001 - Dublinish

Hungover on a train to Cork. Lauren and I got into Dublin on Friday. Disaster struck when she got her phone stolen almost immediately when arriving in London. The problem has since been solved thanks to the WONDERFUL, Erin Hopper. After getting over this slight issue we took the plane to Dublin and arrived at Isaacs Hostel which was surprisingly well kept. After nearly fifteen hours of travel we were in search of a alcohol beverage. Mainly, Lauren was trying to drown her sorrows in a pint. We took a short walk to an Irish pub and Lauren said "I'll have a Guinness". She's was met with the reply "No, you won't". To our horror we found out that IRELAND does not serve any alcohol on Good Friday. We enjoyed a chicken baguette and than we went to sleep. Our room was full of Asian students on break, they weren't the friendliest!

The next day we awoke late. Our hostel served a complimentary breakfast, but we were too late for that. We were also too late for warm water in the shower, which kind of sucked. Good thing a shower after fifteen hours of plane travel is enjoyable regardless. We went to the desk where we met a very nice man who informed us we should go on a pub crawl. I'll talk about that later. We decided to walk around and we found a place to eat called THE BULL AND CASTLE. It was supposedly Ireland's number one source of craft beer. We had a delicious salad and butternut squash soup there. We both had a local porter called Dark Arts which was poured on Nitro. It was fantastic.

Lauren's butter obsession!

Jared with a Dark Arts porter.

Being relatively close to the Guinness brewery we decided to take a trip there. I'd been there on my last trip to Ireland, so I was relatively unamused but Lauren enjoyed it very much. The whole time she was excited to go to the Gravity Bar. Which is a roof top bar that at the end of the tour you are given a free pint in. It has a brilliant view of the city and was insanely packed. Leaving the factory we decided to go buy an adapter for our laptop. On our way we stopped at the Bull and Castle again to pee and had Hop Head an IPA from a brewery named Porterhouse. I'd heard about Porterhouse and Lauren was hoping to try their Oyster Stout. I didn't know where the brewery was so as we walked to find a store to buy the adapter we were surprised to see it right in front of us! We stopped in and had a few tasters there and Lauren got to try the Oyster Stout. All of the beers were fantastic and much better than Guinness. We left Porterhouse and bought a few items including some noodles for dinner to cook at our hostel.

Lauren at the Guinness factory.

Lauren's Oyster Stout

The noodles would lead us to meet two New Zealand boys who were playing drinking games with Corona Light (how hilarious) at the hostel. Their names were Jakob and Chris and they were in Dublin for a short holiday. They too had been very upset about Good Friday's no alcohol rule and were going on the PUB CRAWL that I'd talked about earlier. We chatted for a half an hour and then Lauren and I left to go to the pub crawl. The pub crawl was ridiculous. There was like 140 people being leaded by two boys to five different bars. We started it with a free Guinness and from there it was pretty much down hill. Jakob and Chris, met two German girls named Peggy and Francisque. They were very funny and we basically hung out and drank with these four the entire time. We went to many different pubs all with very different environments. The first two had live Irish music and we danced at both of those places. Highlights included Mumford & Sons being played right after Mumford & Sons was just on the radio. I don't know if that is necessarily a good highlight, but it was funny to Lauren and I. We also got a boy to play Flogging Molly's "If I Ever Leave This World". There was lots of singing along and general drunkness. I think my favorite part was when we took Bailey's and butterscotch schnapps shots. Those were pretty good and probably what has led to my hangover. It was a good time, until I got jealous of a strapping black man who I thought was flirting with Lauren. We got into a fight over this and I generally acted like a dick. I went to the Hostel to sleep and Lauren eventually came home twenty minutes or so after I did. We slept for basically four hours.

Worst photo ever of Jakob, Peggy and Lauren

Second worst photo ever

We did wake up this time for breakfast. I apologized to Lauren and we made up. We saw Chris and Jakob who were on their way to the Guinness factory so we bid them farewell. Peggy came downstairs and had some breakfast. We talked to her for a bit and made some sort of plan to meet her in Germany. Who knows if this will happen. STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT. We left Isaacs and our now on our way to Cork on a train. The train is traveling through Ireland which looks like a prettier Pennsylvania. Its nice, they have a snack cart which we are about to purchase something from. I'm really excited about the snack cart.

Train snack. It sucked.

Lauren on a TRAIN!

Space doors in the train.

So, that was our first couple of days. One fight, a couple of things lost, but generally it was a very good time. We are going to Cork and Killarney and we shall see what we find in those places. Probably some castles. We are excited for our trip to continue and we appreciate who ever if anyone is reading this. Sorry for the bad grammar and general craziness. I suck at grammar and I think my mind is going to explode from the massive drinking we did on the pub crawl. Oh well, feels better than having a headache from work!