Dubliners

The only image I had of Dublin prior to arriving was the one James Joyce offered – it was a pretty depressing outlook. I wasn’t worried too much though, because between Mike, Perry, Asia, and me, I was sure we were in for an entertaining weekend.

            Before heading off to the motherland, however, I enjoyed a very atypical Thanksgiving here in Madrid. It was different than any other Thanksgiving I’d experienced in that 1. I wasn’t with my family, 2. I didn’t see the Macy’s day parade (I hope Santa was there!), 3. I didn’t eat a delicious, home-cooked meal, and 4. I spent part of it with someone I’d never before met! That’s right, folks. I met my new intercambio, Carmen, on Thanksgiving. She was everything that Marta was not, in that she was rather enthusiastic to meet again. We went to the university across the street’s cafeteria for lunch (although I had already eaten) and enjoyed speaking a mixture of English and Spanish. She’s older than Marta was and clearly more mature. (Basically, I’m still bitter about Marta.) I look forward to our next meeting. After my intercambio, I met some more parents! (I’m doing pretty well on that front.) Robyn’s family took me out to churros because we have established that as the best medium through which to meet parents. They were smart and funny, just like Robyn! Their family being all together made me miss mine more though! Many of my fellow DIM-ers were feeling the same way so we decided it would be best to have a DIM family dinner. What better place to have it than the all-American Hard Rock Café? This was the one time in Spain that I thought it would be appropriate to go seeking American food. They had a Thanksgiving special which was surprisingly not bad. We enjoyed turkey, pumpkin soup and each other’s company – it almost felt like the real thing! I came home to skype a little with my whole family so I could pretend I was part of Thanksgiving dinner. We had some technological difficulties but used an innovative speaker phone / video combo to make me feel like I was really there.

            The next morning I packed (obviously right before leaving) and headed off to Ireland! I left a solid 15 minutes after I intended to, but took a new route which shaved 15 minutes off my commute – I love when things work out. Surprisingly, RyanAir (notorious for problems) went smoothly and we landed a mere 5 minutes late. We meandered our way through the airport and enjoyed reading all of the signs in English. “Baggage Claim?” “Ground Transportation?” – These are my people. We figured out which bus we needed to take and hopped on. Since none of my life planners were there to tell me what to do, I had mapped out the walk from the bus station to the hostel. While on the bus, however, I mistakenly thought we passed a landmark close to our hostel – it turned out to be a different landmark that looks pretty similar. Needless to say, we got off the bus and had a bit of a walk ahead of us – oops! We did eventually find our hostel, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had somehow found a way to book our room for 3 euro cheaper than what it was supposed to be. I’m all about saving money. The receptionist was awesome (and looked a bit like Liam Neeson) and rather entertaining – not the Dubliners I had in mind at all. After settling into our rooms, we decided to brave the cold (it. was. COLD.) and explore a bit before dinner!

            My dad has a friend in Ireland whose daughter is studying in Dublin – we were supposed to meet up but she was a Marta and didn’t call. Apparently she never received my message – likely story. She did however send us a list of fun and exciting things to do which we tried to take full advantage of while there. We followed her advice and walked over to the Temple Bar area. The Temple Bar is the most famous pub in Dublin (according to Liam Neeson “Take a picture of it, but don’t go in! It’s 5,90 for a pint of Guinness!”) and the surrounding area is full of pubs, restaurants and shops. It’s the ‘downtown area’ of Dublin.

I follow instructions. Also, note the Leprechaun museum sign.

            After looking at some potential places for dinner (seriously – I live from meal to meal) we kept exploring until we found Trinity College. Trinity College is the oldest college in Dublin and is apparently pretty historically significant. It was so exciting to see a college campus – it made me so happy just to watch the students wandering from class to class. Trinity college houses the famous “Book of Kells.” According to Wikipedia, it’s Ireland’s national treasure. It’s a book from Medieval times – a work of art as much as a piece of literature. Unfortunately we were too cheap to pay the eight euro to go see it. Probably should have…oh, well! An excuse to go back?

How collegiate!

            After being the cheapest people on the face of the planet, we headed back to our hostel to warm up a bit before dinner. On our walk back we crossed the river to see the big Christmas tree light display that was set up. I’m SO excited for Christmas season! I love seeing all of the cities decorated!!! 

Yay Christmas!

