r.i.p.

My friends and I researched which European city would be the best one to celebrate Halloween in. We found out that Halloween, and trick-or-treating in particular, supposedly started in Ireland so we booked a flight to Dublin and got our costumes ready. If you ever have the chance to visit Dublin for Halloween, you definitely should!

I just got back from one of the best weekends ever and I'm currently trying to figure out when I'll be in Ireland next. Before leaving for Dublin, my perception of the city was that it was going to be rolling hills of green with a random strip of pubs in the middle of all of it - maybe some sheep, maybe a dock behind the main strip of pubs. Once I got to the city, I realized that maybe I had watched P.S. I Love You one too many times... but I'm sure that picture must be accurate for some part of Ireland, and eventually, I will find that spot (and then wander by myself through the countryside until a handsome Irish man finds me, gives me his leather jacket & sings Galway Girl to me later that night at the pub... except I don't have hair of black or eyes of blue =/).

We got into the city just before midnight on Friday and after getting these amazing kebab things, we just wandered through the streets. Dublin is a pretty small city - at least that's the impression I got from my trip. It's split up by the River Liffey, which is bigger than the canals in Amsterdam but smaller than England's Thames. We had about a 15 minute walk from our hotel to the city centre, across the river, which was actually really enjoyable (except in the rain). So after we ate we heard some guitar/singing playing and so we stopped into this random corner bar.

This bar was the epitome of how I can spend every night for the rest of my life without getting tired of it. The bar wasn't overly crowded, in fact, it was filled with the perfect amount of people to enjoy the music, dance with strangers in the most non-creepy way, and generally, just have a good time. The guy on the guitar was sooo good... I always love when musicians aren't taking it too seriously but are just having a good time - and that's exactly what this slightly more than slightly intoxicated Irish guy was doing with his time in the limelight. He wove Irish themes through popular and mostly American songs and strung them altogether with "bottleee of vodkaaaa" badabadadahh. It was just so much fun, everyone was dancing and singing along and I could have stayed forever. One of my friends who I was traveling with is a singer/songwriter - whose music I'm obsessed with and frequently gets stuck in my head, gladly. Her name is Amy - www.myspace.com/amyvachalmusic - and she's sooo good and so much fun :) So after this guy allowed one of his friends to come up and sing with him, my friends and I immediately started shouting that he should let our friend have a chance at the mic too - we knew he wouldn't regret it. I need to post the video but it was absolutely the best duet of "Stand by Me" in Irish bar history.. they harmonized, she beatboxed, and you could tell the guy was so surprised and impressed by how good she was - the whole bar loved it...

The next morning we headed back to the city centre and went on a Viking Splash Tour, which was a combination of a duck tour and the game "Hey Cutie." We all wore Viking Hats on this big yellow monstrosity of a truck/boat and the driver instructed us that we would have to yell ARRRGHHHH to unsuspecting people who we passed on my truck.... sounds awfully similar to Hey Cutie, and the British version, Hey Fittie... so naturally, I loved every second of this. We went around the city.. saw Temple Bar area, Trinity College, statues of Molly Malone, Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, and ended up passing U2's recording studio once the truck transformed into a boat (at which time we added hideous orange lifevests to the viking costume) and did a pathetic little circle around a small part of the river. At this point, the weather was absolutely gorgeous... it was the ideal fall day that my mind always falls upon when I think of Halloween.

After the tour, we did some Irish shopping... my friends and I all visited this little Celtic jewelry store and bought really pretty claddagh rings - the Irish wedding band that symbolizes love, friendship, and loyalty. I looked it up and sayings associated with it are "With my two hands, I give you my heart and crown it with my love" and "Let love and friendship reign forever." If you're taken, you wear the ring with the heart facing your heart so that the two hearts are tied and if you're single, you wear the ring with the heart facing the world so that it can be taken.

Once we joined the Irish culture with our rings, we set out to explore the city en route to the Guiness Brewery. While we walked, the day quickly turned from ideal fall day to torrential downnpour, which I was not prepared for. The beautiful day I woke up to persuaded me to leave my umbrella at the hotel and bring my sunglasses with me instead.... not the smartest decision. So we trudged through the rain snapping pictures of the sights and trying to avoid the larger puddles and find shelter under random old bridges. If anyone's ever travelled with me, you know that I love to take pictures - my method is to snap a million pictures of absolutely everything, no matter how insignificant with the thought that I don't know when I'll be here next and I want to have pictures to remember it by - even if there are more pictures than I'll ever look at again. So through the rain, despite being warned, my camera was around my wrist and taking pictures the whole time because I figured that it's lasted me four years.. it has chunks taken out of it... the silver coating is chipping off.. and it hasn't failed me yet.

After walking for a while, the rain finally stopped for a few minutes and the sun even came out. We ended up down by the river just in time to see a FULL rainbow spanning across the sky... we were soooooo happy to see a huge rainbow while we were in Ireland.. we snapped a million pictures, sung songs in happiness, and sprinted to the end of the rainbow to find a pot of gold... just kidding (only about the gold).

