St. Paddy's Festivities

If you ever have the chance to visit Ireland for St. Patrick's Day, you'll be visiting a very different Dublin from the one I have gotten to know and love.

This year St. Patrick's Day fell on a Tuesday, but there was a festival starting the Saturday beforehand, i.e. from March 14-March 17. Neither I nor any of my friends really knew what to expect going into the weekend, to be honest. Friday late morning I noticed lots of people pulling wheely suitcases behind them, and knew it had begun.

Saturday a small group of us went to a pub to watch the Ireland vs Wales rugby game--shoutout to Ireland for winning the 6 nations title the next week!--and decided not to explore the St. Patrick's festivities just yet. On Sunday, we went to the 2015 Beer and Whiskey Festival, which was a ton of fun. There were stalls upon stalls of all different local beer, whiskey, and cider companies, and live music playing all day. I sampled a lot of the different ciders, and don't think I can ever go back to drinking it out of a can!

Tuesday morning, I woke up early and donned my St. Paddy's Day outfit: a green and white Ireland Rugby, thick green Irish wool socks, and an "Irish Drinking Team" baseball hat that would not have been complete without its can opener on the brim. Finishing it off with a shamrock on my cheek, I definitely looked ridiculous but was ready to go. I headed over to Markie, Maggie, Kelsey, and Jamie's apartment around 9 to meet up with some of our guy friends and cook a gourmet breakfast including pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, and hash browns. While having 9 people in a small kitchen was a little crazy, it was a blast!

Around 11 we walked downtown to get spots for the parade, which started at noon. That was our one mistake, because it was already packed with people! The only spot we could get was about 8 people deep, so I couldn't actually see any of the parade. After a few minutes we decided to give up and head to a local student pub, which began our day of pub hopping through Dublin.

(Side note: my one goal of the day was for someone to use my hat to open a beer. This dream came true in the bathroom of a pub when two girls asked around for a can opener as they pulled two bottles out of their bag. Mission accomplished :) )

Overall, it was a really fun day! I want to reflect on my very first comment of this post, that visiting Dublin for St. Patrick's Day is visiting a very different place than the city I have gotten to know, because it not only explains why I found the holiday to be a little over-hyped but also reveals something I find pretty cool.

Streets packed with people celebrating all day was crazy and fun, and I would definitely recommend coming to Dublin for the holiday if you ever have the chance. Had I only been here for the weekend, I think I would have loved every second of it! The thing is, I have lived here long enough that I feel like I know Dublin on a slightly deeper level, and I missed it that weekend. Almost every Irish person I know fled the city for the duration of the holiday, most of them using the exact phrase "I avoid it like the plague," which was interesting. People from all over the world travel here and take over the city pretty much to drink; they are energetic and excited to be in Ireland, which is awesome, but when Dublin is your home that would be exhausting.

What I found to be really cool was that I was in the grey area between tourist and local--more towards tourist since I am only here for 5 months, but still. I definitely enjoyed St. Patrick's Day, but I was also missing Dublin and was ready for it to be over.

Maybe I really am becoming a Dubliner?


Thanks for reading :)



Shortly into the semester my iPhone camera broke, so a few credits are due to Markie and Julia for photos here and there!

The Calm Before the Storm (of tourists)

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day! 

Being in Dublin the last few days has been crazy, and to be honest I'm not sure what to expect for tomorrow. But all of that will be covered in another post later this week. For now... a little bit of catch-up (I'm seeing a trend here).

Maggie, Markie, Kelsey, Me, Sarah

It's been almost four weeks since you last heard from me, when I was catching up on a little bit of work before Reading Week. As I said, Trinity gave us the full last week of February off. While most Irish students really do take the week to both do a lot of schoolwork as well as go out with friends, for study abroad students it is a perfect time to travel. I planned a trip to Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and Paris with four of my friends here--Markie, Maggie, Kelsey, and Sarah.


We left Friday morning, and by late afternoon had arrived at our hostel in Vienna, Austria. Markie did most of the hostel research, and we stayed in 5 great ones. All were clean and in amazing locations, usually a walkable distance to city centre. In Vienna, there was actually a bar and two pool tables in the basement. We were there from Friday until Sunday morning, and had some of our most interesting experiences of the trip there, to say the least--one included nearly being pick-pocketed which was a necessary wake up call. Compared to the other places I have been, there was a very noticeable animosity to a majority of the people we encountered. All of us agreed it was our least favorite city, though still gorgeous. The museum quarter is filled with beautiful, huge, and intimidating white buildings, with lots of green space in between. 

