Yesterday Pat and I went walking around more of Dublin. We went to St Patrick’s Cathedral, which is absolutely gorgeous. I probably could have just sat there all day. We also went to Dublin Castle and ended up finding the Polish area of the city (which also had a beautiful church). We even had our first real Irish meal, corned beef and cabbage with lots of potatoes. I love that I that there is no such thing as too many starches here and that you can have potatoes with your potatoes and can even have some on the side. I also tried my first Guinness… and I have to say it wasn’t my favorite. It wasn’t as bad as I expected but it was very heavy and thick. Not my style which I knew, but I had to try it anyways!
Last night I ended up going out with my roommate and all her friends from the business school here. Before we left the girls were all just hanging out in our apartment and asking questions about what things are like in the US. They asked me if I lived close to Fal (my roommate here who’s from VA) I said that it wasn’t too bad, probably just an 8-10hr drive and they all laughed- since it only takes about 3 hours to get from Dublin to Galway which are on opposite coasts. They also asked about college parties/ frat parties and if everyone really drinks out of the red plastic cups- which I thought was really funny because that’s one of those things from movies that actually VERY true. The place we ended up going to is between a pub and a club. It has a nice/smaller bar in the front which is pretty relaxed and then it has a larger section in the back with two bars, a dance floor, and a DJ. It still looked like a traditional pub though and has signed jerseys all over the place. They played a lot of contemporary music but they also played some songs I wasn’t expecting at all. For example- 9-5 by Dolly Parton… didn’t see that one coming, but it was so funny cause everyone knew the words and was singing along. Then they also played Cotton-Eyed Joe (but no one did the dance), Don’t Stop Believing (which wasn’t too much of a surprise, cause who doesn’t love that song?), Summer Nights from Grease. And at the end they played the Irish National Anthem which was kinda weird. I can’t imagine them playing the Star Spangled Banner at a bar in the US except maybe on the Fourth of July. But the best part was when they played Galway Girl- basically the most popular song in Ireland (also featured in PS I Love You in case anyone was wondering). Everyone was excited and singing and dancing. It was great.
Tomorrow I think my roommates and I are going into town to get a few things, maybe stop by this food festival in Temple Bar. Not sure what else I’ll be up to. I have a lot of reading to do already so I’ll be doing that today and tonight.
Oh but here are some interesting findings about Dublin so far!- Students go out on weekdays, clubs are pretty dead on the weekend and pubs are filled with an older crowd. Also things close early around here- the last bus into the city is 1130 and places close down around 2 at the latest. Which is great cause then students can go out on weekdays and still have plenty of time to sleep before their classes the next day haha. Taxi drivers are incredibly nice and not sketchy and the taxis are all clean! I am still not able to figure out which side I should walk to if I’m headed directly towards someone. I know in the US it’s safe to assume, go right and that’s generally accepted. Cannot figure that out here AT ALL, we’re thinking there might not be a general rule for that. I am however getting the hang of looking the other direction before crossing the street. The bathroom is either called the toilet or the jack, not the bathroom since there’s no bath there. Crack is not cocaine here, crack means fun. And the Irish speak really fast and quiet. I think that’s all for now.
Cheers!