So. Overall, my experience in Prague was a good one, but a very eye-opening and abraisive one. The lack of language skills was hard to work with, and left me feeling somewhat isolated from the rest of the people living and working there. I was never met with downright rudeness (reference Dublin post...haha), but people were not as eager to attempt to communicate using other means, as has been my personal experience in many Spanish-speaking countries/Italy.
I loved the hostel and we ate great food, but I was also somewhat confused about what "Czech culture" actually was. Oh, well. I am glad I went but probably will not be running back there anytime soon.
Moving on speedily to Venice, my new favorite place of all time. When Eugenie and I landed in the Venice airport, I naievely thought that I would immediately be transported to the Grand Canal and gondolas. I was mistaken. I only saw dirty, industrial warehouses and huge pipes with black smoke issuing from them. Disappointing. However, after an hour bus ride to the main bus station, some confusion as to how to get to our hostel/camping ground, another bus to the other airport, another bus to the hostel, checking into our hostel, realizing it was a trailer with two beds and a miniscule shower, and two buses BACK to the bus station, we walked ten feet to the left and saw before us the exact image that I had been expecting and unknowingly yearning for.
The Grand Canal. Venice itself. I can't even explain how beautiful it all is. And its not only the physical beauty of the place, but the overall laid back atmosphere. The gorgeous people with their gorgeous leather jackets and sexy, dark hair. The greenish blue tint of the water. The sense of community among everyone, the tourists AND the local Venetians. Even the homeless people looked happier and the street vendors were more cheerful. I swear.
At first, we just walked along the canal, taking it all in. But, it was not more than five minutes before I literally ran into one of my friend from home, Erin, who is studying in Madrid and was in Italy for break. It was so random that we saw each other and so great to see a friendly face.
After that we made a beeline for the first italian restaurant on the water. I got lasagne and Eugenie got gnocchi and they were both the best thing we had ever tasted. Literally melt in your mouth. We also had our first wine, which was delish.
We then deliberated if we were going to walk along the canal to San Marco plaza or if we were going to take a vaporetto aka the water bus.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Prague
So after our delish lunch at the swanky restaurant with the view of the bridge, during which I ate caprese and pork fillet (a Czech specialty), we hit the bridge ourselves. We walked across it as the sun came out and the snow disappeared and it was lovely. We took some pictures and enjoyed the view, all the while heading toward the Prague Castle. After walking up nearly two hundred steps, we finally reached the best view of the city and the castle. We went inside the cathedral part of the complex, which was beautiful and then just sat and enjoyed the view.
That night we went out to pizza for dinner, which was surprisingly amazing, and then spent about two hours getting lost looking for a club that had been recommended to us by Eugenie's friend who spent a semester in Prague. After the second hour it was cold and dark and we were exhausted and whiny. After some rude people wouldn't give us directions, we finally stumbled upon it and ended up running into some kids from BC (of course...). However, it had sort of lost its glamour since it took so long to get there so we didnt stay long and soon headed home.
The next morning we had our last wonderful, hot shower and then took a cab to the bagel place that we couldn't find ourselves the day before. It had also been recommended to us and it was the best. I had a huge three decker everything bagel turkey club and about ten coffees. There were tons of Americans inside, which was a great break to simply hear English, and Meg ran into a family friend from home, which was crazy.
After that we headed toward the Jewish quarter of Prague to see the museums there. The first building we went into had the names and birth-death dates of 80,000 Monrovian and Bohemian Jews who had been killed during the Holocaust printed on the wall in red ink. It was insane and intense and draining. The upstairs had a memorial to the students who were killed, complete with drawings and photographs of the adorable kids. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before because there are not usually artifacts presented on behalf of the kids complete with photos of them next to their art. It could have been my kindergarteners in Ireland who had done the pictures...
After that we exited the museum to the graveyard which is also the most photographed place in all of Prague. It was gorgeous. The grave markers were all in Czech and other languages so I couldn't read what was on them, but they were heaped haphazardly all over the lawn, which was basically a hill since graves were made on top of graves since there was no place to put all the bodies. We went into two or three other museums after that, all full of Jewish ceremonial items and religious memorabilia. It was a good morning, and definitely my favorite thing that we did in Prague.
