Feria de Abril

I've been excited about this week since we first arrived in Spain, and although I'd heard how great it was from so many people, I must admit I still wasn't exactly sure what to expect. For those of you who don't know, Feria de Abril is a week long festival in Sevilla where women wear flamenco dresses and everyone flocks to Los Remedios (a neighborhood in Sevilla) to celebrate for a week. I think Feria can best be described as a cross between New Years Eve, prom/Halloween, the state fair and a football tailgate.

Feria began on Monday night with the "alumbrado" or illumination of the portada (gate) of Feria at midnight (hence it felt very much like New Years Eve then). My friend Molly's senora let her invite some friends over to have Sangria and watch the alumbrado from her balcony. It was really nice to be able to go into someone's house for a change. Once midnight struck, her senora even broke out a bottle of champagne for all of us!

A group of us inside Molly's senora's house

Outside of the portada/gate after the alumbrado

Around 12:30 or so we all headed down towards the party. Feria is set up with hundreds on hundreds of private tents that families pay for and invite guests too (hence the tailgate aspect). Then past all the tents are tons of amusement park rides and carnival games (thus the state fair feel). The first night, we met up with some people and had no trouble getting into 2 different private tents. It seemed as though even there was a guard at the door checking names, if you just walked in like you knew what you were doing (or followed a group in), then you'd have no problems! Pretty sweet deal.

Rachel and me inside our first private tent

Gabi and me in the street between tents. I LOVE the little lanterns that light up the streets at night

Decoration inside the second private tent

The most exciting part of Feria is watching all the women dolled up in their flamenco dresses with huge flowers and jewelry (ie the prom/Halloween aspect) dancing the sevillano. After a while we all started trying to learn the dance, but it seemed to be a bit more complicated than we had anticipated. Nine times out of ten we just ended up stomping our feet randomly and flicking our wrists in the air with as much sass as we could.

On Tuesday we slept in until lunch and then headed over to see Feria during the day. There were tons of little girls and boys dressed up, and I spent most of my time trying to dodge the countless horse-drawn carriages in the streets.

There are tons of men riding around on horses. Lots of times you'll see women riding side saddle behind them in their flamenco dresses.

Side street during the day

Four horse drawn carriage. There are TONS of these!

Inside a public tent. Our friends Gabi and Priyanka got to borrow flamenco dresses from their senoras to wear.

On Wednesday, Pilar and Luis took Maria and Carmen to Feria. Little Luis, however, was apparently just too cool for Feria...which I guess makes since seeing as he is 13 and doesn't like dancing. Maria and Carmen looked absolutely adorable in their flamenco dresses! They danced around and did a photo shoot for us. Carmen is a handful, but she does look cute in pictures....although she has quite the attitude on her. The other day she told Colleen and me that we couldn't tell her what to do because we don't live here. Maria made her go apologize to us later. Colleen is convinced that she is the devil. I must say at times she gets to be too much. Plus, as a random side note, she still wears diapers when she sleeps. As Colleen puts it, if you're able to put on diapers by yourself, you probably shouldn't be wearing them anymore. The other day she was eating breakfast in the family room and told us she had gone to the bathroom last night. She then took off her diaper and spent the rest of the morning sitting on the couch naked. At times I think this family is far too comfortable with us. Especially after I just happened to see Luis (the 13 year old) walking around naked while my door was wide open. Having little siblings is an experience I don't think I was fully prepared for!

The girls in their matching dresses. Pilar made them last year and made her own this year too!

Whole family minus Luis

Carmen and me

Anyways, getting back to my week. On Wednesday, Colleen and I went to a Sevilla basketball game with Luis and 3 of his friends. Luis was so sweet to invite us and treated us as though he were our big brother. He defended our spanish speaking abilities to his friends, made sure we knew where our seats were and insisted we stay put once the game was over so he could come find us and we wouldn't get lost. At first the whole thing made Colleen and I a little uncomfortable and at first it did sort of feel like a double date, but Luis was so great about keeping us in the conversation on the walk over there that we really felt included. He is such a sweet kid! (even if he walks around without clothes on sometimes...). The game itself was actually pretty fun! The crowd was much more into it than I was expecting. I guess Spaniards just love any excuse to be loud. They ended up winning 60 to 55 or something like that.

