Excuses: St. Paddy's Day in Dublin.

(Two posts in one day??!! This can't be real life.)

Trip summary:

Ashley and I went to Dublin for the weekend of St. Paddy’s Day and it was a ton of fun.  I was expecting it to be the same level of wild as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but (thankfully) it wasn’t quite that.  It was, however, definitely where I met the most Americans outside of America (we also met Catherine and her boyfriend Pat, but we planned that).  The highlights were our visit to the Guinness Storehouse (which had lots of special things going on for St. Paddy’s Day--and much more free Guinness around than usual), our visit to Kilmainham Gaol (really, really interesting.  A great way to learn about modern Irish history, which may be a description that makes it sounds like a boring place to visit for some people , but I thought it was really good.  I wish my family had gone when we were in Dublin because I think my dad definitely would have liked it.  I left that place pretty convinced that the British were just major, major assholes.), and our trip out to Howth, a town on the Irish Sea (we had the best calimari I have ever had IN MY LIFE, plus the town was just really pretty).  All of these places were the recommendations of our gracious host, Tatiana, whom it was also a pleasure to see!

Two bizarre instances of family resemblance:

1.  At the pub we went to for lunch on St. Paddy’s Day, our bartender looked like my Grampie.  Not his face, but the rest of his body could have been Grampie’s.  He had what we call the “Grampie legs” and the same arms and same way of walking and standing.  It really caught me off guard.  

2.  On our last day, we had a little trouble finding the bus stop for the bus that would bring us back to the airport.  I asked a policeman for directions and we talked for a minute or so.  As we walked away, Ashley was like, “That was really weird.  He looked like he could have been your brother.”  Which I thought was funny because, as the policeman and I were chatting, it crossed my mind that he was an attractive guy.  So maybe that was some subconscious vanity coming out there.

Something delicious:

Guinness with blackcurrant liqueur.  Try it. It's like drinking a cake.