Being cold, it really put me in the Christmas spirit. After relaxing a little, we headed back to the Temple Bar area to get Italian food for dinner. (Italian food is delicious. Irish food is meat & potatoes and not necessary in my life. According to Rick Steve’s, the real Irish are all about eating exotic foods. I was just trying to fit in.) Our pizza was pretty incredible.

            After dinner, it was time to embrace our inner-Irish. We had to find a pub and meet some locals. We found a pub called O’Neill’s (which was a lot more authentic than the O’Neill’s in Madrid) and decided we should post up there. I tried Guinness for the first time and it was not bad at all. I was worried that I wasn’t going to like it, but the Irish in me just couldn’t resist - I think it's an instinct or something. After our Guinness we decided to try all of the local beers because we’re local like that. While Asia and I were up ordering some beers with interesting names, (something about a hooker?) Mike and Perry made some friends. We came back to our table to meet “Chav” and John. “Chav” is apparently a slang term for something of a jerk (I tried to urban dictionary it but the definition didn’t totally fit this “Chav”), but he wore the nickname with pride. They were true Dubliners – hating on Dublin every chance they got. They apologized that we were there to visit and kept inquiring as to why we would want to come. Apparently when Mike and Perry tried to explain to them that they did in fact like Dublin, they interrupted, claiming that Dublin was actually “a bit shit.” Love it. They made fun of us for sounding American (me, in particular), and made fun of us for drinking half-pints – more importantly, they bought us drinks. I love making new friends. Chav was very excited that Perry was friend Michigan (“DETROIT! WHAT-WHAT?!”) and found us some other Americans who were from Chicago to befriend (because they’re basically the same thing?) They weren’t really lookers (“girls love a man with a unibrow”), but they were definitely authentic.

L-R: Perry, Asia, John, Me, Chav, Mike
...John was...really...tired...?

            After declining to go to a night club with our new friends (not interested, thank you) we walked back to our hostel in the freezing cold to get a little sleep. The next morning we woke up to find a small blanket of snow on the ground! It was so exciting and Christmas-y…until we were walking outside for an hour. Then it was just cold. I had been obsessing over going to the Kilmainham Gaol (jail). I don’t really know why – it sounded creepy and interesting and a place where I could learn things. Most importantly, John and Chav approved. On our way, we were accosted by a small Irish child. He ran up to Mike and threatened him with a snowball. “PICK ONE UP AND I’LL KILL YA!” he screamed, in a nearly incoherent Irish accent. Mike was not threatened and egged the child on. This led to him somehow calling the nearby child army to arms – suddenly snowballs were flying at us from behind the fence right next to us. Luckily for us, the children didn’t have the foresight to throw the snowballs up and over the fence, so most of them were halted by the metal. I gave them a few helpful pointers and on we trudged. We eventually found our way there and took the tour. We learned all about the terrible conditions of the jail and the revolutionary Irish who made up its prisoners. We heard a few scary but interesting stories. Fun fact: one of Mike’s relatives was a big deal at this jail. He’s so much more Irish than I am. We explored the museum after the tour and read a letter from a man to his mother that he wrote the day before he was executed. It was depressing and moving and interesting and petrifying. It truly gave me chills. (More than the chills I got from being outside!)

It says "Beware of the risen people"

Respective reactions to being imprisoned:
Perry: Clearly doesn't understand what he's in for since he's smiling
Asia: Scared and upset with a side of angry
Mike: Ready for the thug life.

The prison was in this shape so sounds reverberated
and the gaolers could hear & see everything

A mural painted in one of the cells

Where some crazy executions took place!

            After the gaol, we meandered until we found a place for lunch. Asia and Perry wanted to be Irish and got some fish and chips. I would have, but I saw a meal which looked so much more delicious – it was grilled chicken topped with mozzarella cheese and stuffed with spinach. I win! It was impossible to eat the whole thing (without Mike’s help), but it was sooooo good! After lunch, we took a walk to what must be Dublin’s most popular tourist sight – The Guinness Storehouse. En route, Mike got accosted by another Irish child but we made it out unscathed (although he got kicked in the calf.) The museum is shaped like a huge pint. You climb up and learn all about the process of making the beer. I learned the different elements which I tasted in my beer, and that it takes 2 minutes to correctly pour a glass of Guinness. (You fill it three quarters of the way while holding it at a 45 degree angle and then wait awhile before finishing it off.) Eventually we made our way to the top of the “pint” to what was called the “gravity bar.” It had all glass walls and offered a beautiful view of the whole city. We enjoyed our free pint of Guinness, ran into the people we’d met last night (from Chicago) and even saw an old man decked from head-to-toe in Duke gear! He was class of ’68 or something and was totally unsurprised that he would run into Duke people at the Guinness storehouse. We got to the gravity bar right at sunset (at 4:30?!) and got to watch the sky changing colors in the most “Dublin” way possible – with a pint in our hand and friends by our sides.