Sevilla's team color is pink and Valencia's is purple. Only in Spain.

Wednesday night was particuarly cold in Sevilla so Colleen and I stayed in and watched the Hunger Games online. I haven't read the books yet, but the movie was pretty good. All in all with the basketball and movie watching, I felt like I was back in America for the day (minus all the women walking around in flamenco dresses outside).

I've spent the rest of the week sleeping in and staying out late at Feria. It really is something that is hard to explain to someone who has never seen it. Hopefully the pictures I posted will help give you a better idea.

Colleen and I finally went and got the 5 beer for 3 euro deal yesterday! Checked it off our "bucket list" if you will

Thought I'd leave you guys with this gem of a picture. No one was hurt in the process.

Oh! And although I still don't have class until Wednesday, I leave for London on Monday. It's my last trip with RyanAir so that is something to be excited about! I honestly cannot believe it is almost May. UNC just had their last day of classes, and in ten days we'll be getting summer students from UNC. Time is honestly going by far too quickly!

Bullfight in Sevilla

I knew that being here for 5 months meant I'd have to go to a bullfight at some point. I have friends that decided it was something they didn't want to see, but for me bullfighting is such a big part of the Spanish culture that I knew I'd have to see one before I left. So on Monday I headed over to the plaza de toros and prepared myself for what I was about to see.

Ryan, Marrisa and Me outside of the plaza de toros

View from the terrace behind our seats

We walked in and eventually found our seats. We had bought the cheapest seats which meant we were directly in the sun for most of the bullfight. But the Sevilla bullfighting ring feels so small that there really isn't a bad seat in the whole place. When the first bull came out, I must admit I was shocked. Not only was the actual bull much bigger than I had imagined, it had so much energy that it immediately started trying to attack the toreros. The men were incredible at back peddling and could quickly run and hide behind built in shelters to escape the bull. 

The poor bull :( The white things are swords that the toreros have stuck in

Group shot from our seats

Dragging the bull out

For each bullfight, there are 6 different bulls that get killed. Each bull is supposed to last about 20 or 25 minutes, but for this particular bullfight the president of the match decided two bulls were not fighting back enough and so they were retired and replaced with different bulls. This extended the entire ordeal for an extra half hour, and I ended up leaving after the 5th bull died. 

It at times was really hard for me to watch. I understand that these bulls are raised for this purpose and live like kings in open fields before they are subjected to the ring, but it's so hard to watch them suffer. The first bull you could tell was absolutely terrified. He kept pooping and peeing himself and running around essentially in circles trying to hit the men. No one was hurt (well except for the bulls) in this particular bullfight which I was thankful for. At one point a bull attacked a horse and did a 360 degree flip in mid air. For those of you who don't know there are 2 men on horses (called picadores) in the second part of the fight that antagonize the bull and stab it with long swords. The horses are blindfolded but covered in armor. In the first bullfights, the horses were unprotected and more horses ended up dying than bulls.

You can see the bull picking up the horse if you look closely

I don't want to give the impression that I wish I hated the bullfight. For me, I tried to look at is as a cultural experience. But, that said, I don't think I'll be going to anymore bullfights anytime soon.

After the bullfight I went home for dinner and then Colleen and I went over to a friend's house for the start of Feria! I'll do a separate post a little later for that. I have the whole week off for Feria and no classes next Monday or Tuesday either. Needless to say, this is going to be a great week! Life is good.

Maria's Birthday and a Sevilla futbol game

I guess it's no secret by now that Maria is my favorite Spanish sibling. Not only is she the one person Colleen and I turn to when we have a spanish question, she's also just one of the most generous 10 year olds I've ever met (well, at least she is to us). She'll always offer us more food at dinner and often times will come into our room offering us chocolate. One time she even came in just to give us the last chips ahoy cookie. And on top of all of that she is constantly keeping a watchful eye over Carmen and gets her to leave our room when she's starting to act out. Anyways, I was pretty excited to celebrate her birthday with her this past Tuesday.