After that we headed to Wensislaus Square, which is much more touristy and very close to our hostel. We ate the recommended street vendor snack of a friend mozzerella sandwich, which was tasted just like what you would imagine, and then headed back to the hostel for some relaxing and warming up. Around nine we went back to the square to find dinner, but everything was either too expensive or didn't look good so we went back toward the hostel and found another pizza place, haha. We just went to bed after dinner since we had been up early and out all day.
The next morning we checked out and headed to the airport, which was sort of far away. Meg headed to her terminal to fly to Rome, and Eugenie and I headed to our gate for Venice.
We landed in Venice around 11:35 that day.
That night we went out to pizza for dinner, which was surprisingly amazing, and then spent about two hours getting lost looking for a club that had been recommended to us by Eugenie's friend who spent a semester in Prague. After the second hour it was cold and dark and we were exhausted and whiny. After some rude people wouldn't give us directions, we finally stumbled upon it and ended up running into some kids from BC (of course...). However, it had sort of lost its glamour since it took so long to get there so we didnt stay long and soon headed home.
The next morning we had our last wonderful, hot shower and then took a cab to the bagel place that we couldn't find ourselves the day before. It had also been recommended to us and it was the best. I had a huge three decker everything bagel turkey club and about ten coffees. There were tons of Americans inside, which was a great break to simply hear English, and Meg ran into a family friend from home, which was crazy.
After that we headed toward the Jewish quarter of Prague to see the museums there. The first building we went into had the names and birth-death dates of 80,000 Monrovian and Bohemian Jews who had been killed during the Holocaust printed on the wall in red ink. It was insane and intense and draining. The upstairs had a memorial to the students who were killed, complete with drawings and photographs of the adorable kids. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before because there are not usually artifacts presented on behalf of the kids complete with photos of them next to their art. It could have been my kindergarteners in Ireland who had done the pictures...
After that we exited the museum to the graveyard which is also the most photographed place in all of Prague. It was gorgeous. The grave markers were all in Czech and other languages so I couldn't read what was on them, but they were heaped haphazardly all over the lawn, which was basically a hill since graves were made on top of graves since there was no place to put all the bodies. We went into two or three other museums after that, all full of Jewish ceremonial items and religious memorabilia. It was a good morning, and definitely my favorite thing that we did in Prague.
After that we headed to Wensislaus Square, which is much more touristy and very close to our hostel. We ate the recommended street vendor snack of a friend mozzerella sandwich, which was tasted just like what you would imagine, and then headed back to the hostel for some relaxing and warming up. Around nine we went back to the square to find dinner, but everything was either too expensive or didn't look good so we went back toward the hostel and found another pizza place, haha. We just went to bed after dinner since we had been up early and out all day.
The next morning we checked out and headed to the airport, which was sort of far away. Meg headed to her terminal to fly to Rome, and Eugenie and I headed to our gate for Venice.
We landed in Venice around 11:35 that day.
St. Patrick's Day and Prague
This past spring break was twelve days of the most intense, jam-packed travel experiences of my life. Even going to El Salvador last summer was not as tiring as these past two weeks were. In the end, I am happily home, along with many souvenirs and great memories.
I started off my break on the 17th with a little trip over to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day 2008. Jenny, a friend from BC, was visiting us in Galway, so Meg, Jenny, myself and my roommate Eugenie made up the original crew. We jumped on the 9am bus to Dublin and promptly fell asleep. Upon arrival, three and a half hours later, we dropped our stuff at the train station and grabbed a cab. Because the parade had already started we couldn't get too close to the city centre, but we got as close as we could and joined the hordes of people lining the streets. It was a beautiful day and there were families and people all over the place. The first few paraders we saw were a couple of acrobats on a rotating, spinning contraption, which was so cool. There were lots of dancers and bands, etc. as well as huge floats that resembled bugs and monsters, etc.
We wandered the streets looking for a more fun, less family-oriented place to stand but were turned away from making it down to the end of the main street by police who told us that there were riots and mayhem down there so it was unsafe to let anyone else past. Boo. After the parade we headed to a restaurant where we got a table with an forty-something Irish couple from County Mayo - Charlie and Joanne. They were the sweetest Irish people I have ever met, which may or may not have been influenced by the number of rounds we shared. We had a fabulous time chatting with them and enjoying the crazy people walking around the city. Charlie even bought us St. Patrick's Day hats. It was the best.
