So this past weekend I spent three days in Dublin, despite how far it is (In European retrospect) it was one of the cheapest cities to fly to from Roma. A good friend of mine, Casey McKinnon is studying abroad there so I was able to stay with her. I got there late on Thursday and she was waiting for me at the airport shuttle stop by her school, University of College Dublin. We spent a lovely night together catching up and eating mac and cheese, another American food I weirdly miss.
Friday we started on Grafton St. which is where you go to see and be seen in Dublin, as far as fashion is concerned. They had an amazing H&M, a few guilty purchases were made but the best thing Dublin has is starbucks!! Even though I am surrounded by the ‘best’ coffee in Roma I miss my starbucks. Grafton St. also has a ton of pubs and live performers and I have recently been getting into Irish rocker/folk tunes so that was fun. At the end of Grafton is St. Stephen’s Green which is no doubly green, as is most of Dublin and Ireland in general. St. Stephens is very calm and peaceful, a lot of families strolling around, from there we went to Trinity College. This school looks straight out of a Harry Potter movie, it was nice to walk around and pretend to be an intellectual. I missed Dublin’s film festival by 2 weeks but we found the Irish Film Institute and we bought tickets to a later showing of an indie film. Then we went to the Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral, this church is a lot more gothic than Roman churches but it is so hard to compare any church to those is Roma.
(me in St. Stephen's Green)
We went back to see our movie, ‘Lion’s Den’, which first off was sooo goooood. The synopsis sounds a bit complicated on the surface but basically it is about a young women in Argentina who gets sent to jail while she is pregnant and it shows how she raises her son in jail and eventual escapes and flea’s with her son to another country. Highly recommend it, if you can find it. After the film we had a discussion at O’Neil’s restaurant which is a buffet of delicious Irish dishes, I had turkey and ham cooked in white wine with some mash potatoes and stuffing. After we went to a couple bars and met up with the people from my school who I flew with and another friend from USF.
(The Ha'Penny Bridge over the Liffey River
Saturday we went to a two story starbucks right along the water in Blackrock, a small oceanside town outside of Dublin. Then we went to a rugby game for the local team, Leinster, it was EPIC and intense and sooo funny. I felt like I was getting an authentic Irish experience being there, people mixing religious and swear words all over the place. The home team won and it was ladies night which added to the greatness of the game. We spent the rest of the night pub and club hoping along the Liffey River. My favorite pub was the oldest one in Dublin, Brazenhead, where an undisclosed age minimum must have been 50 haha but we meet some really cool old Irish folks who loved to get there jiggy with it on the dance floor!
Leinster in blue! GO BOYS IN BLUE!
(Me)
Sunday we had a nice late start and just wandered around Dublin so I could finish souvenir shopping and we found some cute little streets to shop and browse through. This day, like ever other included trips to starbucks and another amazing Irish dish and pub. I basically took a two hour nap that night because I had to be at the airport really early and back in Roma for a full day of classes and work. It was pretty rough but it was so nice to spend time with Casey, she was a great tour guide and it is nice to be around someone who has known you for longer than 3 months. Dublin is a very small city especial compared to Roma, but it is beautiful, clean, and they speak English! Even though technically they speak English, they have an entirely different word bank and some crazy word combinations. Another cool thing about Ireland is the name Robinson is Irish/Scottish so I was able to learn some interesting things about the history of my family’s last name. This was my last trip out of Italy, but thankfully not my last trip before I leave. A presto!
(Casey and I infront of Christ Church Cathedral)
(Trinity College)
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