When she got home from school, Colleen and I both greeted her with a FELIZ CUMPLE! We then lentils for lunch--Maria's choice. Pilar let Maria blow out her candles and eat her cake at lunch. After singing we all dug into the delicious cake Pilar had made. It was a bunch of cookies stacked up with dulce de leche and cream in between. After lunch Maria showed us some of the presents her parents had given her. Her mom gave her a few new shirts and a new pair of shirts while her dad gave her some new colored pencils. Like I said with Luis's birthday, I don't think birthdays are a very big thing here...or at least not in this house. Maria then gave us each a goodie bag that she had given to the kids at school for her birthday.

Maria with her cake at lunch

For dinner, Maria chose to have baked onions and baked potatoes...neither of which we'd ever had here but apparently its her favorite. Luis walked Colleen and I through how to eat a baked potato (even though we explained we had them in the US). Here they only use butter, salt and oil...no sour cream. After dinner Maria wanted everyone to sing to her again before eating cake since her dad wasn't home at lunch. I'm not exactly sure what reason he gave, but papa Luis refused to come sing and told Maria to hurry up and eat. She looked disappointed, and I must admit my heart broke for her a little bit. After she finished eating, Colleen and I took her to our room to give her her present.

We had thought long and hard about what to give her. For Luis skittles was an easy solution, but since then our siblings have gotten so many skittles (from both Colleen’s mom in a package and HUGE bags from my parents when they visited). So after shopping around the 7 story Corte Ingles, we finally decided on a beaded jewelry making kit. Maria said it was her favorite present she had gotten (although I don’t think we had much competition) and insisted on making us each a bracelet. 

Her present

Matching sister bracelets!

On Thursday, Colleen and I both took advantage of one of the last opportunities we were going to have to see a Sevilla futbol game. We ended up winning 3-0, but the game itself wasn’t nearly entertaining as the crowd. The fans sang out songs the entire game that left us wishing we had asked Luis to teach us some before we went.

From our seats after the game

On the lower level

Colleen has gone off to Madrid for the weekend to meet up with her Mom which means I’ll have the whole family to myself this weekend and this week. Already things are very different. Carmen spent most of the night yesterday playing Sudoku (aka pressing buttons) on my itouch. Then at dinner, Pilar played the Killers and said she really liked them. Who knew. Then she put on flamenco music and tried to get Carmen and Maria to teach me the basic steps for Feria. Slightly awkward to say the least. Today I’ve played school with Maria and Carmen (I was Carmen’s mom) and then made bracelets with them. Looks like I won’t be getting my papers done this weekend, but at least I’ll be entertained!

Last stop: Heidelberg, Germany

I must say that of all three cities we were planning on visiting, I think I was looking forward to Heidelberg the least. That's not to say that I wasn't looking forward to it or anything. I guess I just never really thought of Germany as a country with pretty cities....but much to my surprise I fell in LOVE with Heidelberg.

We left Amsterdam and took 3 different trains to get to Heidelberg. I had hoped to see fields of tulips on this train ride, but unfortunately we mostly just saw rural, green areas. I sat next to a family from Holland with a 7 month old baby girl. The mom was Hungarian and the dad was Dutch. They had met in England while doing philanthropic work and therefore also knew English. They spoke all three languages to the baby, hoping she'd grow up trilingual. If there is one thing I'd like for America to adapt from Europe, it would have to be their insistence on learning multiple languages from a young age. I must admit that I am quite jealous of all these people I have met that know upwards of 3 or 4 languages.

When we got off the bus at our hostel, I knew right away we were going to love it. It was decorated to perfection with bathrooms nicer than mine in the US. The kitchen was fully stocked and we were allowed to get coffee, tea, or cereal whenever we wanted. We truly felt right at home there.

After a quick but luxurious shower (especially compared to the ones in Amsterdam), we walked down the longest uninterrupted pedestrian street in Europe (or at least that's what someone told us). Mostly it was a bunch of shops and cafes, but oddly enough they also had a Build-A-Bear Workshop. It's always interesting to see what makes it way over from America. We eventually found our way to the grocery store and spent most of our time just gawking at the cheap prices.....

