Playin' the Boot on the Emerald Isle

Dublin was awesome. I've been before the summer after freshman year of high school but because it was our first day of vacation, all I can remember is sleeping through the bus tour of the city. Needless to say, it was great to be able to go back.

We flew RyanAir for 5 euro each way and stayed in the most amazing bed and breakfast imaginable in a few towns out from the city. Sandy Hills B&B is run by Mary Buckley, the most adorable, generous, and caring woman I have ever met. When we arrived Friday night she had baked us fresh scones and served them with her homemade jam. Afterwards, she invited us to join her in the television room where we watched the Irish version of the Late Show where Enya was the guest for the evening.

We woke in the morning and ate a delicious and full Irish breakfast while Mary graciously planned out our day in Dublin and secretly made phone calls to the train station manager asking him to give us a deal on our train tickets into the city. Once we arrived in the city we headed to Trinity College where we went off trying to find the Book of Kells. Sadly, it isn't on display in the winter but we got to see a museum all about the book and we decided the money on entrance was well spent when we turned the corner on the staircase leading to the library. I have a bizarre adoration of libraries to begin with but when I came around the corner I gasped and even lost my footing on the staircase I was in such awe. This was without a doubt the most beautiful room I have ever been in. There are over 200,000 books held in this room and it's dark wood bookshelves are two stories high. Busts of literary heroes in Europe line the columns. It was heaven. We grabbed some lunch after Trinity College and meandered down Grafton Street and its neighbors. In the late afternoon we walked over to the Jameson Distillery and looked around there for a little while. We ate dinner in a pub that had the Ireland vs. France rugby match on (thankfully, Ireland won, 30-21). We sang our hearts out at a karaoke bar off of Grafton Street for an hour before taking a musical pub crawl in the Temple Bar region of the city. We played the boot (tapping your foot in 6/8 time) with our Irish musicians and learned some Irish folk songs.

On Sunday we woke up and had another delicious breakfast. At breakfast, Mary offered to drive us around the countryside in her car if we helped her out with the dishes. We gladly accepted her offer and she took us to a museum about old Celtic mounds, the ruins of an old Abbey, and she drove us to Northern Ireland! We ate dinner in a pub playing traditional Irish music with Mary in a town called Collingsford, Ireland. Mary drove us back to her B&B where we bought some jam from her and caught two cabs to the airport. The flight back was a little delayed leaving, which was fine by us because all five of us managed to secure exit row seats, so we had to run through German customs in order to catch our bus back into Luxembourg City. I had a great chat with Taylor on the two hour ride back and immediately fell asleep once I got back to my host parent's house.

Such a fabulous weekend! I leave for my Geography class field trip on Wednesday so I'll be out of contact from then until next Monday.

xoxo, face

Oh, pictures from this weekend can be found here!