Dubs

Back to Dublin this past Monday night. There seems to be something going on if you want to go out any night of the week. We were meant to see a concert, but it was sold out so we did a mini crawl. My cousins took me to a pub that brews their own beer because they are so thoughtful and awesome. It was called Against the Grain and their coffee porter was deeelicious. No head on it, but good stuff. And they had Jenga.

We then went to Hennesey’s (I think) and immediately found the fire outside

Until it was time for Coppers where I was told to go from everyone I asked about Dublin. It was typical night club that is very finicky about letting certain people in. So much so that I had enough time to remember to take a picture and fish out my camera while waiting for our entire party to get in

We walked all over Dublin the next day. Dublin is a nice size, reminds me of Boston where you can cover a ton of landmarks in a short amount of time. We saw the spire, built for the millennium. Through tear soaked eyes as the wind was a blowin and it was f’ing cold outside.

The Finney? I think this river is called.

Cousin was dying for a pint, but I was jonsin for a hot chocolate and a hippy breakfast bar

We sat outside the café under the heat lamps in the cold

Found a small old style candy shop where I got a marshmallow thing. There was a lot of chocolate this morning…

And then finally it was time for some more pints. We had tried to go to the Christmas Markets, but they were not open yet so we strolled the streets and other markets until we went to the Porter House for an early dinner which had unbelievably shitty service and only ok beer and grub. We got a taster of three stouts, nothing to write home about

The salad was the best part of the fish and chips. After we had nasty servers the lady who brought our food over asks “who had the fishy fishy?!” An odd mix of staff there.

It gets dark around half four and the Christmas lights were out. I was jonsing to see some Christmas decorations so I was loving this.

This puts me in a NY state of mind. That lady in red is not amused I’m taking a picture. I bet she moonlights as a server at the Porter House

It’s almost time to go home. I’m flying standby so there is no guarantee until I’m on the plane, but we’re looking at the 18th, 19th, or 20th. It feels like I’m leaving the party early.

At the same time I do want to get home to see friends and family and eat candy cane cookies and tour the obnoxious xmas lights around LI, but this place is addicting and I am bummed to have to start packing. I had regretted never doing a semester abroad in undergrad, but regrets no more. This trip has been amazing. That feeling of missing out on something I’d always wanted to do is done and dusted. Part of me thought I never could or I was running out of time in my late twenties which I now see as silly and a bit of an excuse to not do something off the beaten path. So many things have been influenced by how I thought others would see my life choices, but this year I threw that notion out the window. This year was mine. And it’s been one for the books.