....yes you are reading this correctly. 33 cent beer. Granted the bottles were plastic but it tasted pretty good! Plus the wine there was as cheap as it is in Spain. Needless to say I think I'll be coming back to Germany...although big cities like Berlin and Munich are pretty expensive. I wouldn't mind going back to Heidelberg though!

After making our version of the German dish wiener schnitzel with some of our cheap wine and beer, we decided to go to Heidelberg's version of Franklin Street. It wasn't nearly as big as Franklin of course, but it was still pretty cool. We had to go back to get Gabi and Rachel's IDs though because they wanted them to prove they were 18 (something that hasn't ever happened to us in Spain). Luckily our hostel had a great location and was only about a 5 minute walk away. While we were in one of the bars on the street, a guy told us that it was the best bar in Heidelberg because it played "hard rock". Well I'm not sure what hard rock means to you guys, but to us this could not have been further from "hard" rock. We all sang and danced to "Hit the Road Jack" and various songs by Sum 41 and Linkin Park. Overall it was highly entertaining to see what these German students listened to. We also met a guy who told us he loved watching The Big Bang Theory. Interesting people in Heidelberg!

On Friday, Colleen and I woke up long before Rachel and Gabi did so we decided to make the most of our morning. We ventured up to the Heidelberg castle and explored that area for a while. It was absolutely beautiful and free to walk around (any Barber's favorite price!)

View of the castle at night from the square by our hostel

At the castle

Better view of the whole thing

After eating a quick lunch at the house, Colleen and I went back out to meet up with Gabi and Rachel. We found them talking to a Korean man who was visiting Heidelberg. To say he knew English would be far too generous of a statement. He apparently had never seen someone as tall as me and insisted we take a picture together. So awkward, but the pictures are hilarious. He then wanted a picture with all 4 of us and insisted he hold mine and Colleen's hand. His name was Son Dong Rak (which he had to write down for us to understand) and he insisted on getting Colleen's email. We'll see if he ever writes her!

Wasn't sure why he was trying to touch me...

Notice he's on his tippy toes

After our comical interaction with Son Dong, we headed towards the Philosopher's Way to take scenic views of Heidelberg. The trek up there was about as vertical as physically possible, but it was worth it for the view.

Prettiest flowers I saw

Bridge to get to the Philosopher's Way

View from half way up the Philosopher's Way. If it hadn't been so cloudy the view would have been even better.

We spent the rest of the day strolling around the city. I finally satisfied my week long craving for a milkshake…although it had nothing on Steak ‘n Shake if you ask me. We made some delicious spaghetti with spinach for dinner to complete a perfect day!

In the morning, we were on a tight schedule to get to our flight on time. Ryan Air flies into what they call the Dusseldorf Airport in Germany, but they try and hide the fact that it’s really 70 km away from Dusseldorf in a town called Weeze. We had purchased a “Happy Weekend Ticket” which was supposed to be good for unlimited travel on regional trains for up to 5 people (for only 40 euro, we considered it to be a steal). The only part we forgot to really consider is just how inconvenient it is to travel only using regional trains. The originally itinerary we figured out had us taking 5 different trains and 2 buses with a 7.5 hour travel time. Well we woke up at 6 to catch a 6:45 bus but ended up missing that bus by a matter of minutes. I must admit I started to worry we were going to start having a stream of bad luck (it just seemed doomed to catch up with us at some point). When we got to the train station, I immediately found the information desk to ask the lady to help us figure out a new plan. She spoke no English and was incredibly unhelpful. Luckily, I found another woman who spoke some English and printed out a new itinerary for us. This itinerary had us taking 2 high speed trains which would cost us an additional 70 euros a person to purchase. So we were faced with a decision, pay the 70 euros for a ticket or just hop on the train and hope no one checked for tickets. Being the poor college students that we are, we chose the latter.

