Stereotypical Ireland

So it has been a fun- and event-filled week to say the least.  I think we'll start off with Thursday where the St. Paddy's day events began.

Katie Bush and Tyler Alverson came to visit Dublin and I.  I went to pick them up at the airport.  Of course, Katie and I were not very organized and I had next to no information about her flight, we have different country codes for our phones, and Katie had next to no minutes on her phone, so it took a little bit to get things figured out.  However, all that matters is that we found each other!!  It was SO nice to have a good friend from back home visit.  So our Thursday night entailed an hour bus ride back to my place and then what seemed to be a long walk back to my place (which is really only about 12-15 minutes).  We then grabbed a bite to eat and got ready for a night out.  A few of my classmates came over for pre-drinks and then they took us out to Coppers, aka Copper-face Jacks aka you fill in the rest.  Our classmates have been talking about Coppers all semester and we never managed to get there, but it lived up to my expectations.  

∆Z Love!!

So Friday after I was done with classes, Katie, Tyler and I walked all around Dublin.  I took them to the infamous Penney's, which is a really cheap clothing store where you can actually find a lot of cute clothes.  It is the only place that I have bought clothing here in Ireland (well besides my Jameson sweatshirt).  Then I took them to the Guinness Factory.  It was jammers! We didn't really the think of the fact that it was the day before St. Patrick's day.  There was a line around the block to get it, but it actually moved quickly.  We went through the five floors and had our Guinness on the top floor, but you couldn't really move around or see anything because it was so packed. Anyhow, it was a great day at the Guinness Factory and we each came home with a souvenir of a nice glass Guinness cup.

Fun Picture!!

Yay we're almost Irish

So after that was all finished with, we picked up some food to cook, ate dinner, and took a much needed nap.  We had to get a bit of energy to start our St. Paddy's day....at midnight. A bunch of Katie's friends from her school in Lancaster were over for the big weekend, so we met them at none other than, Coppers. Classic.  A Irish football player bought Katie and I drink to begin the St. Paddy's day celebration.  We didn't stay out too late because we wanted to be ready for the morning.

On the morning of St. Paddy's day, Katie and Tyler had to head back to England so that Tyler could catch his flight back to the States on Sunday.  Most of the main roads were closed due to the Parade, so we walked down to the Liffey and got them a cheaper cab there.  After that it was to one of the American's house.  He had breakfast and drinks for us.  After a while we headed over to watch the parade.  It was very theatrical!  There were people everywhere! People had the hats with the red beard, beers, green everything, everywhere.  It was stereotypical Ireland.... Leprechauns....(which apparently the Irish think that Americans pronounce it Lee-pra-seans [i'm not good at phenetics] which I'd never heard it pronounced like that until I came to Ireland)
We also watched the Gaelic Football game, which the first time I'd watched Gaelic football, usually it's rugby.  There was also a rugby game on after that, but we went to get some food before the rest of our night.

 

Monday was a bank holiday here since Paddy's day was on a Saturday, so that was great we did not have class.  So I worked out and went to the Dublin Zoo with Dόnal!  It's the most 'wildlife' I have seen since I've been to Ireland.  Usually I just see dogs, cats, birds, and the deer when I run in Pheonix park (which I forgot to mention that on Thursday Dόnal took me on a twelve mile run.  It went decently well I would say and I recently signed up for the half marathon at the end of May!)  The zoo had a good variety...and lots of turtles!!

Once again I'll have to put more pictures up later.  My computer won't let me upload anymore.  Overall Successful weekend and I'll try to blog again this week because I will have some activities to talk about for this week! How exciting!