The next morning we checked out of the hostel and headed back into the city, since our flights didn't leave until 4pm. My new travel outfit plan was put into action as I picked up a five pack of men's white undershirts from Dunnes. I figured they were easy to pack and easy to leave behind if I ended up not having enough room on the way back. We got some bagels/smoothies and used the Internet, and then grabbed the bus to the airport. At this point, Jenny was already back in Spain and Meg, Eugenie and I were heading to Prague.
Little did I know, since I never check the weather, that my white tees and I were heading into a snowy Czech wonderland... Whatever. We landed in Prague around 7pm and got into a AAA yellow cab, the only safe, honest and English-speaking cab company in the area. The driver was around 65 and was hilarious. It took him about ten minutes to gain his confidence to speak to us in English, but when he did he let us know that we had to "attention! attention!" when we were taking money out of ATM's, only use them inside a bank, and watch our bags since pickpockets were rampant. He was such a sweetheart. He told us about the address number system in the area and pointed out the mini Eiffel Tower and the Prague Castle along our route.
He took us right to the door of our hostel, a five minute walk from the main square in the city, and made sure we were safely inside before departing. We had decided to start our trip off in Prague because the exchange rate is so good for us and we had heard everything was cheaper than in Ireland, etc. Ten USD translates to somewhere between one hundred and fifty and two hundred Czech crowns. It was sort of strange to be dealing with thousands of crowns at a time, and to have to pay for dinner with seemingly hundreds of a currency, but we got used to it. A beer, for example, all of which were huge, was somewhere around 20-30 crowns. That's about a dollar.
The first night after checking in and realizing that our hostel was amazing - four beds for the three of us, high ceilings, a great, clean bathroom and separate toilet, a full kitchen, big screen TV and free Internet all within our suite, we headed out to find some food. Since it was somewhat later than most people get dinner, we asked for advice and the sweet guy who was running the hostel pointed us in the right direction. It was quite cold and really dark, so it was sort of scary, but we watched out bags and soon happened upon a tiny little restaurant with a good number of people inside. I got a salad and some soup, and we all got beers. It was insanely cheap and decently good, but then I started to feel sick so we went back to the hostel and went to bed.
The next morning we awoke to snow, so we bundled up as much as we could and hit the streets. We started to walk in the direction of the main square and found a little market selling trinkets and weird foods. We wandered around for a while looking for a famous bagel place, but found ourselves at the foot of the Charles Bridge. It was something that we all wanted to walk across, but it started to rain, so we hurried inside for lunch at a nicer restaurant right nearby. We were basically treated like VIPs and got cappechinos and huge amounts of food. Meg got a chicken that was literally an entire chicken on a wooden platter - it was delish despite looking like something a pirate would eat...
I started off my break on the 17th with a little trip over to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day 2008. Jenny, a friend from BC, was visiting us in Galway, so Meg, Jenny, myself and my roommate Eugenie made up the original crew. We jumped on the 9am bus to Dublin and promptly fell asleep. Upon arrival, three and a half hours later, we dropped our stuff at the train station and grabbed a cab. Because the parade had already started we couldn't get too close to the city centre, but we got as close as we could and joined the hordes of people lining the streets. It was a beautiful day and there were families and people all over the place. The first few paraders we saw were a couple of acrobats on a rotating, spinning contraption, which was so cool. There were lots of dancers and bands, etc. as well as huge floats that resembled bugs and monsters, etc.
We wandered the streets looking for a more fun, less family-oriented place to stand but were turned away from making it down to the end of the main street by police who told us that there were riots and mayhem down there so it was unsafe to let anyone else past. Boo. After the parade we headed to a restaurant where we got a table with an forty-something Irish couple from County Mayo - Charlie and Joanne. They were the sweetest Irish people I have ever met, which may or may not have been influenced by the number of rounds we shared. We had a fabulous time chatting with them and enjoying the crazy people walking around the city. Charlie even bought us St. Patrick's Day hats. It was the best.
The next morning we checked out of the hostel and headed back into the city, since our flights didn't leave until 4pm. My new travel outfit plan was put into action as I picked up a five pack of men's white undershirts from Dunnes. I figured they were easy to pack and easy to leave behind if I ended up not having enough room on the way back. We got some bagels/smoothies and used the Internet, and then grabbed the bus to the airport. At this point, Jenny was already back in Spain and Meg, Eugenie and I were heading to Prague.