Vienna

On Friday after walking around the city center and getting dinner, we decided to sample Vienna's nightlife. By recommendation of someone working at the hostel, we went to a club called Prater Dome. If you ever find yourself in Vienna, I would definitely recommend it! It is the nicest club I have been in; and probably one of the most expensive. We had some fun cocktails and explored the club. It was very posh, if I had to choose a word to describe it. There were two levels with lots of big rooms, each having their own theme and bar. We spent most of our time in the pop and latin rooms.

The next day we explored Vienna on foot, including the beautiful palace just outside of the city. After the late night and busy day, we decided to go back to the Prater, which is actually a permanent carnival. It was a lot of fun! There was a famous giant ferris wheel, and a few rides we decided to try out. After a few rounds of pool back at the hostel, we called it an early night. 

Late Sunday morning we caught our bus to Budapest, Hungary. Being honest, Budapest is the reason I pushed for the trip into central Europe because one of my best friends from WashU--Katie--is studying there for the semester. I absolutely adored the city, and would really love to go back someday because there was so much more to see. During the day we walked around to visit some of the popular tourist sights, including St Peter's Cathedral and Buda Castle. Budapest is actually two cities separated by a river (Buda and Pest), with the castle lying right on its banks. It was one of the prettiest views I think I saw all trip. 

Budapest

After a nice Hungarian dinner and a break at the hostel, we set out to explore the famous Ruin Pubs. As a side note, everything in Budapest is insanely cheap. 1 USD is about 290 Forints, and for the time we were in the city I pulled out 40,000 Forints and had over 10,000 left over; that's less than 100 USD, including paying for the hostel. 



The Ruin Pubs are a must do when in Budapest. The district that is home to these pubs was once the Jewish quarter before World War II, and they are all inside old ruin buildings. We went to two of them, and like Vienna they had multiple rooms each with its own flavor. My personal highlight: Katie meeting up with us along with a few of her friends. The night included sampling some interesting Hungarian alcohol, cheap but very good wine, and great music. It was my favorite time out of the entire trip.




The next morning, we woke up early to try out the well known Turkish baths with Katie and one of her friends. Well worth it! The experience was very unique--and included Sarah having to rent a bathing suit, which was hilarious. We soaked in all of the different baths for over two hours, sitting alongside the many old men playing chess and elderly women who seemed to all know one another. I could definitely see myself retiring in Budapest and joining them one day. 

The next morning, Markie, Sarah and I were privileged enough to leave our hostel at 4:30 AM to catch a 5:25 train to Prague. (Kelsey and Maggie had accidentally bought that last two 7:25 tickets...). The 7 hour train ride actually flew by, though I wasn't able to sleep at all. A good portion of it we hung out in the dining car with coffee and watched the countryside roll by. 

As cheesy as it might sound, the best way I can describe Prague is that it came right out of a fairytale.  Old Town Square specifically would be at home in Disney World. We spent the day exploring, including seeing the Lennon Wall, Prague Castle, and most of the downtown area since Prague is very small and compact. It is also extremely touristy, with souvenir shops every few feet. The next day we went on a free three hour walking tour, which I am so glad we did. Hearing snippets of Prague's history was really cool. Fun fact: Prague's streets were actually raised a full story to keep up with rising water levels, which is why many restaurants and bars are in the basement of buildings. They were originally the first floor! 

Prague

Thursday rolled around, and after another morning of walking the city, we caught a 5:25 (PM this time thank goodness) plane back to Dublin. At this point we were all splitting up the following morning, with Maggie traveling to Northern Ireland, Kelsey to Milan, and Markie and I to Paris. Plane tickets were actually cheaper with one night at home, which was perfect since my suitcase is so small!

First meal: Baguette with Brie Cheese

Paris is hands down my favorite city I have been to. Markie and I were there Friday to Tuesday morning (Paris over class any day, right Mom?), and while almost four full days was plenty of time to get a taste for the city, I could see myself being there for weeks and not see it all. 

Selfie at the top!

On Friday we arrived at our hostel around noon, and took a two hour walk to the Eiffel Tower. (It was definitely worth it to see the smaller streets of Paris, though after that we switched to taking the metro.) My first view of it felt so surreal, because I couldn't quite

wrap my head around actually being in Paris! Every view felt pretty similar. After waiting in the line for about an hour, we finally got to go up to the top. The view is amazing! Going up the Eiffel Tower is a must do the first time you're in Paris, but I probably wouldn't go up it again. For me, seeing it from a distance was way more magical.

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Markie and I ventured into a random little French cafe for dinner, and called it any early night after getting some Nutella and banana crepes for dessert. This hostel had a foosball table that we monopolized for a while before bed.

