OK so Tuesday night, Hayes, Hillary, John, Chase and I went to Soho. Hung out for a while, decided that much of Soho was smelly and generally gross, and headed back to Bloomsbury.
Wednesday was the longest day yet (which is saying something). For art and architecture we went to the British Museum and then to the National Gallery off of Trafalgar Square. Lonnnng class. Back to the flat and then to the river to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe Theater. Which was cool, except for the fact that it's a 2.5 hour long play and we were...standing. The whole time. Looooooong time. Anyway, the wives were fantastic, and the play itself was a lot of fun. Easy to understand, easy to laugh at, good times had by all. On the way back to homebase, we convinced Dr. King to stop for a pint with us. Excellent :)
Thursday we had just one class to get through before LEAVING FOR IRELAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(note: I'm sitting in my hostel in Dublin right now, and I'm just as excited now as I was on Thursday. Pretty sweet, if I say so myself) So Dr. King let us out a little bit early on Thurs because he kept us late on Tuesday, and Chase, Jack, Ruthie, Hayes, John and I headed straight to the train station from class. Went from Euston station to Chester, Chester to Holyhead (in WALES!), and then took a ferry from Holyhead to Dublin port. Total travel time: approximately 8 hours (if you include the time that we spent wandering around Dublin bc none of us had thought to bring a city map, and the bus station was sadly lacking in efficient maps). Long day. We stopped at a pub called O'Shea's that was recommended to us by a guy at our hostel, Andy, and had some really excellent food. Came back and basically passed out from pure exhaustion.
Woke up Friday morning feeling much better rested but ANNOYED. Why, you ask? Because there were small children screaming and crying and generally throwing bratty tantrums in the lobby of our hostel. So Ruthie and I woke up from their bellowing (the boys' room was upstairs) and got to enjoy some breakfast before the gentlemen joined us. Headed out around 10:30 and just started walking. In our travels we passed a sign directing us towards the Jameson distillery; who were we to ignore the beckonings of fate? So away we went, and enjoyed the tour of the Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery. A cool thing that they do is offer a whiskey comparison opportunity. In the case of our tour, 4 men and 4 women were selected to do a taste comparison of Jameson, a well-known Scotch (which turned out to be Johnny Walker) and a well-known American whiskey (which turned out to be Jack Daniels). It just so happened that Ruthie, Jack and (DRUMROLLLLLLLL) me were selected to participate! Long story short, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and shared an international whiskey moment with a Swedish guy and his wife, and were surprised with certificates declaring us Irish Whiskey Tasters. After Jameson, we headed to the Phoenix Park and napped (I did at least) under the giant obelisk commemorating (we think) the Battle of Waterloo. According to John, it's called the Wellington Monument. I'm inclined to believe him. Headed to the zoo and decided we didn't want to spend the money to go in. Oh, also ate lunch in a pub called Bakers. Fantastic bacon cheeseburger.
Everyone had dinner at an American 50s style diner called Eddie Rocket's, but I was still incredibly full from lunch so I just had a root beer float. Hung out at the hostel while they digested dinner, and then went across the street to a pub called Doyle's. Met some cool guys, hung out for a long while, generally had a ton of fun.
Up this morning and headed to Trinity College and poked around a bit. Explored an art exhibit there, and wanted to see the Book of Kells but didn't want to pay 8 Euros to do it. Robbery. Then headed towards St Patrick's Cathedral and decided that I would pay to get in (if I can pay for pubs, I should be able to pay for a sweet church. Even if it's Anglican. Kidding. But really.). Beautiful building. Next to the Guinness Storehouse to do the tour and have a beer. The most perfectly poured Guinness and the most delightful beer head that I've ever experienced.
For dinner, John, Hayes and I headed to an Italian place that we had passed the day before. I had this amazing Penne Marinara (calamari, mussels, tuna and prawns in a tomato sauce with penne pasta). We were way under-dressed, but oh well. Now all the kiddos are clamoring to use this computer because it's the only one we've got with us. So on that note, fare thee well!
PS. I forgot the cable to connect my phone (thus, pictures) to computer, so pictures will go up when I return to London.
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