Last week I was really excited to have Kate and Lianna visit me all the was from Firenze (Florence), Italy. As in, on a scale from one to excited, I was my mom when snowman socks are on sale 2-for-1 (if you don't understand that, sorry). I picked them up at Heuston Station, which I discovered is right near my apartment, and we hit up a nearby restaurant for some great fish and chips.
Temporary depressing story: I saw the saddest sight I've ever seen (not only in Dublin, but probably ever in my life) on Friday when I went to Heuston Station. Now we've been hearing in many of our classes that one of Dublin's biggest problems right now is drug use- specifically heroin. While sitting on a bench next to the Luas tracks, I saw a man, wandering on the street, looking dazed and lost. He wasn't wearing shoes (it was a chilly morning, around 10am), and all he had on was jeans and a t-shirt, and was holding a crumpled knit hat in his hands. He also had a line of blood dripping down one of his forearms. For the 20-30 minutes I was sitting here, he just stumbled all over the road, the Luas tracks (right when a train was coming), and the station area-- sometimes looking like he was about to finally fall over, and then uprighting himself at the last moment. Everyone watched him, no one said anything, and no one tried to help him even though everyone was staring. It really was just heartbreaking (but also kind of scary) to see the damage done to someone by that type of drug abuse.
Okay, I'm done being Debbie Downer. That afternoon all the girls headed to Guinness Factory for a lesson in world-class brewing. Being in the Guinness Storehouse was like being in the Willy Wonka Factory of Beer-- complete with a waterfall (not a beer, just of water). It was interesting to see the process of blending the water, hops, yeast, and barley (the only four ingredients in Guinness), and also to read Guinness' propaganda throughout the process about how they're the "only brewery to do xyz". Once we got to the top we were rewarded not only with a "free pint" of Guinness (included in our admission price), and the best views of Dublin we've ever seen. Guinness Storehouse has a bar on the 7th floor, The Gravity Bar, which allows you to see the entire city. It was fun to point out landmarks for my friends, especially because the weather was pretty clear too.
That night I took Kate and Lianna to a traditional Irish restaurant that we pass on our way to DBS: The Hairy Lemon. Between garlic bread, bangers and mash, irish lamb stew, and 3 pints of Bulmers, I think we all really enjoyed it there. I'd definitely recommend that as a good (and not too expensive) traditional Irish restaurant.
Saturday we spent the entire day touring all over the city. I wanted to show the girls some of my favorite places, and the highlights of Dublin: Trinity College, Grafton Street, St. Stephen's Green, Butler's Chocolates, and of course some of my favorite stores. I finally feel like I'm getting a pretty good handle on the city and being able to navigate map-free (I haven't busted out a map [in public] since probably the first 3 days we were here). That night I made a homecooked dinner of chicken, cream of mushroom soup, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli, with garlic bread. It was definitely nice to eat in, and have some catch-up time.
That night we went out to a pub/club we pass on the way to DBS but had never been to: The Globe. On the ground floor it just looks like an average pub, lots of people and loud music. But downstairs it has a really awesome purple floor-lit club. They were playing great music, and we all just danced until our feet hurt. On the way home some other Elon-ers introduced us to their favorite late-night fast food restaurant (dare I say Cookout replacement?), Mezza. Lianna and I gorged on a chip buddy, which is kindof like the Lebanese version of a Po Boy-- french fries, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and some unidentifiable sour-creamesque sauce, all wrapped up in a warm pita. Basically, it was delicious, and we wolfed it down in about 2 minutes.
On Sunday we had a nice eggs and toast breakfast in the apartment, and decided to culture ourselves with a trip to Dublin's Museum of Modern Art. It's about a 20 minute walk from our apartment, and some of the exhibits were really cool. My favorite was definitely this giant spinning sheet that you could stand in the middle of, and it would spin all around you. I think the group consensus was that we all wanted one of those things in our bedroom. Afterwards, I dropped Kate and Lianna off at the station for their long journey back to Italia-- it was definitely an eventful weekend!
We started the week off with a cancelled class Monday morning, and Allie, Meaghan, and I decided we'd visit Howth yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, after class. We only had one class yesterday, and Howth is a coastal town just 20 minutes away on the DART so it was an easy trip. We packed a lunch, and made our way to the DART station after class, just barely making it onto the train that pulled away right as we got to the platform. At Howth we explored the small town surrounding the DART station, and saw tons of fresh fish for sale. There was also a huuuuge fish covered in ice outside of one of the fish markets, but we couldn't decide if it was real or not. I'll post pictures once my computer starts working again.
Our main mission in Howth was to do the cliff walk. It's basically a path that runs up the cliffs just beyond the town of Howth, and all along the water for a few miles. The views are simply indescribable. But I'll try to describe anyway: in one direction was miles of aqua and navy shimmering water, another direction showed a small island just off the coast that was being perfectly highlighted by beams of sunlight peeking through a few clouds, and inland we could see green hills framed by cloudless blue skies. It really was gorgeous. I'll post pictures as soon as I can! We hiked along the cliffs for a few hours- enough time to work up an appetite for Beshoff's Fish an Chips, a Dublin staple we'd read about in a guidebook. The fries were thick, but crispy, and the fish was flakey, perfectly browned, and just the right amount of grease after a long walk along the cliffs. By the time we made it back to the DART station we were all read for a food coma-nap.
Well it's definitely been an eventful week. DBS is taking us on a trip to Galway this weekend, and we leave tomorrow, which I'm really excited about. Things show no sign of slowing down soon, though-- as soon as we return from Galway on Sunday, we've got to be up early for class registration and classes starting on Monday!
Cheers!
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