The first train we rode illegally was only a 30 minute trip. I kept a watchful eye out for the guy coming to check tickets, and when I saw him I told Colleen and we went and hid in the bathroom for 10 minutes or so. Rachel pretended to be asleep and he didn't wake her up. Gabi just told him her friend had the tickets in the bathroom and he said alright and moved on. One train down. One to go. Only this one was for an hour long with a stop in between. We were all spaced out in the car, and when I saw him coming I immediately got up and went to the bathroom. After a few minutes in there, I decided it might just be best to spend the rest of the trip in the cafe with a coffee. So I nervously waited, pretending to read Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls I had gotten at our hostel. The hour crawled by and when we only had about 15 minutes left, Colleen came into the cafe and told me that the guy knew something was up. He had asked both Gabi and Rachel twice for their tickets and they had both told him their friend had it in the bathroom. Apparently he then went around knocking on every bathroom door insisting the people come out to see if it was me or Colleen. He finally tracked us down in the cafe. I stayed calm and told him our tickets were in my seat, but that I'd be happy to show them to him. I walked back to my seat and got out the ticket. He looked at it and clearly had never seen it before. He then argued, "This is only for one person." To which I showed him the part on the ticket in German where it said it was good for up to 5 people. He then stared at the ticket, completely dumbfounded. I told him the lady had printed the itinerary for us and didn't really speak much English. I honestly think he didn't believe I existed and that Gabi and Rachel were making up a friend named Maggie who had their tickets. After a few minutes typing something into his cellphone, he scanned the ticket and told me not to go to the cafe without giving the tickets to my friends. I'm not sure how we managed to have such good luck on this trip. It might have been the 4 Buddha's bellies we rubbed in the bookstore before taking the second train illegally or it maybe it was just good planning and great convincing abilities. But whatever the reason, we eventually made it to the airport, 5 trains and 2 buses later.

Yesterday was of course Easter Sunday, and all four of us decided that after train hoping we probably could stand to go to church. We went to mass at the cathedral, and I took communion (even though I'm not Catholic). We went out for some cervezas too to get the full experience of going to a Spanish church.

In our makeshift Easter outfits outside of the cathedral

I was looking over a list I made the first week I was here of places I wanted to travel to while I was abroad. I’m proud to say that by the end of it, I will have gone to all of the places on my list and more. I recently booked a trip to London with some girls and I still have plans to go to Lagos, Portugal for my birthday in May. It’s amazing that I’ve had this opportunity, and I have to remind myself every day I am here not to take it for granted.

Adventures in Amsterdam

Getting from Dublin to Amsterdam was much more enjoyable than my other trips...primarily because we didn't have to fly RyanAir for once. We were actually assigned seats on our AerLingus flight, although we still weren't offered complimentary water or sodas....guess I'll have to wait for my flight back to America for that! When we got to Amsterdam, we had to take a short train ride to the city center. We had a hard time figuring out the ticket kiosks and went to the information desk for help. Turns out there is a 50 cent charge for buying the tickets from a person instead of from the kiosks. When the nice man told us about this, we all looked at each other ready to head back to the kiosks and try again. We were lucky yet again though when he laughed at us and said he would  remove the charge for us. Yet another example of how we are cheap college students!

The first night we had to stay in 2 separate hostels because one was completely full. When Colleen and I went to check into our hostel, we were told to put our bags into a broom closet. This ironically happened to us again the next day in "Bob's Youth Hostel" where we yet again had to throw our belongings into a Harry-Potter like closet under the stairs. The hostels were about what you would expect in Amsterdam. I saw one too many rats for my liking in the lobby of Bob's and the man sleeping a foot away from me in the first hostel must have been about 40 years old with the loudest whopping cough I've ever heard. He snored so loud I couldn't sleep all night. Colleen had problems too and apparently tried to tug his comforter to wake him up--to which the snoring would stop temporarily only to be replaced by a painful sounding animal roar. I'm convinced the reason I now have a cold is because of this man. But, alas we did not go to Amsterdam to hang out in our hostel!

Putting my bags under the stairs...

First touristy thing we did was tour the Anne Frank house. Amsterdam didn't have any student prices, but Colleen and I were willing to pay the 10 euros to see the Anne Frank house. It was very interesting but all the more depressing to see in person. It's hard to really wrap your head around the fact that they hid there for almost 4 years. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures so you guys will just have to imagine it or visit it on your own!

