Dublin, Day 1 - Arrival and Guinness Storehouse

          I went to Ireland this weekend, and it was so much fun!! I really enjoyed the city of Dublin, and the countryside. It was a lot less hectic than Madrid, and everyone was extremely nice. Since I haven't had much to say lately during the school week, I will just do 3 separate posts about Dublin (for the 3 days I was there), because I loved it so much and I have so much to talk about!!
       Our flight left around 9, so that meant that we had to be up really early...not fun. But we took the Metro and got checked into our flight alright, and had plenty of time to spare. The flight was only about 2 hours, so I read and slept for a little bit. Before we left Spain, I was able to take some good pictures of the mountains! 

      When we got to Dublin, we had to wait a long time to go through customs, because there was a very large group of people from Brazil that were staying for 3 months, so they took longer. We finally got our luggage and we were off! All of the people I traveled with got the Dublin Pass, which you pay a certain price for it and it gets you into things for free. But, I figured since Friday we didn't have a full day, Saturday I was going pony-trekking, and Sunday Claire and I were touring the Cliffs of Moher, I didn't think it was worth it for me to get one (and I'm glad I didn't!). But if you plan to stay in Dublin for a full 2 or 3 days, it is probably worth it. 
      We got on a bus that was supposed to take us to the city center, which was kind of close to our hostel. Well, I don't think our hostel was close to city center, or at least not close to where the bus dropped us off, so we ended up walking around Dublin for a while. At least it wasn't raining! When we were walking, a lady asked us if we needed help and she pointed us in the correct direction. 
      We made it to the Four Courts Hostel and were able to check in. My first thought when I entered the hostel was "hippie", because there were posters on all the walls, and paintings, and the two men checking us in looked like brothers (or maybe even twins) because they both had gray hair pulled into a ponytail. There were a total of 6 of us, and 4 of us go to stay in the same room, a 6 person room, and the 2 others went a little cheaper and were staying in the 16 person room. It was definitely worth it to spend an extra 2 or 3 euros a night to have less people in a room...and it was only the 4 of until our last night, and we had our own bathroom! 
      After we got all of our things settled, we asked the man at the desk where to get something to eat, and where the Guinness Storehouse was. He told us to go to P' Borza, so we did, and it was good! I had fries (chips) and some water...we were all just so hungry. 
        We went to the Guinness Storehouse and did the tour. I wish we could have actually seen them make the beer, but they just explained the processes of it. It was really interesting, they had a section about Guinness advertising, how they make the beer and whats in it, you could look up your name to see if any family members had worked for Guinness, and of course you got to taste it. They had one part of the self-guided tour where they gave you a sample of it. I did not like it at all! I took one sip and I was done..ewww. Apparently it is an acquired taste. We went up to the Gravity Bar and looked out at Dublin. It was really cool that you could see all of Dublin from the bar, but it was crowded and quite foggy out. We then went to learn how to pour our own Guinness. It was fun to learn how to do it, and it was easy once one of the instructors told us what to do and why you do it. Who knew that there was a specific way to pour beer, well at least Guinness. You have to hold it at a certain angle, and then fill it up 3/4 of the way, and then let it sit for a little, and then you fill it up all the way, pushing the handle the other way though. Apparently they use nitrogen instead of carbonation, so you have to let it sit to let the bubbles do whatever they do. We all got certificates saying that we are certified in pouring Guinness! After, we went to the gift shop to look and see what they had. I didn't know what I would do with a Guinness pint glass, so I ended up getting 2 postcards.

My perfectly poured pint of Guinness! 

I thought this ad was cute, so I got a postcard of it

           After our trip to the Guinness Storehouse, we walked through the rain and ate at a restaurant close to our hostel, called O'Shea's. One of the men working at the hostel told us on Fridays they had 2 for 1 meals, so we were totally interested! I got a hamburger with cheese and bacon (actually ham) on a floury bap (a big roll) with chips. It was so good! We were all really tired, so we headed back to the hostel and found a room in the basement where we could all sit and charge our phones. It was a room with some books, but there was another room that had a TV with DVDs and also a Wii. We then went to bed at a reasonable hour so we could get up early to explore more of Dublin!

Things I learned in Ireland:

• It is better to spend an extra 2 or 3 euros a night at a hostel for a smaller room with its own bathroom
• Bring locks (combination lock and something smaller) so that you can lock up your things. At the hostel we had metal cages under our beds so we could lock up our belongings, there was also a locked room to store luggage
• You can't go to Ireland without a rain jacket, I had one and I was really happy I did
• People dress normally in Ireland, unlike in Spain where they always dress up. I would say sneakers/tennis shoes are acceptable
• Irish people are so nice and have awesome accents - multiple times people pointed us in the correct direction or asked if we needed help
• Irish people start drinking early - like 7. So eat dinner before then so the bars, restaurants, and pubs aren't crowded with drinkers
• Make sure to bring the appropriate converter. Ireland (and the UK) has different plugs than the rest of Europe, they use a 3 pronged one. But make sure that fits into your US plugs, because I needed the Europe plug  (which I didn't bring) to fit into the UK/Ireland one
•  Look right-left-right before crossing the road, because in Ireland people drive on the wrong side of the road...left instead of right! 

Cheers!