Another fun week in the books! I can’t believe we’re officially past the halfway point and now have less than four weeks left of our trip.
Last Thursday we attended an Irish House Party, which involved dinner, drinks, and some live music and dancing. It was nice being with everyone and I LOVED the music. It’s fun to watch people take the stage and just enjoy one another’s company and what they’re performing together. They played all sorts of songs, from traditional reels to more popular (and recognizable) songs like Molly Malone and Isle of Hope, which is about the first ever immigrant through Ellis Island, a fifteen year-old from Ireland.
On Friday I joined my boss and the other employees at my internship for pints after work. Apparently it’s the company’s tradition to hit Toner’s Pub after the monthly board meeting, so it was cool to tag along and speak to some of them.
The Gaelic Games on Saturday were super fun, albeit wet. It rained all morning and afternoon (perfect for our day spent outside), but cleared up in the early evening, in time to enjoy some of the pubs on Baggot Street with Dean Kepner and Lily. Experience Gaelic Games provided some history of the sports we played (hurling and Gaelic football), which gave us some nice background going in. I was fascinated to learn that every hurler is amatuer, meaning they aren’t compensated for playing; they work regular nine-to-five jobs on top of playing the sport at an otherwise professional level. I was terrible at hurling, but it was fun to give it a try and see others succeed.
Our trip to the Guinness Storehouse on Monday was great. We learned more about Guinness in probably 30 minutes than I think I’ll ever know about any other beer. Our tour guide taught us how to properly taste and enjoy the drink out of teeny tiny pint glasses before we eventually headed to another part of the storehouse and got real pints. The bar on the top floor was beautiful, complete with almost 360 views of the city. After the tour, a group of us went to Bad Bobs near Temple Bar, where we listened to live music and watched some Euro football. It was a great weekend overall, followed by a pretty chill week thus far. I’m super excited for Northern Ireland this weekend – can’t believe it’s our second to last weekend all together!
