Ireland, with Enya and the whales!

Last week, my wonderful best friend/twin/stalker/etc Liz came and visited me all the way from the States! She was here from Sunday - Friday, and it was definitely a week full of exciting things and new adventures. It started with me getting up at 7:15 am on a Sunday! I haven't done that since I was on team! (speaking of team, y'all should watch this! I made it instead of writing my essay for Sociology of Media) Now, onto more exciting things.

After napping for a few hours, Liz and I went down to City Centre on Sunday and did some shopping (as usual). We also stopped by campus so I could show Liz the main building (gotta hit all the Glaswegian hotspots, ya know?). We took pictures and did the touristy things, and then after my class on Monday, we headed off to Dublin!

Girls like us always get to see Ireland!

Dublin was the home of some very interesting stories. It all started once we checked into our hostel. We were told we were in room 43A, on the third floor. After walking all around the third floor (which was actually 5 flights of stairs) and finding stairs to the fourth floor that were blocked off, our room was no where to be found. So, we went back down to the front desk and explained our predicament. The lady working there was clearly new because she had to call someone and ask where our room was located. Turns out it was in the other building, all the way at the top. This was alright because it meant we had skylights which was nice in the morning because our lights also had issues, which I will tell you about later.

After quickly dropping our bags off, we had to rush to get dinner before all of the restaurants closed. By the time we actually got downstairs (it was around 9pm) most of the restaurants had already closed, and we didn't really want to eat bar food. We ended up eating at this really sketchy place called Apache Pizza, but we got pizza, garlic bread and a drink for 10 euros so it was alright. We weren't tired enough to go to bed after dinner, so we decided to explore our surroundings. Our hostel was right in front of the Liffey, which is the main river that runs through Dublin. It was really pretty at night, and we we walked around and looked at all of the stores (that were closed). The weather was so nice that I didn't even need to zip my jacket while we were outside!

The Liffey!

Once we got back to our room, we had some issues with the lights. Instead of lightswitches, there's a little slot for your keycard to turn the lights on. We slid our keycard in and then I went to take a shower. Four minutes later, it went completely dark. Liz put the keycard in again and the lights came back on, but then four minutes later, they turned off again! We figured that there must be some other way to keep the lights on than having to slide your keycard in every four minutes. Now, at this point, I am showering in the pitch black yelling at Liz to turn the lights back on. Only Liz can't find her card. THERE WAS A GHOST IN OUR HOSTEL AND IT TOOK LIZ'S CARD. I got out of the shower and we turned the lights back on with my card. It turns out you can just leave your card in the slot instead of taking it out every time, which results in the lights actually staying on. I looked all over the room for Liz's card while she showered, and it was no where to be found. This was actually terrifying, and then she found it after she was done showering in her book. It was a fun night.

The next day we took a bus tour all around Dublin! We were too cheap to pay to go into any of the attractions, so we mostly just took pictures from outside. We saw a lot of things, though. The Writers' Museum (for Liz), Kilmainham Gaol (the jail Carly wrote a song about), Guinness Storehouse, St Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity College, Dublin Castle, Christ Church, Dublinia, the Dublin zoo, basically all of the must-sees. The only thing we actually went inside was Dublin Castle, which was thoroughly unexciting and not castle-like at all. I don't have a lot to say that can't be expressed through pictures, so I'll just post some pictures now.

inside Dublin Castle

Cathedral at Dublin Castle

St Patrick's Cathedral

Dublinia and Christ Church

Trinity College

It was really cool to be in the land of my ancestors. I found a lot of Ward stuff on it, most of which I ended up not purchasing (does one really need a coaster with their family crest on it?), but I took pictures with it anyway. Dublin was great, and I would definitely like to go back and maybe actually go into some of the places next time, instead of just standing outside and taking pictures. Only next time, I don't want to stay in a haunted hostel.

Love you!
Mel