Little did I know, since I never check the weather, that my white tees and I were heading into a snowy Czech wonderland... Whatever. We landed in Prague around 7pm and got into a AAA yellow cab, the only safe, honest and English-speaking cab company in the area. The driver was around 65 and was hilarious. It took him about ten minutes to gain his confidence to speak to us in English, but when he did he let us know that we had to "attention! attention!" when we were taking money out of ATM's, only use them inside a bank, and watch our bags since pickpockets were rampant. He was such a sweetheart. He told us about the address number system in the area and pointed out the mini Eiffel Tower and the Prague Castle along our route.
He took us right to the door of our hostel, a five minute walk from the main square in the city, and made sure we were safely inside before departing. We had decided to start our trip off in Prague because the exchange rate is so good for us and we had heard everything was cheaper than in Ireland, etc. Ten USD translates to somewhere between one hundred and fifty and two hundred Czech crowns. It was sort of strange to be dealing with thousands of crowns at a time, and to have to pay for dinner with seemingly hundreds of a currency, but we got used to it. A beer, for example, all of which were huge, was somewhere around 20-30 crowns. That's about a dollar.
The first night after checking in and realizing that our hostel was amazing - four beds for the three of us, high ceilings, a great, clean bathroom and separate toilet, a full kitchen, big screen TV and free Internet all within our suite, we headed out to find some food. Since it was somewhat later than most people get dinner, we asked for advice and the sweet guy who was running the hostel pointed us in the right direction. It was quite cold and really dark, so it was sort of scary, but we watched out bags and soon happened upon a tiny little restaurant with a good number of people inside. I got a salad and some soup, and we all got beers. It was insanely cheap and decently good, but then I started to feel sick so we went back to the hostel and went to bed.
The next morning we awoke to snow, so we bundled up as much as we could and hit the streets. We started to walk in the direction of the main square and found a little market selling trinkets and weird foods. We wandered around for a while looking for a famous bagel place, but found ourselves at the foot of the Charles Bridge. It was something that we all wanted to walk across, but it started to rain, so we hurried inside for lunch at a nicer restaurant right nearby. We were basically treated like VIPs and got cappechinos and huge amounts of food. Meg got a chicken that was literally an entire chicken on a wooden platter - it was delish despite looking like something a pirate would eat...
Friday, March 14, 2008
Spring Break Plans
This weekend will be spent in Galway, celebrating St. Patrick's Day.
On the day itself, myself, Meaghan and our friend from BC, Jenny, will take a train to Dublin where we will spend Monday and Monday night. On Tuesday, Meaghan and my roomate from Fordham, Eugenie, fly to Prague.
We are going to spend the 18-21 in Prague, at which point Eugenie and I will split off from Meg (who heads to Spain) and fly to Venice. In Venice, we will meet up with John (Huber) and Leanne (McDonald), two friends of mine from school.
We are going to spend the next five days (21-25ish) seeing Venice, Florence and Pisa (briefly). We arrive in Rome on the 25th and spend two nights there.
I am hoping to fly back to Galway on the 27th so I can have a few days to get some work done, but I haven't booked a flight yet, so who knows. If there are people I know in Rome (JENNA!) I may stay longer.
So that's that. I'll try to update, but who knows.
On the day itself, myself, Meaghan and our friend from BC, Jenny, will take a train to Dublin where we will spend Monday and Monday night. On Tuesday, Meaghan and my roomate from Fordham, Eugenie, fly to Prague.
We are going to spend the 18-21 in Prague, at which point Eugenie and I will split off from Meg (who heads to Spain) and fly to Venice. In Venice, we will meet up with John (Huber) and Leanne (McDonald), two friends of mine from school.
We are going to spend the next five days (21-25ish) seeing Venice, Florence and Pisa (briefly). We arrive in Rome on the 25th and spend two nights there.
I am hoping to fly back to Galway on the 27th so I can have a few days to get some work done, but I haven't booked a flight yet, so who knows. If there are people I know in Rome (JENNA!) I may stay longer.
So that's that. I'll try to update, but who knows.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
More Pics - Can't Help It
Tara and I in St. Andrew's Scotland.
Tara, Me, Meaghan and Molly - The BC Girls...
Future Roommates - Watch out!
Andrew on his 21st!
