Dublin for St. Patrick's Day!

I remember back in second grade when I was pinched for not wearing green. Ever since then, I knew I had to do St. Patrick's Day right. But that was never accomplished until last week...

We arrived in Dublin bright and early at 8 a.m. After a night of no sleep and stressing over flying on Ryan Air, we wanted nothing more than to sleep. But that wasn't going to happen.We dropped our luggage off at our hotel and went straight to the Guinness Storehouse.

There are two iconic alcohol tours to see in Dublin: Guinness and Jameson. I've never made it to Jameson so I can't really suggest to see that tour. But I can guarantee that Guinness is a great time! The tour is self-guided and very interactive. Until I went last year, I never liked beer or had an appreciation for it. But Guinness really is perfecting the art of brewing beer. You start your tour by learning the ingredients of Guinness and end your tour by drinking your very own pint. My favorite part of the exhibit was looking at all of the advertisements. If you don't like the beer, the advertisements are the best part of Guinness. At the end of the tour, we choose to have our free beer in the Gravity Bar, which shows a 360 degree view of Dublin. Luckily for us, the woman at the bar didn't take our ticket...so we went back downstairs to learn how to pour our perfect pint. Just be careful, each pint of Guinness has 400 calories!

Apart from beer, I'm not sure if people realize what the Guinness family has contributed to the world...like the Guinness Book of World Records? That's right. It was started by the same family. Story has it that a managing director of the Guinness factory went on a shooting party and got in an argument over what the fastest game in Europe was. Since it was impossible to confirm, the managing director thought that other people might have similar questions because there wasn't a book that contained these facts. And there you have it. The Guinness Book of Records was created.

We had an awesome birthday dinner for Brooke at our hotel. We stayed in Ballsbridge (hahaha), which is a little outside of Dublin. Had all of us not been staying there, I don't think it would have worked out as nice as it did. After dinner, we all went out for Brooke's birthday! Every pub was full to the brim! We made it into one just before the clock stroke midnight. And the rest of the night is history!

The next morning we woke up at 10 to eat breakfast and get ready for the St. Paddy's Day Parade! Unfortunately, we never made it out of the hotel in order to get a great spot to watch the parade. Instead, we spent the majority of the day in a pub. Somehow, just about everyone from USC who was in Dublin that day ended up at the pub in one way or another. It was so nice to be reunited with everyone who was on spring break! I couldn't have been happier to see girls in ADPi! After spending a few hours at this pub, a few of us separated from the group and went to the Temple Bar! This place was HUGE! Not a bar that too many locals frequent, but you definitely have to go once. It's at least worth the visit.

We ended up having better weather in Dublin than in London! Friday ended up being a gorgeous day so my friends and I took full advantage of the warmth and sunlight. We went to both of the churches in Dublin: Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Guinness family restored St. Patrick's Cathedral from 1860 - 1900. But don't think you'll just stroll right into either. Each church costs money to visit, which it's nice to support them, but not great when you're a poor student. Instead, we sat outside and took in the sunlight. Luckily we didn't get sun burnt.

Dublin is a fairly small city and the main part of town is within walking distance. But in order to get to the touristy attractions (like Guinness, Jameson and Phoenix Park), you either take a taxi or a bus. So at the airport, we got a 3-day freedom pass which allowed us to take the hop-on, hop-off tourist bus as well as the city buses to get from our hotel to the city center. For 26 euro, it ended up being a great deal! However, I'd strongly recommend finding a hotel either off of O'Connell Street or near Temple Bar since you'll be close to everything.

So glad my second trip to Dublin was just as much of a success as the first one!! In early June last year, Joe met up with my mom and I and we explored Dublin! It was super helpful knowing my way around a little bit and the next time we go (May this year) I'll be a pro!

Next stop: Canary Islands for spring break!!