March 5th-7th: Dublin, Ireland

Thursday, March 5th Katie Binning, Ashley Willeck, Mary Owen, Nicole Cartier, and Allie Kopp got on the 44 Bus and made our way down to New Street Station. After an 8 minute train ride, we were at Birmingham International. We were a little less than two hours early for our 7:45 flight to Dublin. After going through security and having to take all my stuff out of my bag because I forgot to take out my umbrella and getting searched myself, we sat down at a table and waited with anticipation for our time to board the 25 pound, Ryan Air Flight. It was a short, 45 minute flight till we landed in Dublin. We hopped on a city that cost us only 2.20 Euros, and after a 40 minute ride we were at O’Connell Street. From there we wondered a bit and finally found our hostel off this busy street down a rather sketch alley way. We were staying that “Litton Lane Hostel.” It was pretty descent, but not really worth the money. It was cheap, but after staying there it wasn’t cheap enough. After checking into the hostel, we quick dropped off our backpacks in our rooms. Katie, Ashley and I were staying in an 8 Bedroom dorm style room and just down the hall from us, Allie and Mary, were staying in a 10 Bedroom mixed dorm style room. Nicole was staying at the “Ashfield House” down the road with another friend from the SIE programme, Rachael Johnson. After a quick freshen up from our evening of travels, we all met up outside the hostel and walked around Dublin. We found ourselves in the Temple Bar area, an area on the south bank of the River Liffey. After stopping for a pint and being serenaded by an Irish man, we headed back for a much needed night’s rest. The next morning we got ready early and went down to the hostel’s lounge for breakfast that was included. The breakfast consisted of cornflakes, tea, and cardboard toast. It wasn’t the best, but we ate as much as we could so we could be nice and full for as long as possible. We grabbed some maps and got some information from the reception worker, and made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. The Storehouse was originally built in 1904 to house the Guinness fermentation process. This incredible building was constructed in the style of the Chicago school of architecture, with massive steel beams providing the support for the structure of the building.
The core of this unique building is modeled on a giant pint glass, stretching up from reception on the ground floor to The Gravity Bar in the sky. If filled, this giant pint would hold approximately 14.3 million pints of Guinness! After your tour, your ticket allows you one free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar on the top level of storehouse. It was my first time ever having Guinness and although I was expecting to hate it, it was actually pretty tasty! From there were just walked around the streets of Dublin for the next few hours before Katie, Ashley, Rachael and I made our way to the opposite side of town for a Football game. It was the League of Ireland against Galway United who ended up winning 3-1. During admission, we got a hamburger and a 7 Up and wondered to the merchandise stand to check it out. As we were walking back through the gates to take our seat, the Irish man thought it would be funny to mess with us and say that our student tickets weren’t real and after him joking about kicking us out and us girls believing every word with panic, he burst out laughing and let us in. We didn’t think it was that funny. The next day, we got up early and stashed our backpacks in the luggage room before heading out. We wondered down through the shops on ‘Grafton Street’ that lead us to St. Stephen’s Green. After walking around the park we noticed a long line of horse and carriages. We approached one of the carriage drivers and asked how much it would be to take a ride and what it consisted of. He said for 7 of us, it’ll be 7 quid and it’s about a 30 minute ride. We thought I’d be fun and decided to go ahead and do it. I can’t remember everything we saw, but we got to see all the main buildings of Dublin while ride this neat, antique horse and carriage. It was well worth the money and a lot of fun! After the carriage ride we stopped for something to eat at ‘Abrakebabra’ and enjoyed a yummy lamb kabab. We had a few hours left before we needed to be at the airport so we walked along the canal towards the docks. Along the way we came across a really fancy and grand boat. For the past few weeks, we have been singing “I’m on a Boat” by The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) and T-Pain. So we thought it’d be fun to ‘play’ on the boat and sing that song. We chit chatted with the bartender for a bit before heading out on deck to record our very own music video of the song. It was one of the highlights of the weekend! We finished our walk down to the docks and then turned around and went back out our hostel to pick up our luggage and get to the airport.
It was a smooth ride home and a quick train ride. We caught the 44 Bus home and it wasn’t even 10pm before I was comfy in my bed. Dublin is a wonderful city and I had a fantastic time!

Miss you!

Cheers!

Kirsten