More Random Pics Just for Fun Cuz You Miss My Face
Michie and I and "BICING" in Barcelona!
Boston College takes over Madrid - Bobby, Johnny, Katherine and I at JOY!
The ladies on the BEACH in Cadiz.
Outside the locked train station at 5am in Cadiz, the morning after Carnivale.
Dear Dublin, Stop Hating, Love Caroline
These past two weeks have been loaded with visitors.
It was BC's spring break last week, so Molly's younger brother Billy, (a freshman at BC), and two of his friends (also from BC), Tom and John, came to visit. Then Meaghan's twin brother Dan and his friend Elizabeth from Georgetown both came to visit. EB, a friend of Molly's from BC, who is studying at UCD (in Dublin) also came to spend two nights with us, and brought Quinn, a friend of her's from home who is studying drama in London. We ate a lot, went out a lot and showed them all Galway. It was a lot of fun.
Meg and Dan had plans to go to Dublin, and since Molly and the boys were also heading there for the weekend to meet up with her sister and her sister's boyfriend, I jumped on board. It was a fun two nights, three days, despite what I will call some ups and downs.
Meg, Dan, Elizabeth and I took the 10:50 train on Thursday morning, checked into our hostel and immediately headed to the Jameson factory for the tour. We got in just as it was about to start to rain, but not before we ran into a large group of BC boys, half of who are at Trinity for the year and the other half who were visiting.
The tour was really interesting, the tour guide was great, Meg and I volunteered to be whiskey taste-testers at the end, and then we got a free drink, so it was excellent. I swear it was the friendliest place we were all weekend. Everyone in our tour group was from somewhere other than Ireland - for example, the other people who were taste-testers were from Finland, Sweden, Syracuse and Virginia. It was excellent. As we were finishing our tour we ran into Molly, Billy and everyone else and got to meet her sister, sister's boyfriend, and sister's boyfriend's friend. Yes, there were lots of visitors. Keep them straight.
After the tour, we went walking though the Temple Bar area and got Irish food at the Shack, which I went to the last time I was there. I had something called a seafood pancake, which was really good, and some potatoes and broccoli. Elizabeth's friend from home who goes to Notre Dame but is studying in Dublin met up with us also. Then we went back to the hostel to get ready for the night. Of course as soon as we step outside to find a pub, we realize its pouring rain and whipping wind. So, we get out the umbrellas and forage on. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that we were going to be hated on by every bouncer in Dublin.
Molly and fam were at a place called Messers MacGuire, so we went on a search for it. We had also been told by some nice people in our tour group that it was a fun place to go. After probably 15 minutes of asking for directions and having people either ignore us or ask us for money in exchange for directions, we found it. We went into the foyer, where there was no line and a practically empty bar inside, and the bouncer immediately told us that we would not be let in that night. His story was that he saw Meg throw a beer can in the garbage can outside the door before getting in the line. He then wrongfully assumed that we were drunk.
Well, we had a problem with that. We explained very nicely that the beer was an empty that Meg saw on the ground and had thrown away as an act of kindness (whether or not this was the actual truth is your own assumption to make). He insisted again that we were drunk, which we were not. We tried to be nice and tried to come up with ways to relate to him or prove that we were not drunk at all. Then we realized that he didn't want to let us in because we were American. So, I asked for the manager. When the short, nervous-looking man arrived, I explained that we had walked a long way in the rain to get to his bar. I said that we had been told it was a fun place and that ten of our friends were already inside. We said all we wanted was to know why we were not being admitted.
After the bouncer told his side of the story, the manager said that as long as we weren't drinking on his property, we were allowed to come in. Excellent. I have to say the mood was sort of killed, but whatever. We met up with everyone and had a drink, had some dances (requesting Born to Run) and then Meg, Dan, Liz and I wanted to head to another place that we had coupons for, since the pubs in Dublin are twice as expensive as Galway.
Again it was raining, again we got lost, again we were not given any help from anyone. Finally, we got into a cab and asked the driver to take us to CitiBar. He laughed and drove about half a block and stopped, charging us 7 euro. I was irritated, but what could we do. Two minutes later we walk up to the door at Citibar and the bouncer told us AGAIN that we weren't allowed in because we were drunk. AGAIN, all we had was one drink and let me tell you, even if I had had ten drinks before leaving the hostel, at this point I would have been sober based on how poorly we were being treated and my overwhelming desire to cry...
