mother-daughter pub crawl

Day 31 (Day 1 for mom) - Mom's plane touched down in Ireland at 6:55 am.

i rolled out of bed and cabbed it to Dublin Citi Hotel, just outside of Temple Bar, to meet up with her.

we couldn't check in yet/go back to sleep, so we dropped our bags and i took mom for a walk around Dublin.

it was kind of a nice introduction to City Centre for her because it was early Sunday morning, and the place was a ghost town.

after seeing a lot of the sights, we stopped at lemon for a breakfast crepe.

mom was only half awake, but i dragged her to Jameson to tour the old distillery (partially because that was the only thing open on Sunday morning)

i learned how Jameson whiskey, the best whiskey in the world, is made.

i've learned about it before in the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Museum, but as they told us several times throughout the tour, there is nothing quite like Jameson.

i volunteered to be a taster (it was a really hard job)

we compared Jack Daniels, Jameson and Scotch

i really did like the Jameson the best. it's really smooth. (which is because they distill it 3 times - i'm an expert now)

to her credit, mom only fell asleep once during the tour. BUT she was exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel.

we checked in and got settled. while she napped, i went out and picked up some take away for us.

i had my favorite Indian food one more time - i'll miss you, Indian Curry Club - and grabbed some lamb stew from nude for mom.

some sleep and some food, then i took her back out into the city. i took her to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church (where Garbhán had taken us on the tour) and then to hang out in St. Stephen's Green for a while.

after a loooong day, it was time for the MOTHER DAUGHTER PUB CRAWL!

Hillary, Robin, Tracie and i all had our mothers in town to travel after the trip, so we decided to bring them out to party haha

even Mr.&Mrs. B.Love came out with us!

the crew in the Temple Bar---------------->

we made it to three bars...

we had Guinness at Temple Bar,

we went upstairs at Gogarty's for some traditional Irish music and some Jameson & Coke,

and then to The Porter House for Strawberry Beer and live music.

here is a clip of the famous Andrew Mann singing Galway Girl

we left The Porter House when the music was over and headed to Citi Bar (the bar on the ground floor of the hotel mom and i were staying in)

we stayed there until they literally closed the bar and kicked us out.

we all had so much fun. it was one of my favorite nights in Dublin for sure :)

i love air conditioning

Day 30 - on Saturday morning, i packed up my room in Roebuck Hall.

goodbye, crazy little community. goodbye, Ikea catalogue.

Hillary and i went and dropped our things at our new temporary home, The Ashling Hotel, before hitting the Temple Bar Food Market (or the Farmer's Market).

we met up with those remaining from our group. i had a crepe, a blueberry scone and a smoothie. last Saturday morning in Dublin, so i had to make it count :)

after stuffing our faces, we walked around Dublin for a while, just enjoying the city.

i will miss you, random Grafton Street performers.

we stumbled upon another Saturday street market where we made friends with a craic dealer.

thought seriously about buying these shirts, but they were 25 euro.

this guy was pretty cool though. he plays in an Irish band that had toured in the US. he's played in some sweet places on 6th street!

and he gave us some recommendations for where we should hang out that night.

anyway, Hillary and i were tired still so we went back to the hotel, cranked the air conditioning and passed out. best nap i've had in four weeks.

then took the best shower i've had in four weeks. (i will not miss you, Roebuck Hall toilet/sink/shower combination bathroom)

once clean and rested, Hill and i met with with B.Love & friends and the rest of the girls still in town at Sinnotts to watch the USA world cup game.

good thing there was beer, cause the game sucked. i don't want to talk about it.

before going out to drown our sorrows, we went with Cindy to get some of her stuff from Robin's Nest - the hottest new hostel in Ireland.

it was Gay Pride Parade/Celebration weekend in Dublin (i think it was a worldwide celebration, actually) so the streets were nuts!

we walked around George's Street for a while, had a few pints at Globe bar (off the craic dealer's recommendation) and then called it a night.

it was something unpredictable, but in the end it was right...

....we DEFINITELY had the time of our lives.

