My Irish Weekend

This past weekend has been the absolute craziest of my life, and mostly in a good way! 
I went to Dublin and then saw the Breaking Dawn Part 2 movie premiere. 

My friend Tonya and I left for Dublin late on Friday night and arrived there about midnight in the Dublin Airport. I had the unfortunate experience in which my eardrum popped while the plane was descending. Let me tell you, that is NOT pleasant. 

We arrived at our hostel, Abraham House, fairly easily. It's just a short walk from O'Connell Street. Even though it was late, Tonya and I decided we wanted to go out and see the city. We found a late night rock bar and each had a beer while listening to the 80s hair metal blare from the overhead speakers. It was such a nice little pub actually, I wish I could remember the name of it.

Our stay in the hostel was pleasant. It was my first experience in a hostel, but it was tidy and the staff was friendly. The next morning we went down for breakfast which was cereal and toast, my typical breakfast. Then we decided to spend the day shopping. The first mall we went to, The Irish life Shopping Mall, had only one store. Everything else seemed to have gone out of business. This might possibly be because of the number of Penney's and Carrolls around town. This is where Tonya and I bought all of our souveniers. Carrolls is an irish souvenier shop, and Penny's is Dublin's Primark. We did pretty well shopping-wise.

Trinity College Campus

The next day we we visited St. Patrick's Cathedral. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get into the cathedral, and then it was quite small. After seeing Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Patrick's seemed a bit dull. Next we went to tour Dublin castle, only to discover it wasn't much of a castle, and the only tour was for the state apartments, which we chose not to tour. Next, we made our way to Trinity College, which was very pretty. The best part of Trinity College though was seeing the Book of Kells. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of this amazing exhibit.

On Monday, we toured the Guinness Storehouse and the Old Jameson Distillery. This was the best day by far. We had our first taste of Guiness and I had a Jameson and Ginger, which I'd been craving for some time. It was really cool to see how each beer and whiskey is made for its special flavor. The tours were really well put together and entertaining as well.

Each night, Tonya and I went out for drinks as well. We both love ciders so we discovered Bulmers, a delicious Irish cider. We had to make our way to the Temple Bar, a famed tourist location. The bar was SO packed. We could hardly move through the crowd and the drinks were quite pricey. At least I can say I've been there! The best pub was Madigans, where Tonya and I tried traditional lamb stew. It was SO good. Possibly the best meal of life. seriously. I had it with a pint of Smithwick's as well. Amazing.

My free Guinness Sample!

I really enjoyed Dublin, but at the same time I missed Kingston a lot while I was there. The flight home was much smoother, but as soon as I arrived home I had to unpack and repack my bag for an overnight stay in Leicester Square. The final Twilight film, Breaking Dawn part 2, premiered there, so my friend Kelly and I camped out on the concrete with about 1,000 Twilight fans to watch the celebraties walk the red carpet. I will post about that soon!!