Irish Times

These should all be smiley faces

Like, these!

My cousins have taken me to a bunch of great pubs over the last two weeks. The first night out was a place called Monks, I think, in Thurlus.

I had my first Smithwicks (pronounced, Smitticks, you Yankee. Katie, A&D still make fun of you for pronouncing it Smith-wicks :) ) of the trip. People are starting to drink it more out of the bottle. So many bottles. Both taste delicious to me. And of course a random hurling trophy amidst the beverage. Appropriately filled with celebratory brandy

The picture in the background tells me it was from a hurling match, but the jersey tells me rugby. That's the MVP of whatever it was on the left. The MVP, guys! Of SOMETHING! He also looks confused about it.

I don't remember the name of the pub we went to in Castle Einey (absolutely butchering the names of these towns), but it was "class." We arrived after hours when they usually do not let people in, but my cousin either knew the owner or the crowd and they unlocked the doors for us and we stayed til wee morning hours. And paid for it the next day. Everyone here swears by this drink, Lucozade, for hangovers. Orange colored ENERGY!

I haven’t tried it out yet. It takes a lot to stray me from my smoothies. One morning after three of us were stranded at another cousins house (even more in the country) with no car and an hour walk back to where we had parked. We had to take the smelliest cab ride back to the car after waiting an hour for the driver to pick us up.

Luckily there were 111 pictures and/or videos on my camera to keep us entertained/shamed. It's mostly the videos of singing that make people cringe, but I love them. Someone breaking out old Irish songs is a staple. Soon enough everyone is in it singing, clapping, humming along

Another night we went out with what the best two euro has ever bought me (actually I did pay two euro for a shower in Paris once, so maybe second best). But still, best specs ever.

-I said ever!

We first went to Tom the Buks, a bar my siblings and I had gone to years ago when we were visiting. We had met up with cousins to see a live band, one of my brothers pressing buttons on the accordion players accordion without him noticing. I didn't recognize the place at first, but then it all came into focus. We didn't stay long this time, but went down the street to another place for a while, don't remember the name of it. Specs in tow

and then a dancy dance club club, but I think they call them discos here. That could be inaccurate. I'm tired. The place itself was called The Cube. It's where I saw the glasses last. They didn't make it a GD 24 hours with me. I kept letting people wear them and eventually lost track. Regret.

Probably the only pair ever made (or I'm lazy and won't go back to the same euro store to get another pair of the 50 pairs that were there). At least we had our time together at the Cube. We cut many rugs on the dance floor and then four of us slept Charlie and the Chocolate family style in PK's apartment which should not be forgotten for the pure ridiculousness of it.

This is along the same lines of an event to remember, appropriately captured with fuzz

Irish times are fun times and there is still so much more to come.