Raleigh-Durham International Airport...after that 20 minute problem, I walked 10 minutes to the gate. We flew an airline by the name of BMI and there were maybe 4 people other than our group of 30 on the plane and that instantly made me nervous, why did it make me nervous? ask my mom.

our first GUINNESS at 10:30... 

We made it to Dublin at an early 8:05 am and we were lucky enough to go on a BUS TOUR of the city as opposed to a WALKING TOUR...I was rather happy about that choice.  Our first stop came around 10:30 at the GUINNESS FACTORY, nothing like a dark dark beer to wake you up! The museum was really cool and we made our way up to the Gravity Bar which is at the top of the factory/museum.  I had my first guinness which was pretty decent but i won't be ordering another anytime soon...after the museum/factory/guinness drinking we went to Trinity College, located in the center of Dublin City, where we would be staying for the next two nights.  We all had singles and the beds were cozy, I suppose it was good enough. We grabbed a bite to eat at Subway....ugh and then took a nap.




Waking up 2 hours later was a rude awakening...we got ready and headed to a 'smart' restaurant by the name of Dobbins Wine Bar and had a WONDERFUL 3 course meal. I chose a goat cheese and red onion tart, the leg of lamb and then for dessert I chose sticky toffee pudding...not too shabby.  One glass of wine later, dinner was finished and I had to retire to Trinity College for a long night's sleep to be rested for the next day on the city.


After a great night's sleep, we woke up at 11 am and went to the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old illuminated celtic manuscript which is housed in the Trinity College Library. Then, we made our way to the National Gallery of Ireland and saw some Caravaggio and van Gogh. So far, I am loving the art on this trip. After the gallery, we walked around Dublin looking for clothes and i did a bit of shopping at H&M, I HAD TO...not too much, just a litttlleeeee bitttt.

COSMOS

That night, we were on our own for dinner so we chose a rather expensive but AMAZING restaurant called FIRE. We dined on very non-authentic Irish food including a meat and cheese plate, moroccan spiced lamb skewers and a goat cheese flatbread and plenty of red wine. It was GREAT. We finished off the meal with 2 cosmos, 1 margarita and 1 weirdo Toblerone drink (cool Meg) and no, those drinks were not all finished by me, just the ONE cosmo. Because we had to split up to go to dinner, we all met back up at the Storehouse in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. We listened to live Irish music and decent covers of American music and then we headed to some club I will forever not know the name of. After a long night on the town it was time to head in because we had a rather early departure from the college in the morning.

Glendalough, Ireland

Our next stop in Ireland was the countryside, Glendalough, it was composed of 2 lakes and a monastic village. It was raining and sort of unpleasant but I enjoyed it for the most part. After walking around in the rain for an hour, we headed to a beautiful hotel and had ANOTHER 3 course meal consisting of cream of vegetable soup, spinach and goat cheese tortellini and finishing with Bailey's cheesecake, needless to say we ate pretty well in Ireland, surprisingly enough. After lunch we had one more stop. The Powerscourt House and Garden, a home that burned to the ground after a renovation by the Slazenger family.  A while back, the house was bought by Ritz Carlton and they transformed it into a resort with shops and a beautiful botanic garden. The sun came out and we romped around the garden for awhile before we had to get back 
on the bus to the airport.

Obviously, our flight was delayed...I cannot remember the last time I travelled and my flight home was NOT delayed...better luck next time?? Oh and I had to eat Burger King for dinner...never again.  All in all, Dublin was a success--minus the BK.

the end of a great weekend!