Ireland

On Thursday, April 14th, we (Mike, Kamil, and I) set out for Ireland. Mike and I had yet to collect a stamp abroad. Our flight took us form Athens to Budapest then to Dublin. When we went to Budapest we got our first STAMP! We were like gitty school girls, screaming, yelling, hollering, jumping up and down, laughing. We get through customs, and decide to get some food. However, Hungary is not on the Euro. We look at their currency and we see two different currencies used in the airport.  As Mike likes to call them Frugaltogals, and Hufflepuffs. The actual currency is called Forint (huf), they put the price as forint, or huf, so u can see our confusion.

 We arrive at our hostel in Dublin, and we had just missed a pub crawl that the hostel was putting on. The first night we went to the Famous Temple Bar. It was awesome, and huge. Every place Dublin seemed that way. It looks small from the outside, but once you enter it, it seemed like 3 times the size that it looked on the out sized.

The next day we went into Dublin and saw all the Important things like the Guinness and Jameson Factory! Then the Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Spire too. The Guinness factory we heard was the most expensive Guinness in Dublin. It was true. It cost 11 euros to get into the factory and then you get one free pint of Guinness, either in how to pour a Guinness or at the Gravity Bar, which is the bar on top of the Guinness factory with a 360 degree of the city. The tour was just a self-guided walking tour, and it wasn't as good as it could have been.

However, we got in for free. We were waiting for Mike's cousin, to meet us at the Guinness factory. And this lady Comes up to us and asked us if we had bought our tickets yet. We said no, and then she hands us 3 tickets, saying that they had gotten extra, and walks away. BEST DAY! Cheapest Guinness in Dublin for US. Score!

The one Cool thing that we learned was that Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease for 45 Pounds a year, and they are only in about 250 years in.

After our Guinness tour, we went right to Jameson Factory. This factory was much more informative. We had an actual tour guide. We watched a introductory movie, in which after they picked a a group of people to taste different types of whiskeys. So Naturally all three of us volunteered. However, since we were all sitting together, she said that lets spread it out. So she only gave it to two of us. Unfortunately, I was not chosen.Worst Day! (for me, Mike and Kamil got Picked)

The next day we decided to go to the country side. However, we had not booked in advanced. We arrived early and then had to wait and see if they had room on the bus. We were not the only one's trying to get on the bus. Lucky there was enough room on the bus. We went and saw Wicklow which had some awesome views of lakes and a valley. Then we went to Kilkenny. It had a sweet Castle, and view of a river. It also had three more breweries there; Harp, Smithwicks, and Kilkenny. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to see any of them. Our tour guy told us that the next time you talk to a person that has seen everything and done anything, and has lived life to the fullest, ask them if they have had a Kilkenny in Kilkenny. If they haven't then We had a one up on them.

That night we went out with 2 people we meet in our hostel and watched the 1 of 4 meeting between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. However, it was a great end to our trip in Dublin. Next stop London.