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...