Day 2 was museum day. A great perk to being registered with immigration here in Ireland is that I have a student GNIB card, and as someone living in the EU for more than three months, I got free entrance to all of the museums! We started with the Louvre, and continued on from there. Markie and I had the same pace--pretty much a walk through of each museum--which was perfect. My favorite was a museum that housed lots of Monet's paintings, who is my favorite artist. After so much walking, we went to Shakespeare and Company, which is a famous independent bookstore that many famous writers once hung out at, including James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. They had a piano that Markie actually played for a few minutes, where she gained a small crowd to watch her performance. As a book nerd, I really loved it!

That night, we ate dinner at a small fondue restaurant that was one of our most fun experiences! We found out later its actually well known and we were really lucky to stumble upon it and get seats. For one price, we we were served a small plate of appetizers and a pre dinner drink, followed by a GIANT pot of delicious cheese with unending baskets of bread pieces. We also each got a baby bottle of wine. And by baby bottle, I am not kidding. Like a circular jar that had a little nozzle on the end. It was fantastic!

On day 3, we went to the Palace of Versailles which was my favorite palace/castle so far. While the interior is really pretty, it is the grounds that I found the most impressive. We spent most of the day exploring there, and tried a French club that night.

On our last day, we just wandered the streets of Paris. This was actually probably my favorite part, because I feel like we got a better feel for the city. After stopping by Notre Dame in the morning (okay at this point pretty churches are starting to look the same), the day included eating macaroons in the rain, window shopping in districts way out of our price range, and walking down the river with a continuous view of the Eiffel Tower. At the end, we both splurged a little and bought Long Champ bags because since they are cheaper in Paris, we had to get one right?





After a lovely French dinner my parents were nice enough to buy us--steak potatoes and wine, yum!--we stopped back at the hostel to make a game plan. In the end, Markie and I ended our trip to Paris by sitting on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower, eating waffles covered in Nutella, and splitting a bottle of champagne as we watched it sparkle. It was the perfect end to an amazing trip.




For the next two days--and even now!--I found myself missing Paris. Why only two days? Because after getting home to Dublin Tuesday morning, I left Thursday afternoon for a weekend in Madrid! Maggie and I had planned the trip to visit school friends, as there are a ton of WashU people studying there. However we ran into a small problem when Maggie went to the doctor on Thursday and ended up having Pneumonia. She had to back out of the trip, but I decided to go ahead on my own.

The friend I was mainly visiting was Erika, who I was hanging out with the whole time but who I unfortunately could not stay with since she is doing a home stay with a Spanish family. I was a little nervous about staying in a hostel by myself, but Maggie and I had chosen a highly rated one in Puerta Del Sol (aka the heart of Madrid) and it went really well! I felt really independent which was cool too, even though Erika pretty much dropped me off every day. 

The weekend was great and included 70 degree blue skies, an infamous Spanish club, a picnic in the beautiful Parque del Retiro, touring a palace, renting boats on a small lake, and plenty of Spanish food. On my last night in Madrid, we actually went to a soccer game! Atletico fans were so into the game, it was a ton of fun. Monday morning my flight was at 10:30 AM so I said goodbye to Erika and set an alarm for 7, planning on leaving the hostel at 7:30 to give myself plenty of time. 

When I woke up, I took a few leisurely minutes to actually wake up and then glanced at my phone. 

9:08

I have never leaped out of bed so fast. I literally threw on pants, shoved my stuff in my bag, threw my keys at the guy at the front desk, and ran for a taxi. No way did I think I was going to make it, and I probably scared the driver as I was such a mess. I almost called my parents in a panic (hello 3 AM wake up call) before I took a breath and realized they would just say the only thing I could do was buy another ticket. But still, I was freaked out. I got to the airport at 9:45, and went right to security.

 Somehow--literally miracle of miracles--there were only maybe five people in front of me. I was in the airport within ten minutes! By 10 AM I had made it to my gate, and got there just in time to join the queue to board. How, I am still not sure. But I made it home to Dublin!

In the week since then, I had two sleepless nights to finish two 8 page essays I pushed off, saw an adaption of a Midsummer Night's Dream set in a nursing home, and have enjoyed all of the crazy things going on because of St. Patrick's Day. We'll see what tomorrow has to bring!

Wow, sorry for writing another novel! So many different experiences in the last month, and they have all been amazing. I still can't believe how lucky I am to be doing all of this, and I hope you've enjoyed hearing about some of it! I promise to write again within a week to relay all of the St. Patty's Day festival craziness. 

Thanks for reading!


PS: If you want a postcard, send me your address!