Day 29 – Friday was the last day of Ireland Maymester 2010.

people say this a lot, but I really can not believe how quickly this past month went by. lyrics from every cheesy “goodbye” or “ending” song ran through my head all day

(‘Closing Time’ was a close 2nd for the title of this blog post)

deep breath – okay. Friday morning we woke up early, finished the project and sent it off to B.Love. talk about a weight off of your chest, so glad to have it finished.

after some half-hearted packing, we went to The Sugar Club to watch Brazil v. Portugal.

every Brazilian in Ireland was at the Sugar Club. it made the game that much more exciting – plus, there was really good Brazilian food that someone was selling. yum.

naturally, some light day drinking ensued, which had to be followed by a nap.

that night we had our Goodbye Dinner (didn’t we JUST have the welcome dinner??)

the whole group went out to the Arlington Hotel on Dame Street. we had a 3 course meal, listened to an Irish folk band and watched traditional Irish dancing.

the dancers were brilliant. a few of them tour with Riverdance.

the musicians were hilarious. they sang some great Irish drinking songs and took requests from the audience.

our table had quite a few requests, all dedicated to B.Love, of course.

the band couldn’t get enough of our antics. they picked on B.Love quite a bit and essentially we became a part of the show (that tended to happen to us when we were out in our group of 14 loud Texas girls + Sly)

and i know you want to see pictures of the food, so...

goat cheese salad with sundried tomatoes and apples and nuts...

(i'm really going to miss having goat cheese on everything)

The Arlington Hotel's famous Guinness Stew (at least that's what it was called on the menu, ha)

and chocolate mousse for dessert.

the salad was by far the best part! ha

after dinner, the show and some after-show music at the bar with the band, the group moved to The Porterhouse for a pint (w/B.Love!).

 those with early flights left from there...and the group dwindled down slowly.

some of us went to Fitzsimons - where Steph and i had silly tequila shots.

slice of lemon and a packet of salt? i guess that works.

then more people went home...

the plan was to go all night, but after 3 days straight of project work, we were super tired.

back to Roebuck Hall for the last time...

couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the incredible journey that was this program.

the whole experience was one of the best of my life. I’ll never forget the time I spent in this incredible city or the strangers that became my friends.

I learned so much about PR, about this country, about these people and about myself.

a part of my heart will always belong to Dublin City <3

how much do you love freedom?

Day 27 & 28 – on Wednesday and Thursday we worked on our final project. ALL day.

nothing very exciting to report there. these days consisted of compiling our paper (thank you, Google Docs), listening to music, eating junk food and doing laundry.

BUT on Wed night, we may have taken just a little break to go to Dicey's

Love these girls…

after several 2.50 euro Jagerbombs and lots of dancing, Hillary and I went to get some pizza with Brian (her Irish boy :) )

isn’t he cute? lol

that brief night of fun was essential to project productivity.

the land of saints and scholars...

Day 26 - Tuesday was just the right mix of school work and play.

we met B.Love at Powerscourt to hammer out some final project details and talk about our current status.

i’ve never known anyone better at giving completely nondescript answers to very direct questions (which was all by design, of course, as he teaches us to “think like professionals”)

after our meeting, some of our group grabbed take-away lunch and ate in St. Stephen’s Green.

i FINALLY found the Indian food I’ve been searching for. it was (not super expensive) Koma curry and it was delicious!

after lunch, we went back to get changed for our 3rd office visit, to take place that afternoon. we met with Wilson Hartnell PR, a section of Ogilvy.

it’s a very large, successful company and was one of the pioneers of the PR business in Ireland.

one of the executives sat down with us, told us about his career and talked with us about the current state of media and the PR business in Ireland.

it was interesting, though this guy could rival our Galway tour bus driver for the ability to speak in a monotone voice with out taking a breath for hours.

after the visit, we dispersed for a quick dinner. Hillary, Tracie and I went to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. speaking of which, Irish beef is SO good.

to top off the day, B.Love squeezed just a bit more history and culture into our trip. we met up with everyone's favorite tour guide, Garbhán.

the coffee shop that we started the tour in, The Bald Barista, was fantastic!

