The Irish know their beers...

Let me just begin by saying Ireland is not known for its impressive buildings, its number of bridges, or even its rolling plains (Scotland takes that prize). However, everyone envies a thing or two about the Irish and it is all summed up on Saint Patrick's Day. Ireland is not defined by its cities or even its green countryside dotted with countless cows and sheep. Ireland gets its identity from its great people, its pubs, and Guinness beer.

We arrived in Dublin and bought one of the hop-on hop-off bus tours that take you around Dublin stopping at each sight-worthy place to be in London. Our first stop was at this little park where we began playing on the little swing set. A burly policeman came up to us. "how old are ya?" he asked. "19" we replied. "so you're not 4 or 5?" he said. "umm no, we answered" we answered. "well let me put this nicely, ADIOS" he said. Walking with a purpose, we walked quickly to our bus stop and hopped back on.

Our next main stop in Dublin was at the famous Guinness Factory. Imagine Willy Wonka's chocolate factory - with beer instead. It was very impressive. We learned how they grow the barley and roast it. How they use pure water from the mountains, and even some history on Sir Arthur Guinness. What I found astonishing is that Guinness is celebrating its 250 year anniversary. That makes it older than the Declaration of Independence! We got to learn how to taste beer (compliments the wine tasting we had in Italy), and also learned how to craft the perfect pint of Guinness. The Guinness factory is composed of 7 floors which makes it one of the highest buildings in Dublin (they have a height restriction). At the very top, we were able to sip on our pints of complimentary Guinness and get a good look of the city of Dublin. After our Guinness tour finally ended, we hopped back on a tour bus and made it back to the bus station in time to travel across Ireland to our next destination, Galway.

The 3 and a half hour bus ride was a bit uncomfortable but we eventually made it to the small town of Galway. Galway sits on the West end of Ireland near the Atlantic Ocean. We knew we were in Ireland when the directions from the bus station to our hostel gave us pub by pub directions. Irish people are very nice. They like to crack jokes on themselves first before they crack on other people. They are very welcoming and have no qualms with Americans, unlike some other countries in Europe.

Saturday was spent pretty much all day searching around the little shops for the famed Claddagh Ring which consists of a pair of arms as the band, the hands come together at the top of the ring holding a heart with a crown on top. The hands represent friendship, the heart, love, and the crown, loyalty. When a girl wears the ring with the point of the heart facing herself, it signifies the fact that she is in a relationship. If she wears it with the heart pointing outward, it means her heart is open to the world. After the girls found what they were looking for, we all headed out to find a good pub to celebrate Melinda's 20th birthday. We took the advice of one of the jewellers to cross the river and find an authentic pub with live music, which we did, and better prices.

The pub was rather crowded but we did find ourselves seats. I love how much the Irish drink and don't show any effects of it. I saw countless people go up for their 3rd pint, their 4th pint and even 7th and 8th pints without any problem whatsoever. Personally, I'm pretty much toast after 3 or 4. After the Irish band finished playing, we walked back home where Melinda got her birthday wish - a kiss by a true Irishman.

Sunday we headed back to Galway and met back up with Mindy, Kate, and Kelly (who hung out with us in Galway) and went out to dinner. After dinner, we went to a Dublin pub (they also had live music) which had another awesome atmosphere filled with candlelight and rusticness. Nothing beats Irish pubs. I love the English ones but something about Irish pubs, the people, or maybe the Guinness beer, is special. Our weekend was coming to a close quickly so we had to figure out what to do with the rest of our time.

Alyssa and I had a 6:40am flight for Monday morning (which would have us back in time for our 9am math class) but much to our dismay, the earliest shuttle bus to the airport didn't leave until 7am. So we took our Rome experience with us and camped out for the night inside the airport. Unlike Rome, we found a nice little carpeted corner and had quite an enjoyable sleep, that is, until around 4:30am when it seemed that tons of people suddenly came to airport and made such a racket that sleep was impossible. So we woke up, hung out at the airport, and waited for our 2.5 hour-delayed flight to finally take off. That pretty much concludes my Ireland trip! Next up, my #2 country to see, Paris, France. A Beintot! Until next time!