BARCA!

Wednesday, 3.19.2014:

Although I was technically in my bed and my eyes were closed sleep didn't really happen. I was too concerned that I would sleep through my alarm and would miss my flight to Barcelona. At 3:45 in the morning I woke up and showered and packed away my last minute things so that Catie and I could leave to catch our flight. Hailing a cab and getting to the airport went flawlessly, but when we were at the airport our nerves were heightened because we saw how busy the airport was. It was packed with everyone who was there for St Patrick's Day. Some people were still wearing hats and green. This elicited a couple of eye rolls from me. On top of a ton of people being there Catie and I both had difficulty trying to get our boarding passes. After struggling for a while we asked someone to help us. Being a typical nice Irish person he went and got our boarding passes for us without making us waiting in the exponentially growing line. Have I ever said how much I love the Irish? With boarding passes in hand we breezed through security and met up with Wendy at the gate. We boarded our flights and then proceeded to pass out on the flight since all of us were exhausted from lack of sleep. Once we landed we followed the directions given by Hostelword to take the bus and then walk a little towards the hostel. I've been really happy that we have gotten more efficient about getting to our hostel in a timely manner. We checked in and dropped off our bags and went out in search of food. We stopped at this one place because it had Paella and I have been dying to try it. Unfortunately this restaurant choice was a really bad one. My paella wasn't very good and it reminded me of the meal I got sick on when I lived in Panama. My stomach was a little qweezy the rest of the day. The only thing that made my food a little bearable was the beer I had with it. After our food was stomached (I don't think any other verb would work for this meal) we headed over to Las Ramblas. This is one big street where you can buy any touristy thing your heart desired. I had pictured in my mind more of an open air market so I was a little disappointed as we strolled along. One really cool part was the food market off the side of the La Rambla. All of the food look incredibly delicious and fresh. I knew I wanted to return at some point to get some food front there. We walked the whole length of the street towards the harbor. The Harbor reminded me of being in Florida. For about 10 minutes I forgot I was in a foreign country. We strolled along the bridge for a bit, we then decided we wanted to go on the boat tour we saw advertised. By boat tour they really meant a short trip through the harbor - not very scenic. We had an opportunity to take a look at the cruise ships and fishing boats... 

I was able to snap a couple good ones: 

 After the tour we decided that were so exhausted that we weren't going to be able to enjoy anything else until we napped a bit. We returned to the hostel and caught a cat nap. Before I slept I decided to do a little research about what to do in the city. When we woke up from our naps we decided to go see the magic Fountain across town. And of course when we get to the magic fountain, we find out that it wasn't working currently. It fit right in with the running joke this semester: "nothing works here." After this disappointment hunger set in and we returned to the center of the city to find some food. We settled on this little restaurant. Along with our croquettes and nachos we got free wine. Spanish wine is like a glass of heaven in comparison to the grape-juice like liquid we drink back in Dublin. After this delicious meal we walked back to the hostel and got ready for the pub crawl that was organized by the hostel. Pub crawl is a very very loose term because there were only 6 of us there. The three of us, a guy cousin pair and then some random lady. The three of us chatted with the two guys that were cousins but we could never really get either of their stories correct since it seemed to keep changing ever so slightly. The first place we went to was a shot bar near the beach. This was probably our favorite place since there was a whole wall of shots to choose from:

Also the kicker was....the shots were only 2 euro! We each bought a round. We first got the Princesa which basically tasted like a strawberry daiquiri. We then asked the bartender what his favorite one with fire was and he showed us this one with oranges. FYI we were given no warning when he lit everything on fire. We then asked him which shot was the most unique. This one also involved fire but it wasn't nearly as good as the orange one. Since we bought three shots the bartender decided to give us one for free. This one was called the Barcelona since it mixed a blue and red liquor so that it looked like the Barca futbol team jerseys. We then worked our way to the second pub. This was a very grunge pub. If Green Day and Blink 182 decided to by a pub together this would be the result. We decided to get just one drink here, I choose a Corona. We ended up getting a free shot at this place. Guess it wasn't all horrible there. After about 25 minutes there we went to the third and last place. This pub wasn't as bad as the middle one but the bartenders were very pushy. They kept coming up to us to get us to order something. Eventually we decided we had had enough and left. The other people on the "crawl" decided to leave with us. We all walked home together. I ended up having a great conversation with one of the boys in the cousin pair. When back at the hostel Catie, Wendy and I slipped up stairs and into our covers to call it a night.

Cheers,

Jenny

Wake Up, Work

Tuesday, 3.18.2014: 

Here's how this day went:

Woke up. 

Worked on paper.

Ate lunch and watched a little TV.

Worked on project. 

Did laundry. 

Went back to project. 

Finished project. 

Ate dinner and watched a little more TV. 

Worked on paper. 

Packed. 

Worked on paper. 

Slept.

Not a fun day.

Cheers,
Jenny

An Irish St. Patrick's Day

Monday, 3.17.2014:

Woooo hoooo St Patrick's Day in Dublin! Did I start off my day drinking like all the other Americans in the entire city? Nope, I wrote emails and started my online project - my Irish ancestors would be shaking their heads if the knew. Eventually I got read,y and Becca, Catie and I walked over to Fortesque to meet up with everyone in order to walk over to the parade together. Since we ended up taking a while to get ready we missed everyone. We talked with all the Wisconsin kids that were visiting Dublin for a bit and sipped at our beers before deciding to head over to the parade. I don't think I can put the parade into words. It was easily one of the weirdest specticals I have ever seen. It was a parade of all types of oddities. Here are some pictures. If you are confused while looking through them then you'll understand how felt when I was watching it firsthand.

The best part of the parade was seeing the U of I marching band! They were awesome, and even though I am biased I would say they were the best part of the parade. Take a gander:

After the parade Becca, Catie and I strolled over to the Ginger Man, a local pub, to get some food and a pint. The food was delicious and the atmosphere wasn't crazy loud with tourists which the three of us were grateful for. Once every drop of our pints was finished we walked back home to drop off our leftovers and put on some temporary shamrock tattoos before heading over to the boys place. We matched any other tourist in the entire city. This is a feeling I'm not to fond of in my own city. At Fortesque, we all played a game were the "DJ" would play a song and everyone would try and guess it within the first couple of seconds. I surprisingly did very well at this game. For anyone that really knows me, I am horrible with naming song titles, bands, and albums so this was quite an accomplishment for me. After playing countless rounds of this, a bunch of us went to get some Chinese food. The food was okay, it didn't really compare to the Chinese tradition my dad and I hold back in St. Louis. (By the way Dad, we have to go to the buffet when I get back!) Once everyone was  finished with their food we checked out both Whelans and Flannerys. You would think these popular pubs would be bumping and packed on St Patrick's Day, right? You would be wrong. Maybe it was because it was kinda early in the night or maybe it's because the locals don't really celebrate it like we think they do, but regardless it was a little bit of a let down. After both pubs, I decided to call it a night. I walked all the way home and crawled into my warm bed.

Cheers,
Jenny