St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

sorry it's been so long folks! i've been super slack, but in my defense, i got a gnarly cold which rendered me incapacitated.

so the american group went to Dublin for st. patricks day. we left that afternoon, started drinking on the train (another reason scotland is awesome) and continued all through the night. now st. patrick's day in ireland is possibly some of the most fun i've had of ever. it was nuts. and people loved me! this guy on the train told me to stop being so irish. i was told more times that night that i look irish than i ever had been in my life. it was so great. people basically threw drinks at us. i found a really sick hat in mcdonalds that these angry german guys (i think they were angry, they looked angry and they sounded angry, but they may have just been drunk germans) left on the table.

Here i am wearing my new hat in the mcdonalds! 

i also met a girl who is a KD at clemson and knows lindsey echols, which was so cool. however, i couldn't tell you her name for the life of me. we took a picture together though. i met an ADPi from North Carolina i think (?) and she was nice as well. we took a greek unity picture. we pretty much bar hopped all night, drinking guinness and dancing, and i found a groovy green scarf as well. i don't have a good picture of it, so you'll have to trust me on that one. we didn't have anywhere to stay that night so we stayed up until like 5 then got the shuttle to the airport where we slept for like an hour before the airport people woke us up. how rude. so we puttered around the airport friday morning until the hotel called us and said we could come to our rooms at like 10 ish and we all showered and passed out for awhile. that was lovely. all of us died over the bathrobes. so nice! 

that night we went to this really excellent italian restaurant where a 3 course meal was 20 euros, so all the girls split in to groups of 2 and split a 3 course meal. alyssa and i split the garlic fried mushrooms stuffed with a trio of cheeses for an appetizer, the smoked salmon and mashed potatoes for the main course and a delightful chocolate brownie for dessert. it was to die for--seriously one of the best meals i've ever had. om nom nom... after that though, the sketchy started. it took us like 2 hours to find our effing bus stop, which was in the hood. while we were there, this crackhead and her 2 male cronies came up and tried to take the boy's shopping bags which had beer in them. when they said no, she grabbed one and ran, and one of the guys turned and grabbed it back from her, only to get decked in the face by the dude. the chick kicked one of the girls in the legs several times, and the other guy fell on the majority of the girls so they couldn't get up. hana and i were on the end and we jumped up and ran to the side. fight or flight at its finest y'all. so the boys are fighting and finally give the girl a beer since thats what she wanted and they left, but not after coming over to hana and myself and trying to apologize i guess? its all hazy. then sean came over to tell them to back off us and the guy threatened to pull a knife on sean's neck. scary potatoes. BUT we got out fine and mostly unscathed. thank god for that. 

then the next day we decided to do touristy things. we got a bus tour of dublin and saw trinity college, the natural history museum and stopped at st. patrick's cathedral and dublin castle. i didn't go in the latter two--they were too expensive and not appealing enough. and my boyfriend, aidan (yes, i have a scottish boyfriend, he's fantastic) told me that i wouldn't like the castle so i didn't waste the money. we ended the tour at the guinness factory. the guinness factory is possibly one of the coolest places ever. you pay 11 euros to get in, but its so worth it. you get a pint at the top in the gravity bar which gives you the most groovy view of dublin EVER. and the whole tour is super awesome as well. sadly, my camera died this morning so i am unable to provide pictures for you here. so trust me. if you ever go to dublin, do not skip out on the guinness tour. even if you think you don't like guinness. a) its better in the factory b/c its made there and b) its just a cool tour. do it. trust me. :) 

so thats really it. i'm leaving in the morning for mid-semester break (though i cannot comprehend how on earth the semester is half over already!) and i'm going with 2 other girls to nice, florence, venice and paris. it's going to rock!!! i packed my charger and adaptor so there will be no mishaps this time camera wise. :) 

love you all, give me suggestions for posts please!!!

xoxo,

natalie