<--written at the top of my Mocha in chocolate!

first stop of the tour was the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church to see the statue of Our Lady of Dublin held in a shrine there since 1915.

the whole story behind the statue is pretty incredible. little tidbit – at one point, the back of it was carved out and it was used as a pig trough on a farm to keep it safe from the British.

after leaving that church we headed towards St. Patrick’s Cathedral, stopping to look at little things on the way. for instance, check out this residential building.

<- Garbhán haha

it has scenes from Gulliver’s Travels carved into it

close up ----------->

upon arrival at St. Patrick's, we admired the incredible cathedral, walked around the gardens (where St. Patrick baptized the Irish), listened to the afternoon bells, and settled into the grass so that Garbhán could tell us old Irish stories.

lounging in the gardens ->

the stories were really interesting and entertaining. they continued when we moved over to Christ Church Cathedral. want to hear a story/song?

the rest of the tour was filled with more stops and more stories.

POP QUIZ – how many people/bands can you name from the Wall of Fame in Temple Bar??

(don't cheat!)

once we were finished with the academic part of the day, Garbhán joined us for a pint….or two…at a pub off of O’Connell Street.

they have their own house beers. each of us got a tray that had a sample of all 5 of them.

maybe not fun for the bartender, but certainly fun for us.

after a day/night like this, it only makes sense for Garbhán to come back to the dorm and watch movies with us. that’s not weird, right? haha

just another brilliant night at Roebuck Hall.

and all the roads we have to walk are winding..

Day 25- on Monday morning it was time to get down to business.

my group went to St. Stephen's Green to interview people in our target audience. we talked to about 10 people, which was pretty successful.

we celebrated with ice cream from Grafton Street shopping center, then went back to the dorms to start compiling our research and writing our paper.

that night, we went to our favorite pub in Dublin, The Porterhouse in Temple Bar – a day of schoolwork definitely needs to be topped off with a strawberry beer

and didn’t you know that “Monday night is the start of the weekend in Dublin"?

lucky for us, Andrew Mann was playing that night with The Kicking Kings. he brought us copies of his cd (which you should go buy on iTunes!)

the sound track of our trip now consists mainly of Andrew Mann, The Script, Snow Patrol and Wakey Wakey - which isn’t actually an Irish band, but got thrown in there randomly (check them out. they’re great AND will be in Austin at Mohawks on July 9)

went to sleep Monday night with an Incredible playlist :)

p.s. quote of the day “IT’S A NOVEL!”

i shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine - he shall be my Squishy

Day 24 - Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day. unfortunately, this was the day that my camera decided that it didn't want to turn on anymore.

luckily, there are 14 other people here with digital cameras :)

UCD hooked us up with tickets to a HURLING GAME so on Sunday morning, we bused it to Croke Park.

the stadium is gorgeous. it's in the middle of a little town. the Irish have a lot of pride in the sport and the stadium.

again, there is a lot of history there - the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is historically one of the strongest Irish symbols of Nationalism.

we sat in the 3rd row. they say Hurling is almost a mix between hockey and lacrosse. the field is sort of set up like foosball table players.

it's the fastest field sport in the world. to me, it just looks like guys beating the crap out of each other with sticks.

the players are extremely athletic and the game was

really impressive.

a few older Irish men sitting behind me kept filling me in on what was going on and about halfway through, i started to catch on (though i think about 30% of the things they were saying was just to mess with me)

we came to support our "Boys in Blue," but Dublin lost - sort of miserably - to Kilkenny (the best team in the league)

<--- but MUTEFISH was there! haha

after the game, i came back to the campus and laid in one of the many fields listening to music. it was extremely relaxing and just what i needed.

we stayed in that night and had more YouTube watching party time in the kitchen. the last of the law school boys left early the next morning, so we hung out with them for a bit AND i had some excellent skype time with the family & Meredith Joe :)

it was the calm before the storm....