I cannot believe our time here is so close to ending. It feels like just yesterday we arrived. Now, this group of once random people have become my best friends. How lucky can a girl be?!
This past Wednesday (July 3rd), we celebrated THE Cat Dineen’s birthday. Needless to say, it was the party of the century. Per Cat’s request, a big group of us headed out to a small Italian bistro just past St. Stephen’s Green. Our waiter, bless his heart, was incredibly patient with our failure to accurately pronounce menu items and the laundry list of allergies we provided him. At the end of the evening, he brought out a special dessert for the birthday girl and got the entire restaurant to sing to her. It was awesome! We loved getting to dress up and celebrate Catherine on her special day. After dinner, we headed further into the city to meet up with more friends, Deborah (Ariana’s mama), and Ivy.
Pictures from Cat’s birthday and the events following.
The next day was the Fourth of July (FOJ) and my oh my did we bring the American Spirit to Ireland. After spending a long day at work, my roommates and I met up at UCD Village expecting to fill ourselves with burgers, pizza, wings, hot dogs, and fries from Mikey’s, one of the restaurants on campus. Unfortunately, our plans were foiled when we realized Mikey’s was sold out of pizza, wings, and didn’t even sell hot dogs. I settled on some fries and we all sat outside to enjoy the sunset. Lucky for us, Cassidy’s apartment ended up walking by and invited us to join them for dinner at Eddie Rocket’s. Cat and I nearly jumped out of our seats at the chance to get a hot dog and off we went. Right after Eddie Rocket’s, we headed to city center in hopes of finding live music. We were in luck! The pubs not only had live music but they were playing mostly American songs for all the tourists. SO MUCH FUN!!
Celebrating FOJ to the fullest 🙂
On Friday, John’s mom, Joanne, and her best friend, Kara, arrived in Dublin. Bella and I ended up heading into the city to meet up with them after work and grab some food at Bad Bob’s. As it turns out, John’s barber was performing there later that night so we got to stay and watch most of his set. We parted ways with Kara and Joanne after John’s barber’s performance and met up with the rest of the gang.
Enjoying the live music at Bad Bob’s, again!
Saturday morning John, Joanne, Kara, Cat, her teammate Corbin, and I headed over to the Guinness Storehouse. Though John, Cat, and I had just toured it on Monday, we thoroughly enjoyed our second walkthough. I liked being able to wander and spend a bit more time on each floor of the Storehouse; it was nice being able to explore beyond Monday’s guided tour. My internship is right next to Guinness so I took everyone to my favorite lunch spot after we completed the tour. After that, we hopped on the bus to head to the semi-finals of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Clare was playing Kilkenny and, to John and Bella’s delight, Clare won! We had a blast at the game and met up with more friends in city center afterwards.
Views from the game!
Sunday we headed North to Belfast. Our first stop was the Titanic Museum which I absolutely loved. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people and the plethora of information being thrown at us. Once I separated myself from the group, though, I felt much better and was able to soak in all the information. After the museum we were given time to explore downtown Belfast and Bella and I took it upon ourselves to roam aimlessly around the shops and other areas in the city. The next morning we headed to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and I have never experienced such fear in my life. The whole bridge shook as we crossed. My legs were shaking for the rest of the day. I must admit, the views were worth the tremors. It was absolutely beautiful. The beauty of the Giant’s Causeway was a bit different — there, I was less focused on the water and more focused on the hexagonal rock formations. It was amazing!
Amazing views from the weekend!!
Awww I love this. I had so much fun going out with you guys and my mom. LOVE LOVE LOVE THE PICTURES!!!!!!