Sometimes in order to understand the culture of a city, you need to understand how seriously they take their alcohol. Yesterday we took advantage of touring the Guinness Factory, where we learned how they brew it, where they get the ingredients and what they do with them. They even store their yeast locked in a safe just in case anything happens to the original supply. Once you get to the fourth floor you get to sample the draught and see what you think. From there you can see the history of the advertising, and learn what a Toucan has to do with a beer. Afterwards, you can choose to learn to pour the perfect pint or you can basically skip the 7th floor, known as the Gravity Bar, with a complete 360 view of the city. It is absolutely stunning up there, you can see everything. That's when you turn in your ticket for a complimentary pint that you can enjoy while gazing upon the city you wander through. Once you've enjoyed the beverage, you can mosey on down to the gift shop and buy as much Guinness merchandise as your beer filled belly will let you. It was a really great experience and I'm glad we went, I learned a lot and enjoyed myself along the way.

Dublin is definitely a city heavily affected by the people that travel to it. Dublin is great, but if you really want the full "Ireland Experience" you need to travel outside the city. I feel like that's true wherever you go, because when it comes down to it most cities these days are pretty much the same.

We traveled to Howth on the 19th, and it was fabulous. The train was quick, the views were unbelievable. When you first arrive you walk right into a small food market and then from there, if you make your way towards the ships you'll spot some seals trying to impress the crowds. You can see lighthouses and silhouettes of islands off in the distance. If you climb the mountain you will have the most incredible view of the sea. And if you're like me and want one of those pictures of yourself on a cliff with your hair blowing in the wind, this is the place. Howth rules.

The next trip I went to on my own with a friend, a place called Kilkenny. Originally I thought my mom told me my family was from here, but turns out she never said that. Regardless, I saw Kilkenny Castle, ate bangers and mash and a hotpot (something I can't find anywhere in Dublin) and saw about 5 churches/cathedrals. It poured the entire time and by the end of our three hour excursion (we thought it would be all day but we got there at 3:30 and the last bus back was at 6:45)we were soaked to the bone, but it was completely worth it. We ended up getting to see everything for free because we showed up about 15 minutes before they closed so everyone felt guilty charging us. People there were also SO NICE, and went out of their way to help us get back to the bus station on time. Then on Monday I learned that some pretty cool stuff in Irish history happened in Kilkenny. If you get a chance, definitely go there.

Later in the week we went to Wicklow, home of Glendalough, which is an amazing experience of an old monastery and a stunning view of lakes and mountains. We also saw the Powerscourt Gardens on the tour, which were gorgeous. Our tour guide was probably the coolest Irishman in existence, he narrating the entire bus ride and was chock full of information about literally everything. He even let us stop to look at a view that I will never forget, we could see for miles. Just mountains upon mountains and lakes and sheep and everything. That was truly an amazing experience. This trip wasn't through the program, but it was worth so much more than I paid, which was not a lot.

Tonight we saw Riverdance, which was one of the best dance shows I've seen. It made me laugh, gave me chills, the whole nine yards. These performers were amazing and the songs were so full of rhythm and passion that you can't help but get into it. There was even a duel between the "Americans" and the Irish, to show how the dance carried over when the Irish emigrated to the US. It was such a good show.

Tomorrow we have our second class that is what is called a "mobile seminar" where we get to walk around the city and learn all about what we walk past all the time. It's super informative and makes me feel a lot closer to the native Dubliners. We'll see how that goes!

You know how everyone always says, "pack light?" Well, they mean it literally. As I was packing I thought about layering, rewearing and things that would be versatile, as well as trying to pack the lightest shoes I have and worrying about shampoo and conditioner and all that. I did pretty well I thought, until I weighed my suitcase and discovered that it weighed 65 pounds. The restriction is 50. So, sometimes you have to cheat the system. I put about 10 pounds into my "carry-on" which is a sweeter word for second suitcase. So, by splitting up the weight I could bring everything I needed, even though it was the same amount of weight...airlines are insane. But I made sure to unpack the carryon into my suitcase when I got to the airport so I didn't have to lug a 49.8 pounds suitcase, a 10 pound carry-on and a 10 pounds purse with my laptop in it all around a city I've never been to.

Anyways,
Arrival was interesting. We landed early so I got all my stuff, asked around and found that I could take a bus directly into Dublin City Centre for 6 euro. So I did! The bus driver was really nice and dropped me off a block from where I'm staying, but I was too early to check in so I sat on a corner for an hour reading the handbook, which actually ended up being pretty handy. Then I checked in, everyone was super nice, I unpacked, and I crashed into sleep. I meant to only sleep from 1030am until 1pm, but when I woke up I was dead so I tried to sleep until 3, and ended up sleeping until 645. Oops.
From there I went to go to the bathroom, only to find that bathrooms are not supplied with toilet paper. Yay! So off to town I went.
Turns out, almost everything is closed around 630, and I didn't go out until after that, so I had to make due with what I could find. I went to Centra to buy some food because I was starving, and when she told me the total I SWEAR she said 50.75 euro. Not thinking too hard about this, I handed her my debit card, which she said they didn't accept because it didn't have a chip on it. I had no idea what she meant, but I put it back and looked into my stash of cash, and alas, only had 40 euro. So I told her to put a bunch of stuff back, so all I got was toilet paper, diet coke and yogurt. The total then was 7 euro. Oh, she said 15, and I totally could've gotten everything, but at that point I was so flustered and frustrated that I took my pathetic excuse for survival bag outside.
I found another small convenience store and went inside to ask the man at the counter why my card wasn't accepted, he said he had no idea and that he would take it. So I bought some food.
I got home and crashed and tried to sleep, but couldn't, of course, so I tried to watch Netflix, which, oh hey, doesn't work in Europe. So I tried trusty old Hulu, which, oh...doesn't work in Europe either. So I watched some youtube videos until I was finally tired at 3am, set my alarm to wake up at 11am to explore, and ended up waking up at 6am unable to go back to sleep. So I hung out until 9, then walked around, explored the majority of the city, bought a phone, bought a duvet cover, some real food, etc. Then I came home and got my sleep schedule on track. Then everyone else got here.

Good times, Dublin.