"Ah, we was just havin' a bit of crack!" -- DUBLIN

Before the title scares you away:

Craic or crack is a term for fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation.

- Wikipedia

Upon our arrival in Dublin, Becky and I immediately realized that a) Ireland is windy and b) though they speak English, Irish people are not easy to understand. One thing that definitely gets lost in translation from the Irish/Gaelic language is the word "craic." Like "hygge" in Danish, it's kind of something you just have to experience to understand. And don't worry, we had a good bit o' crack in Ireland.

The first day, we did a 4 hour free walking tour of the city, run by a company that does these kinds of tours all over Europe. Good to know, because it was amazing! Our tour guide, Louise, was everything a tour guide should be: adorable, funny, and of course extremely knowledgeable. I barely even noticed that we were walking that long (and that's something to say for Becky and me, who have the attention spans of gnats). We saw all the major sites, including Christ Church, Trinity College, Dublin Castle, St. Stephen's Green, etc. Afterwards, we wandered a little bit and rewarded all of our walking with food (yeahh... this becomes a common thread throughout the trip. probably why I'm broke).

Dublin Castle & The Ha'penny Bridge

Before leaving for Ireland, I had contacted Casey's best friend Mike, and Bridget from my XC team, who both lived in Ireland for a period of time. We seriously couldn't have done the trip the way we did without their advice. But anyway, Bridget had told us to look for a fish n' chips place near Christ Church........ best suggestion ever. We felt really legit Irish and fell in love with the greasy, delicious combo. Fish and chips became a staple for the week and now I weigh 300 lbs. Just kidding.... well, kind of.


The company that does the free tour also runs pub crawls in all these European cities. It was a Sunday night, but Louise convinced us to give it a try anyway. If less than 10 people showed up, we got our money back but still had an hour of free drinks. Of course, only 4 of us showed up: Becky, myself, our new friend Dennis from our hostel, and a 60-something British electrician named Brian. Needless to say, the pub crawl didn't happen.... but our odd little group of 4 ended up wandering around the streets of Dublin together. We ended up at a place called The Celt, near our hostel, because we saw a sign for live music. It was here that Becky and I fell in love with Ireland, and the approximately 17-year old musician named Darragh who was playing in a band with his grandmother and her friends. If you have never heard "Kids" by MGMT played on the fiddle, I highly recommend it. OH, and of course they played "Galway Girl," which was totally the theme song of our week.

We called it quits pretty early and went back to the hostel (Jacob's Inn). I know I'm kinda high maintenance, but I was NOT a fan of staying in a 12 person mixed dorm with a snorer and an Italian couple making out all night. The perk was that the hostel had breakfast for us in the morning, so we got up bright & early for that, and then made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. On the way, we ran into Brian again by the Spire (or the "stiffy by the liffey" or the "stilletto in the ghetto" or if you're really inappropriate "the erection at the intersection"). We took a picture with him, and vowed to take pictures to chronicle everyone we met. Didn't happen, but at least we got Brian.

Brian, at the Spire

The Guinness Storehouse was about what I expected. I bet it would be really cool for someone who knows how to appreciate a pint of Guinness, but I am not one of those people. After we made our way through the museum, I soldiered through a "free" pint with Becky at the top of the Gravity Bar, overlooking the whole city of Dublin. All part of the experience.

at the Gravity Bar

After that, we wandered around for a closer look at some of the things we saw on the tour the day before. We went through the crypt at Christ Church, where we ran into a priest. He started making conversation with us and cracking jokes.... and then he directed us towards the prayer request book and told us that if we write it down, he would pray for us to find Irish husbands. Didn't have to tell us twice! Hahaha that's what we had silently gone to Ireland for in the first place.

All in all, we liked Dublin, but we knew there were bigger things in store for us. So we got up early the next morning and took Bus Eireann (soooo convenient, btw) to Cork!