After that Colleen and I went to the red light district. It truly was unlike anything I've ever seen. The women rent out a window with a door handle on it for hour long intervals. When a guy is interested, he'll walk up and she'll open the door and they'll discuss prices. We saw a few too many men accept the prostitutes offers. Once again I was afraid to take pictures of them...it's considered really rude and if they see you they will come out and smash your camera to the ground (this happened to Colleen's friend...). But I will say that the prostitutes during the daytime were MUCH less attractive than the ones at night. We went back to the red light district at night on Thursday and the women there were actually really good looking (if you ignored the fact that they were essentially naked). 

On Wednesday, Colleen and I attempted to find this free canal boat tour we had read about on the internet. We didn't have much luck, however, and instead decided to just ride the ferry back and forth across the river. The amount of bikes in Amsterdam is something I don't think I'll ever forget. It seemed like there were more bicyclists than pedestrians. The ferry was filled with bikers, but we acted like tourists and took pictures the whole time.

Parking deck for bikes

On the ferry!

After the boat tour, we went to the IAmsterdam sign to take pictures. Although the weather wasn't very good at all, we still got some good pictures in!

Full sign

M for Maggie!

Overall, I really loved Amsterdam. It was just so beautiful the way the canals are set up throughout the city. I wish we could have gone on a canal boat, but I'll just have to do that next time I go!

At one of the many canals

On Thursday, we were off yet again to Germany! I'll try and blog about that today too if I have time!

Dublin

I've decided it will be easiest to divided my week long trip to 3 different countries into three different blogposts. Not sure when I'll get around to doing them all, but hopefully I'll have them all finished by this week!

Dublin was the first part of our trip, and I can't tell you how nice it was to go to a country where English is everyone's first language (although, thinking back on it, we have yet to go to a country where we had a hard time finding people who speak English). I was surprised by how difficult it was to understand Irish people though. Their accents are incredibly thick and they have a million little colloquialisms I had never heard of.

When we arrived in Dublin on Saturday afternoon, we took the city bus (which just so happened to be a double decker bus) to our hostel. In comparison to Italy, I really feel like Colleen and I did a fantastic job in planning everything out. Considering that we went to 3 different countries and had no serious problems in getting around, I was impressed. I had researched all the information about how to get from the airports to hostels and to train stations so we never had to spend more than 2 euros on transportation. Then together we had made a basic outline of what to do in each city on each day (which was necessary since we only had 2 or 3 days in each city). I don't mean to toot my own horn here or anything, I just feel proud of myself. You never really realize how much planning goes into travelling, but I feel as though I've gotten a really good handle on things. Add that to the list of things I'm learning over here!

Anyways we spent our first day in Dublin settling in. We went to the grocery store to stock up on food to save money by cooking our own meals and did some shopping around O'Connell Street. The four of us then cooked some delicious gnocchi and brocolli salad while enjoying some wine. 

Dinner the first night

With full stomachs, we went out in search of good drink prices. As it turns out, although the Irish drink a lot, Dublin’s prices on beer are pretty steep. We were told by a local that 5 euros is the average price of a pint, and anything less than that is a good deal. So when we saw that the hotel bar next door had pints for 3.50 we couldn’t resist…little did we know we would be the only people in the bar. The bartender was super friendly though and suggested a beer called “Smithwicks” for us. Now I don’t know much about good beers, but this one is one of the best I had ever had. Apparently they sell it in the US, so if you see it, I highly recommend! Our friendly bartender, Mossy, gave us a tour of his bar and insisted we take pictures sitting at every table in the place. It was hilarious! It turns out it was his birthday and he ended up giving us a free drink on him. 

