Dublin, Ireland!

(more pics to come in a little)

So I just got back from Dublin, Ireland. I was there for the weekend celebrating St. Patrick's Day and it was absolutely amazing! It was SOOOOO much fun and I was with the best group of people. There was a group of 6 of us that went together. We are all best friends in Santa Barbara and are currently studying all throughout Europe, so this was our weekend where we were reunited. It was also my good friend Emily Wondolleck's birthday, so on top of celebrating St. Patty's day, we were also celebrating her birthday at the same time.

We arrived Thursday around noon, and by the time we got to our hostel it was around 3pm. After getting settled in our hostel, we started our celebrations! Oh, and Dublin is arguably the most expensive place in Europe, so prior to arriving we brought a bunch of food for the weekend and bought alcohol at the Barcelona airport (which was about half as cheap as everything they sold in Dublin), so we were very happy we did that to save money. Late Friday afternoon we got dressed in all our St. Patty's gear and headed out to the parade and the bars. It was absolutely crazy!!!! Everyone was dressed in ALL green (facepaint and everything) and people of ALL ages were out in the streets drinking. But let me tell you, the Irish girls are very unattractive, me and my friends were all in shock staring at them. No joke, they had a pound of foundation and makeup on and looked like prostitutes with fishnets and their stomachs hanging out. It was quite a culture shock.

Anyways, we celebrated St. Patty's day until late Friday night. There was one street with several bars, so we basically bar hopped around all the bars. It was SO much fun and definitely the best St. Patty's day I have had in a long time!

On Friday we woke up and started wondering around Dublin. We discovered they had a Forever 21 (!!!!!!) so we got distracted in there for a couple hours. Next, we walked about an hour around town to the Guinness Factory. We went in the storehouse and did a tour around, learning all about the process of making beer, and Guinness especially. At the end of the tour we got a free pint of Guinness, which we enjoyed on the top of the building with amazing views of the city. I think that was the first time I have ever had Guinness, so I was a little scared to try it at first but it was quite delicious! I could barely finish a glass, though, because it was so heavy.

One of the girls I was with has a best friend studying in Dublin. So, on Friday night we headed to his house, where he had a small party with other people studying in Dublin. We played drinking games all night and it was great just hanging out with a small group of people, rather than being so overwhelmed by hundreds of people at a bar or discoteca. So that was a great night, and so great to be there drinking with my best friends from Santa Barbara, some of whom I haven't seen since June!

Saturday was a long day. We woke up at 7am to take a bus to the Ireland countryside, a day trip that took all day. The main destination of the bus was the Cliffs of Moher (otherwise known as the Cliffs of Insanity in the Princess Bride)! But first, we saw a couple castles and ruins, and visited a couple small Irish towns. It was really quite beautiful, everything was SO green! The houses were so adorable as well and it was great to see some major castles and ruins in rural Ireland. Once we made it to the cliffs, we had a couple hours to hike on them and take pictures. Will - I was thinking of you the whole time because the Princess Bride is your favorite movie!! But the cliffs were absolutely STUNNING. It was SOO beautiful. It was about a mile of luscious green fields that suddenly dropped vertically into the ocean. Look at the pictures to see. But it was amazing and all I kept thinking was the Princess Bride!

After the long day trip to the countryside, we arrived back in Dublin at 8pm. We relaxed, ate dinner, then celebrated Emily's birthday night! (Her birthday was on Sunday, so Saturday was the main day we celebrated it) We drank at the hostel with a couple other people staying there (from Germany, Brasil, and Holland) and then headed into town! We went to a couple bars and had the best time ever!!! Everyone was buying Emily drinks for her birthday and we danced the night away! I ran into a couple friends that are studying with me in Barcelona, so it was great to see them as well. It was quite strange, though because the bars closed at 2. We are definitely not used to that here in Barcelona because they close here at 5am.

On Sunday we wondered around a little, got lunch, then got on our flight back to Barcelona! It was an AMAZING weekend that I will never forget! Oh, and let me tell you the hostel was very bad. First, we slept in the TV room because they were overbooked. There was one bathroom to be shared with the whole hostel (which often got clogged and wouldn't flush) and no mirrors anywhere! And let me tell you, girls need mirrors to get ready! Also, the hostel workers would just hang out and drink with us and wouldn't answer the phone when it rang. Quite strange, but at least it was cheap!

The weekend before last, Tori Dumont and Dana Hansen came to Barcelona! (Dana studying in Seville, and Tori came for her spring break from Arizona!) Dana, Emily, and I woke up SOOO early on Saturday to pick up Tori from the airport, and we made quite a scene when we reunited! It was too bad, however, because when Tori visited is when it rained. It rained literally the whole time she was here! But we still had an amazing time, showing her around Barcelona and taking her out on the town!

School is starting to pick up, and I actually find myself doing homework and studying! My Economics class is getting a little difficult, and my teacher is not a very nice Spanish man. All of the homeworks and quizzes are in  Catalan, so every time I have to go up to him and have him translate it. Quite annoying.

This week I have many visitors! My friend Carissa from Santa Barbara, who is studying in Rome, is staying with me for three days. I am so excited to see her! (She is the one I ran into in a club in Prague, very random!) She comes today while I am in class, so her other friend is going to meet her from the airport. Then, Anna Heery is coming to Barcelona for the weekend! I had the best time with her when I went to Paris, so I cannot wait to see her again and I already have many things planned for us!

And I am about to book more trips for May and April! This is what I am literally a click away from booking:
-Berlin (sometime in June, I have to figure out my finals schedule)
-Canary Islands and Morocco (end of April, I plan on flying to the Canary Islands on a Thursday then stop in Morocco for a couple days on the way back because I really want to see Morocco!)
-A road trip around Spain to see Valencia and Granada (early May)
-Turkey (either Istanbul or Izmir, or maybe both!) in late May

Okay, that is about all I can write about right now. I gotta head to the gym before class! LOVE YOU ALL and I cannot wait for more adventures ahead! xoxo