But, I held in my rage/tears and protested, telling him that he could ask us to do anything he wanted to prove we weren't drunk. I also told him that we were Americans and that it might just be our accents that made us sound drunk to him. He paused and then said that it was six euro for admission. We produced our coupons saying free admission. He told us that it was still going to be 6 euro. You have got to be kidding me! I swear to god it was because we were American, because later that night Molly and her crew went to the same pub looking to meet up with us and the guy tried to charge them too!
So, we stormed away in anger, finally got directions back to our hostel, and spent the rest of the stormy night in the pub under the hostel, making friends with the great people from Wales who were all in town for the 6 nations rugby match. I swear, I have never felt so discriminated against in my life. And that sounds so whiny and I understand that people live their lives like that everyday and what we were up against was petty in comparison, but it was still an upsetting situation.
And, if you haven't read anything that makes you think that the reason that we were being discriminated against was because we were American, take my word for it. The look in those bouncer's eyes were horrible! It was like they hated us and thought we were untrustworthy to come into their bar, like we were going to wreck it or something. I was truly upset. And I was TRULY sober.
Anyway, the night ended well at least, and the next morning we checked out of one hostel, walked across town to the other one, checked in, napped and then spent the rest of the day seeing the sights: Grafton Street, St. Stephen's Green, Marion Square, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, etc. We also stopped by the house in the city that the Notre Dame kids use as their home base, which used to be Daniel O'Connell's house. He's basically the George Washington of Dublin. We got pizza for dinner after meeting up with two of Dan and Elizabeth's friends from Georgetown, and then got the most delicious crepes I've ever had in Temple Bar.
After a long stop at the Guinness souvenir shop, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed, exhausted.
The next day everyone was staying to watch the Ireland/Wales rugby game and do the Guinness factory, but I took the train back early and hung out in Galway all day. Wales ended up winning, which I have to admit I was pleased about, simply to spite the stupid Dublin-ers who were mean to us.
To end, I have to say that this was my second visit to Dublin and it was the first time I'd ever been treated meanly. I don't think that all Dubliners hate Americans, I just think we had a bit of bad luck. I really like Dublin and I think its a great city. I am going back for St. Pat's day as well as with both my parents, and I'm still excited about it. It was just a let down that we went to pubs with bouncers who can't tell an American accent from a slurring drunk...
It was BC's spring break last week, so Molly's younger brother Billy, (a freshman at BC), and two of his friends (also from BC), Tom and John, came to visit. Then Meaghan's twin brother Dan and his friend Elizabeth from Georgetown both came to visit. EB, a friend of Molly's from BC, who is studying at UCD (in Dublin) also came to spend two nights with us, and brought Quinn, a friend of her's from home who is studying drama in London. We ate a lot, went out a lot and showed them all Galway. It was a lot of fun.
Meg and Dan had plans to go to Dublin, and since Molly and the boys were also heading there for the weekend to meet up with her sister and her sister's boyfriend, I jumped on board. It was a fun two nights, three days, despite what I will call some ups and downs.
Meg, Dan, Elizabeth and I took the 10:50 train on Thursday morning, checked into our hostel and immediately headed to the Jameson factory for the tour. We got in just as it was about to start to rain, but not before we ran into a large group of BC boys, half of who are at Trinity for the year and the other half who were visiting.
The tour was really interesting, the tour guide was great, Meg and I volunteered to be whiskey taste-testers at the end, and then we got a free drink, so it was excellent. I swear it was the friendliest place we were all weekend. Everyone in our tour group was from somewhere other than Ireland - for example, the other people who were taste-testers were from Finland, Sweden, Syracuse and Virginia. It was excellent. As we were finishing our tour we ran into Molly, Billy and everyone else and got to meet her sister, sister's boyfriend, and sister's boyfriend's friend. Yes, there were lots of visitors. Keep them straight.
After the tour, we went walking though the Temple Bar area and got Irish food at the Shack, which I went to the last time I was there. I had something called a seafood pancake, which was really good, and some potatoes and broccoli. Elizabeth's friend from home who goes to Notre Dame but is studying in Dublin met up with us also. Then we went back to the hostel to get ready for the night. Of course as soon as we step outside to find a pub, we realize its pouring rain and whipping wind. So, we get out the umbrellas and forage on. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that we were going to be hated on by every bouncer in Dublin.