One of the 20 pictures he took of us in the bar

Our bartender friend, "Mossy"

From there we went to the famous Temple Bar area and went into the bar called Temple Bar. We were told by one guy at the door that we had to be 21 to come in. Not sure why that was the rule, but we just went to the next door and got right in. There was live music and an overall great environment. After spending a while bar hopping in the area, we went to what we were told was a “proper” night club with some locals. This is perhaps my only regret of the entire trip because Colleen and I got sucked into paying a 10 euro cover not wanting to look cheap. Then when we got into the “proper” club, it was nothing special. Plus drinks were 6 euros or more. So we just decided to cut our loses and head back home. We got a little lost (of course) but found some friendly Dubliners who told us we were very far away (which to them is a 20 minute walk) and that we should either take a taxi or prepare ourselves for a long hike home. Well of course we weren’t going to take a taxi, but we did prepare ourselves by stopping and getting some cheeseburgers halfway through. Overall, a very good night. I just wish I had had my ten euros for some fries too!

The next day we did almost all the touristy things to do in Dublin. We walked first around Trinity College. I must say I was quite envious of the green quads and it made me miss good ole Chapel Hill. Sevilla is beautiful, but I often find myself missing UNC’s campus. After that we walked around the Temple Bar area in the daylight and then headed over to the Dublin Castle. I must say, though, that I was thoroughly unimpressed with Dublin’s Castle. It was nothing special. At all. From there we walked over to the Guinness Storehouse and did the self guided tour. I’m not sure whether or not this is common knowledge, but I had never realized that the “Guinness Book of World Records” is the same Guinness. Apparently the book was started to settle pub disputes. The tour itself was very cool and the storehouse is enormous (7 stories total). At the end you get to sit on at a bar and enjoy a 360 degree view of Dublin with a free pint of Guinness. I must admit though that I really don’t think I like Guinness. It’s so filling that I couldn’t imagine drinking more than one pint in one sitting.

Trinity College

Trinity College. So green, right?

The anticlimactic Dublin Castle

Outside the Guinness Storehouse!

After eating our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we had brought from home (which were absolutely delicious—who knew I’d miss PB&Js of all things?), we headed over to the Kilmainham Gaol, a no longer used jail. The tour was only supposed to be 2 euros so naturally we were interested. When we got there though, the man at the door said all tickets were sold out for the day. I felt very much like Dorothy when she gets to the Wizard of Oz and is told to go away. We had walked to the very edge of the map and refused to be turned down after coming all that way. So with a little convincing and four very sad faces, the man changed his mind and let us join. Jails to me are always interesting in a creepy sort of way. The history behind this particular jail was quite interesting, but I won’t bore you with tons of facts.

In one of the yards at Kilmainham Gaol

After our tour, we were exhausted and all agreed that taking a bus back to the hostel was a great idea. Once there, we made some chicken stir fry and fell into a blissful food coma….only to be disturbed by a late night run to the grocery store for ice cream and chocolates.

On Monday, we took a day trip to a fishing village called Howth. It was only about 25 minutes away by train and the train fare cost less than 5 euro. I must admit that I think this trip was probably my favorite part of Ireland. Everything was green. It was exactly what I picture in my head when I think of Ireland.  We spent the whole day hiking around the summit and enjoyed a nice picnic in the city. While hiking up the summit, we made a canine friend who I named Toto...since he looked like Toto from the Wizard of Oz (2nd Wizard of Oz reference in one blogpost!). He lead us up the entire way and would even stop and wait for us when we took pictures. He was quite the companion!

Group shot at on the summit

Loved the sailboats!

On the way up the summit!

Our guide dog, Toto

Even though we got rained on a little bit, it was still a fantastic day. We all enjoyed a sweet at an Irish coffee shop before going out for dinner (the only time we ate out in Ireland). The little restaurant we ate at had some of the freshest and most delicious seafood I’ve ever had. We split two platters of calamari, crayfish, fish cakes and smoked salmon. Absolutely delicious!

We went back to Dublin after that and had a nice relaxing night in the hostel. To top it all off, Gabi and Rachel were in the kitchen when a family threw out half a pizza. The pizza was still in the box (had never touched the actual trash), so when the family went back upstairs, Gabi and Rachel jumped on it. Pizza out of the trashcan had never tasted so good! We went to bed pretty early to wake up in time for our flight to Amsterdam. More on that to come!