So w've got the trip to Ireland covered, as well as the bus ride to the hostel. Let's commence with Ireland II:
It may be easier to break this up into different parts
1// HOSTEL
So the hostel we stayed the first, second and fourth night was . . interesting. Let's just say it was a radically different experience each time we came back. The first night, we stayed in an 11-bed room. I was a little nervous about this simply because we were all on different schedules and naturally, I assumed I would be getting little to no sleep that night. On the contrary, however, everyone was very polite and mindful of the others in the room in terms of bathroom use and overall annoyance.
The second night, we were in a pinch as we waited until the day before to book a room, so we ended up staying in a room to ourselves, which was super nice because the bathroom was a little less sketch and we had a window balcony thing.
The third night, we ended up heading down to Cork, which is 4 hours [by bus] away from Dublin. We stayed in a bed & breakfast, which ended up being a little more pricey considering it was a holiday weekend and Cork was hosting a Jazz festival, neither of which did we take into account when planning this little vacation. Ahh well, it was a learning experience. It was actually kind of comical because the room was literally three times the size of the one we stayed in the night before. Which was necessary to house all FOUR of the beds they offered.
The fourth night we headed back to Dublin and the Barnacles Hostel in Temple Bar for our 4-bed room. This, we were mildly excited about, as there would only be two other people and it was 10 euro cheaper than the private room. Okay, looking back, I'm glad we saved the money, but it almost would have been worth 50 euro for a good night sleep. The assholes sharing the room with us were loud, disrespectful and beyond impossible to sleep next to. They kept coming in and out of the room, talking loud as all get out, rummaging through their suitcases for a half an hour, and snoring all night long. Luckily I had put a few beers back at the pub earlier, so I fell asleep without much of a problem.
2// PUBS
The pubs in Ireland are everything they are cracked up to be and more. There is so much character in Temple Bar, which is where we spent most of our time. However, we did venture down to the lovely city of Cork, which was absolutely adorable once you get past the creepy part of the river and the commercial atmosphere of Patrick St. The first night, we ate at O'Neill's, which was super quaint, despite its 3 floors and countless cubby-holes, nooks and crannies. We ended up eating there twice more before we left the city. The next night, we decided to forgo to numerous opportunities for pub-crawling activities in lieu of searching out a nice bar with live music and Guinness. Not hard, in fact. Almost every bar had a live band, and we're talking, every night of the week. And naturally Guinness was everywhere to be found. I was in heaven. After cramming into a couple places trying to no avail to make our way over to the bar, we finally found a nice little pub down a back street where the banjo was just a jamming. In we went and there we stayed until they closed up shop.
Cork was a little more low key, when we got into the city, we found this little italian-esque eatery where we were surrounded with cute Italian decor and authentic pizza. The waitress was nice enough to give us directions to our B&B, so from there we went straight to the Inn to drop off our bags and rest up a bit for the rest of the trip.
When we got back to Dublin, we went back to that first pub and enjoyed a few more beers with the bonus of Irish Halloween entertainment. [p.s. the Irish LOVE them some Halloween. It was nuts!]
3// BOYS
And now to the meat and potatos of the blog, that which I know everyone is eagerly anticipating: Irish boys. Okay, well I hate to disappoint, but unfortunately I was unable to procure any Irish men to bring home with me. However, that's not to say that my efforts were all completely for naught. In fact, something about my blue eyes must attract them to me like a magnet, because Lindsay and I were constantly surrounded in some manner or another with Irish boys.
After hitting up the theater to catch the new Paranormal Activity flick, we were accompanied by an Irish batman, spiderman and captain america, ironically enough. The Capt'n and Spidey were in a bit of a hurry to get to their party, but Batman hung back and was asking me every question under the sun about how Lindsay and I were enjoying Dublin and what our plans were for the rest of the trip. He insisted that if we found ourselves in any trouble that we were to look to the sky and flash him the bat signal and he would come to our rescue. Mind you, he was already 3-sheets to the wind, but he was super cute, so he gets a pass.
Then, whilst bar-hopping in search of a chill place to grab a beer, this kid like, slid up beside and was like, "HELLO! HI, HI HOW ARE YOU?!" haha, I was like, "oh hello there." He was like, "Hi, I'm drunk. My name's Patrick." Of course it is. So we had a mild drunken conversation in which he concluded with, "I'm drunk. GOODBYE BEAUTIFUL!"
Onward we took our journey to the bar with the banjo, and there we found the biggest creepshow imaginable. There were these two old guys who asked if we were waiting on other people to join our table. We said no and that they were welcome to chill with us. They told us that their two friends were also coming and that they were going to be a lot of fun. haha, okay, whatever that means. Well, the other two showed up alright. And one of them was a walking SHITSHOW. He was staring at me all night. So much so that I was like, "Are you alright?" He was like, "Oh-my-lord, you are beautiful." The conversation continued like this:
-"Thank you."
-"Seriously, you are gorgeous."
-"Thanks."
-"Your eyes are beautiful."
-"Thank you."
-"Do you have a boyfriend?"
-"No."
-"Do you want one?"
-"No."
-"How about an affair?"
[then he pulls out his left hand and shows me his wedding ring. mind you, this dude is like, in his 50's]
-"COOL! Lindsay, we need to go."
other guy -"No, you girls can't leave without one more drink."
So he bought us a beer, we slammed it and peaced out.
After wandering around a bit for another bar, we came up empty handed, so we went back to the pub with the four stooges and we just hung out by the bar. [The music was literally SOO good]. That was where we met our next set of Irish men. Struck up conversation with one guy which ended in him asking me for my number. I was like, "I don't have a phone." He asked if he called me, would I answer. I said, "No, I don't have a phone." Then he said he was coming to New York and would I visit him. I said, "No, I live in Michigan." Then he wanted to know how long it would take to get to Michigan from New York. I said that you can't get to Michigan from New York and he asked if I would text him tomorrow so we could hang out before I left. Obviously, this dude was wasted. But it was fun none-the-less.
Unfortunately, our efforts were thwarted. But I have hope for the future. Dublin is full of prospective Irish gentlemen. Just gotta look outside the bar, which is difficult in Ireland, but possible, fer sher.
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