We finally got to the Guinness Brewery after taking a few wrong turns through an industrial part of the city while it started to rain again so we arrived soaking wet from head to toe, which made it so nice to be inside. The tour of the brewery was reallyy cool and included two free pints of Guinness. Before this trip, I had tried Guinness once - it was warm because I had stolen it from my dad when I was running out sometime last year and had no alcohol and no time/way to get it.. so of course, I thought it was gross. I definitely cannot go out to a bar and continually order Guinness in hopes of getting drunk, but I actually really like Guinness.. it wasn't bad at all, though it made me reallyy full. The tour ends up on the top floor of the brewery in a bar that has almost a 360 degree view of the city of Dublin. We were there when it was late out so we could only really see the outline of the city but in honor of Halloween, there were fireworks that made the view incredible. While we were drinking our free pint at this bar, we decided we had to take these pint glasses home with us as a free souvenir. So after sketchily hiding in corners of the circular room (which, luckily, was crowded) and stuffing these glasses into our already full bags, we headed out after stopping at the gift shop. Should I be writing about theivery on the internet? Probably not... but we justified it because we figured everyone did it.... not much of a justification, whatever - I have a free Guinness pint glass and I'm happy.

We went to some random Czech restuarant that we thought was an Irish pub and ended up eating potato pancakes for dinner. My roommate and some of my friends are in Prague for the semester so it gave me insight into what they've been eating the past few months. Wasn't bad, just very filling.

There were nine of us from UCL who went on this trip together - 5 girls, 4 boys - so we needed a group costume we could all wear. We decided to dress up in random flags and peace signs and hippy things and collectively be "World Peace." We told some overly-friendly Irish guy we met along the way that we were going to be world peace and I died laughing when he commented, "sooo.. you're going to dress as Obama's children?!" Obama's a celebrity around Europe, it's craazy - anyway, I thought it was so funny. The people in Dublin - the ones who actually lived in the city or in other parts of Ireland - were soooo friendly, which made the trip soo much more enjoyable and even made me legitimately want to live in some part of Ireland for at least a short time in my life... I think it would be so much fun - even if it doesn't end up characterized by the Pogue's Love You Til The End (more P.S. I Love You, sorry).

Anyway, I somehow ended up being the German flag... I asked for Italy, then found out I was instead going to be Great Britain, and then once in Dublin I was handed a German flag... so though I have only little German blood in me (which I just found out about), I was happy because who doesn't like gold, red, and black? Dublin on Halloween night was crazy. We went to Temple Bar, which is both a bar and a region of the city. The streets were packed with every costume imaginable - it was soooo much fun. My friends and I paraded through the streets singing songs like kumbaya, all you need is love, why can't we be friends, and occasionally the Bottle of Vodkaaa compilation from the night before, all mixed in with chants of USA USA and our own drunken rendition of the national anthem. We took lots of pictures with random people and so many people on the streets all joined in with our songs... we made lots of friends.

My friends and I love to speak in the British accent.. we do it all the time and it's become extremely normal no matter what time of day or what situation we're in. We don't just talk it among ourselves, but also to waitresses, cashiers, people we meet at bars, etc. So many people can attest that my accent before leaving for London was horrible.. some freshman at the union even told me I had the worst accent he's ever heard. Well, I am happy to say that I have mastered the accent. I fooled so many guys at the bar into thinking I was from Britain and when I finally told them I'm actually from New York, they were shocked and complimented me on my accent. Yes, I'm bragging... I'm very proud of my skills hahaaa... Buttttt the Irish guys would not let me continue with my British accent because they love the American/NY accent so much more.

With the exception of running into a few super creepsters who were definitely from out of town, we were having the absolute best time imaginable.... until we decided to go back to the hotel. NO cabs had lights on... we started to walk all over the city looking for a cab for 5 people. It was us and the rest of the city who wanted to go home, though, so it was soooo hard to find one. Oh and at this point it was POURING! I was even less prepared for the rain this time, seeing as I was literally wearing only a German flag. The boys used their flags as capes and since we wore ours as outfits we paraded like Chinese dragons through the street until the boys decided to leave us to walk home. I think we probably ran through the rain for a half hour before I finally remembered to pray to St. Anthony to find us a cab, at which point, less than a minute later, a van cab that could fit five people randomly pulled over to let other passengers out - so we hopped in, drenched and freezing. Love St. Anthony - and the luck of the Irish...even though, we ended up getting slightly ripped off... but that just seems normal for my travel experiences here at this point.

Sunday was more of a relaxing day, we strolled through the city, recapped our night adventures, and went to Carroll's Souvenir Shop. Carroll is my Grandma's name - taken from her mother's maiden name... and it's also my sister's middle name. No one spells it like that - I even got it wrong on a spelling test in 5th grade for spelling it Carroll instead of Carol - so it was sooo exciting to see a store with that name.

Anyway, the title of this post is not in honor of ghosts and such for Halloween, but it's actually to wish my camera goodbye. Later on in the day, after carrying it on my wrist for hours in the Dublin monsoon, I tried to take pictures but when I push the shudder button it just zooms in all the way until it can't anymore, then asks me what language I want the camera to be in, and then skips to the self-timer settings. Lovelyyy... I guess I overestimated its ability to withstand everything I put it through. So as long as I didn't lose my pictures of Portugal and the beginnings of Dublin, I won't be too upset about getting a new camera - I was actually thinking about it recently, but didn't really have a legitimate reason to spend money on one.

So now I'm back in London, writing this post instead of the two papers I have due on Friday and presentation I have to prepare for Thursday.... and in the midst of all this, I'm gonna have to take some time out to buy a new camera. I'm traveling to Greece, Hungary, and the Czech Republic (Athens, Budapest, and Prague) next week during UCL's reading week and I will not do that without a camera.

Dublin was amazing, I definitely want to travel to other parts of Ireland - Villanova has a summer program in Galway.. hmmmm :)

I cannot believe it's November already.