Learning how they make the barrels

Just enjoying a beautiful Dublin sunset.

            After the storehouse, we tried to find our way over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to see Dublin’s most famous church. We got there but couldn’t get inside because mass was going on…it was really pretty from the outside though! 

            We went back to the hostel to do a little work (I read three pages!) before dinner. We went to a restaurant called from Mexico to Rome and got cheeseburgers? Whatever. They were good. After dinner we went to the pub Chav and John recommended. We were hoping to find somewhere where we could watch the Duke game but with rugby being on there was pretty much a zero percent chance of that happening. After that bar we walked to the other side of the river to try to find something else exciting. We ran into a bar which shared its name with the last name of on of the girls on our trip! We settled into a pub in which we were the only patrons. The seats were comfortable and there was a little fire blazing. So Christmas-y!

            We turned in early to get an early start the next morning. We woke up to find it snowing! Again, exciting but cold. We walked over to Grafton Street – a street known for its shopping and looked around for awhile. At the end of the road we encountered St. Stephen’s Green – the famous park in Dublin. It was BEAUTIFUL because it was covered in a layer of fresh snow. The lake was half frozen with swans swimming in it. Although we didn’t see the famous greenery of Ireland, the white blanket which covered it surely must have been just as beautiful, if not more. This time, it was me who got the brunt of the children’s attack. A small, ginger child threw a snowball at me. I decided to be the bigger person and not react. (My friends either ran away or took pictures. Thanks, guys.) I calmly put away my camera and started to walk away. He comes up to me with a big chunk in his hand. He goes to throw it but then thinks better of it saying “I guess you’ve ‘ad enough of it haven’tcha?” I was ready to thank the boy when the little bastard threw it at me! My “bigger person” façade ended and I definitely picked up a few snowballs and hit that ginger kid back. …I make friends everywhere I go?

What Perry was doing instead of stopping the ginger devil.

            We got back to the hostel 5 minutes before our taxi was scheduled to arrive. The trip to the airport took shorter than planned so we had awhile before our flight took off. This was good because every single one of us got stopped going through security. The woman checking my bag was like “Do you have aweoighaoewgia in here?” (Seriously, there was a language barrier with some of these people. Thick Irish accents are impossible to understand.) I assumed she meant a computer so I said “No.” She then pulls out my umbrella from my sidepocket and goes “You said you didn’t have eoafiehoihgoaiwjg but here’s a oeiafoweifhaiowghao!” An umbrella? That’s what you’re worried about? “Oh,” I said “Umbrella? I have two of those!” (I was holding Asia’s for her.) She looked displeased. After opening my umbrella(s) (to check for…drugs and/or weapons?) she eventually decided I was okay to go through. Amazingly, we had no problems on our flight back – in fact we landed on time. (RyanAir played the “on time” music and everything!) I got home and was reunited with Erin, hearing all about her London adventures.

            The past few days have been filled mostly with work. We’re trying to get a little bit ahead so that when we get back from Paris we’re not totally overwhelmed. We did, however, have a Puerta del Angel date Tuesday evening. Puerta del Angel is our metro stop – there are 10 of us who live at this stop. There’s a restaurant we’ve always wanted to try that’s connected to our building so we decided to all meet up there. It was delicious and the company was great. Our night proved once and for all that Puerta del Angel is without a doubt the best metro stop in Madrid.

            Now, after my last day of classes (WHAT? CRAZY?), I’m preparing for my last trip while abroad! It’s crazy and sort of unbelievable. I can’t believe the semester has gone so fast. I’ve been to Paris before (I’m well traveled like that) but am so excited to go back and eat French food (including lots and lots of crepes and croissants). My preconceived notions about Dubliners were seemingly a bit off, so maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised by the French as well!