La Vie de Deux Mademoiselles a France

We took the city bus (driving on the left side of the road….for the first time since we have been in Europe) to our hostel. We stayed in an all female 10 bed dorm for the first night…’nuff said. Once we dropped our luggage we went out to an Irish pub called…of course…”O’Shea’s”. We had some good food, and then proceeded back to the hostel to get ready to go out to Temple Bar (what we thought was the place for people our age to party). Well this was wrong…although Temple Bar is bumping…the crowd is older and touristy. Also we went out late…in Dublin terms at least. In France the clubs don’t even open until 1 am…but in Dublin they close at 3. We still had a good time and had our first Guinness beer…the first half was great, the 2nd half we had to choke down. We were still getting used to which direction to look before crossing the road, so it was good we didn’t drink too much that night and got home around 2 am.

Dublin Spire on O'Connell street

The next morning we woke up…not so well rested due to squeaky bunk beds, loud traffic, and thin windows, but were stoked to explore Dublin under blue skies! We had our free breakfast, dropped our luggage off at our hotel (right on O’Connell street, about a half block from the Spire – i.e. prime location) as we were too early to check in, and headed to Starbucks to map out our day and get some much needed caffeine (and so began the 5 phases of caffeine intake). We decided to take our Irish professor’s advice and take the Dart out to Killiney and Dalkey castle. This was a fantastic idea.

goofing off in the Dalkey castle cemetery

First we headed to Killiney…the coast was gorgeous, but other than that there wasn’t much there. So we hopped back on the dart one stop to Dalkey. Here we got a tour of the castle, watched a history video, and got a live reenactment of medieval life in the castle, and goofed off in the cemetery. The live reenactment was hilarious! The woman was so good, Megan got her legs amputated and I got some teeth pulled…we also ate some really gross tripe and the like… After this performance we were in quite a strange mood when we headed out to the cemetery…as can be evidenced by the many photos on facebook…just one on here for your viewing pleasure. We then had some good soup and sammies at a cafe, and I got stopped by some little old ladies who told me I looked like Kate Middleton. Strange as I also was told I looked like someone famous the night before, but can’t remember who obv. The weather was gorgeous most of the day except for about 20 minutes while we had lunch it hailed really hard.

Afterwards we took the Dart back into Dublin, and walked back to our Hotel (Lynams Hotel). We then got food, alcohol, went shopping (I got a nice Irish wool sweater), bought postcards, etc. So far of note in Dublin are the accents! Amazing…I love em, but Megan well she can’t understand much…hahah I am basically her translator. Also the Irish are very polite, happy, and good-looking. Both men and women here are exceptionally gorgeous…I’m not complaining. This night we attempted to go out a bit earlier to Temple Bar (will we ever learn!?)…epic fail #2…’nuff said. We came home early instead and caught up on our sleep…which was much needed.

Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery

Day 2 in Dublin is Monday Feb 28th. Another day of blue skies…we got our typical cappuccino and decided to buy some tour bus tickets to go to all the main sights in Dublin. We sat up on the open deck of the bus and listened to some hilarious live Irish commentary, complete with Irish road rage – best thing ever! We went to some Cathedrals, then had some yummy Irish stew (with lamb…yum!), before getting back on the bus to head to the Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery. I loved it here…Before the tour even started Megan and I bought some Irish coffee chocolate which we devoured during the tour. We each got a free drink at the end (for me whiskey with ginger ale, and for Megan, Whiskey with cranberry juice). We also got chosen to do a tasting between Irish, Scottish, and American whisky (Jameson, Scotch, and Jack Daniels). Let me tell you, the Irish whiskey blew the other 2 away…which tasted disgusting. Megan wasn’t feeling her drinks…so I polished them off and proceeded to totter into the gift shop to buy some whiskey for the grandparents! (to be sent in the mail soon…apparently you can only send liquids out of France…that’s the French expats for ya…gotta have their wines)

some person got us in the shot, but not the cathedral...

This night we finally got it right. We asked some locals who were in their 20’s where we should go for a bumpin club…their answer: Harcourt St. This street looks like a quiet residential street…well let me tell you, it ain’t. The place we went to was called Dicey’s and it connected via a really swanky outdoor dance floor/smoking area with some other clubs. We had a great time here!

Our last day in Dublin (Tuesday, March 1st) we were a bit hung over, but the blue skies were beckoning once more. We headed out for breakfast in Temple Bar at a really tasty (and attractive….for other reasons) cafe. The whole time at breakfast the boy behind the counter was looking and he was soo cute. After we left I decided I had a feeling and I wanted to give him my number…so I sent Megan in to do my dirty work. She gave it to the girl behind the counter to give to him…who knows whether he got it…or had a girlfriend…but I haven’t heard from him. My time in Malta more than made up for this though 😉 We took the tour bus again to some other places, through Georgian Dublin, and got off and walked around in the parks. Later that day we went back to O’Sheas to write an epic amount of postcards (cue the hand cramps). We passed out at 9 pm, only to wake up at 2 am to head to the airport for what was a hellish flight to Malta, due to crying babies. While we were waiting on O’Connell street for the shuttle to the Dublin airport, one of the taxis (among about a line of 50 – the cabs have been deregulated so there are so many) approached us and offered to drive us for only 7 euros. We felt badly, because we know the state of the economy, but had already paid for our shuttle, so we declined.

Check next post for Malta deets…although bear in mind much has been left out of both of these posts in order to preserve Megan and I’s reputations….just kidding…well a bit.

PS: All photos are up on facebook in an album called Dublin for your viewing pleasure!!! click here