Molly and fam were at a place called Messers MacGuire, so we went on a search for it. We had also been told by some nice people in our tour group that it was a fun place to go. After probably 15 minutes of asking for directions and having people either ignore us or ask us for money in exchange for directions, we found it. We went into the foyer, where there was no line and a practically empty bar inside, and the bouncer immediately told us that we would not be let in that night. His story was that he saw Meg throw a beer can in the garbage can outside the door before getting in the line. He then wrongfully assumed that we were drunk.
Well, we had a problem with that. We explained very nicely that the beer was an empty that Meg saw on the ground and had thrown away as an act of kindness (whether or not this was the actual truth is your own assumption to make). He insisted again that we were drunk, which we were not. We tried to be nice and tried to come up with ways to relate to him or prove that we were not drunk at all. Then we realized that he didn't want to let us in because we were American. So, I asked for the manager. When the short, nervous-looking man arrived, I explained that we had walked a long way in the rain to get to his bar. I said that we had been told it was a fun place and that ten of our friends were already inside. We said all we wanted was to know why we were not being admitted.
After the bouncer told his side of the story, the manager said that as long as we weren't drinking on his property, we were allowed to come in. Excellent. I have to say the mood was sort of killed, but whatever. We met up with everyone and had a drink, had some dances (requesting Born to Run) and then Meg, Dan, Liz and I wanted to head to another place that we had coupons for, since the pubs in Dublin are twice as expensive as Galway.
Again it was raining, again we got lost, again we were not given any help from anyone. Finally, we got into a cab and asked the driver to take us to CitiBar. He laughed and drove about half a block and stopped, charging us 7 euro. I was irritated, but what could we do. Two minutes later we walk up to the door at Citibar and the bouncer told us AGAIN that we weren't allowed in because we were drunk. AGAIN, all we had was one drink and let me tell you, even if I had had ten drinks before leaving the hostel, at this point I would have been sober based on how poorly we were being treated and my overwhelming desire to cry...
But, I held in my rage/tears and protested, telling him that he could ask us to do anything he wanted to prove we weren't drunk. I also told him that we were Americans and that it might just be our accents that made us sound drunk to him. He paused and then said that it was six euro for admission. We produced our coupons saying free admission. He told us that it was still going to be 6 euro. You have got to be kidding me! I swear to god it was because we were American, because later that night Molly and her crew went to the same pub looking to meet up with us and the guy tried to charge them too!
So, we stormed away in anger, finally got directions back to our hostel, and spent the rest of the stormy night in the pub under the hostel, making friends with the great people from Wales who were all in town for the 6 nations rugby match. I swear, I have never felt so discriminated against in my life. And that sounds so whiny and I understand that people live their lives like that everyday and what we were up against was petty in comparison, but it was still an upsetting situation.
And, if you haven't read anything that makes you think that the reason that we were being discriminated against was because we were American, take my word for it. The look in those bouncer's eyes were horrible! It was like they hated us and thought we were untrustworthy to come into their bar, like we were going to wreck it or something. I was truly upset. And I was TRULY sober.
Anyway, the night ended well at least, and the next morning we checked out of one hostel, walked across town to the other one, checked in, napped and then spent the rest of the day seeing the sights: Grafton Street, St. Stephen's Green, Marion Square, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, etc. We also stopped by the house in the city that the Notre Dame kids use as their home base, which used to be Daniel O'Connell's house. He's basically the George Washington of Dublin. We got pizza for dinner after meeting up with two of Dan and Elizabeth's friends from Georgetown, and then got the most delicious crepes I've ever had in Temple Bar.
After a long stop at the Guinness souvenir shop, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed, exhausted.
The next day everyone was staying to watch the Ireland/Wales rugby game and do the Guinness factory, but I took the train back early and hung out in Galway all day. Wales ended up winning, which I have to admit I was pleased about, simply to spite the stupid Dublin-ers who were mean to us.
To end, I have to say that this was my second visit to Dublin and it was the first time I'd ever been treated meanly. I don't think that all Dubliners hate Americans, I just think we had a bit of bad luck. I really like Dublin and I think its a great city. I am going back for St. Pat's day as well as with both my parents, and I'm still excited about it. It was just a let down that we went to pubs with bouncers who can't tell an American accent from a slurring drunk...
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