German...is hard

3/18/10
We all woke up relatively early considering we ended our dance party around 2. We all hiked over to the Western Union so I could get the money dad wired to me and to eat breakfast. Next stop was the bus station for our day trip to Howth. It is a nearby fishing town with excellent hiking and views of the coast. The wind there was unbelievable! When we were walking on the pier we literally were getting blown sideways- my hair may never be the same. We started on one of the many trails throughout the town and decided to take a detour to get to the top of an amazing cliff/rock. Well worth it. We had to make our way through some prickly bushes and steep climbs but it was some quality off-roading. The views from the top were beautiful. Green everywhere, very quintessential Ireland. We made our way back along one of the normal trails (how boring) and back to the town center for lunch. I had some amazing Irish stew and we were on our way back to Dublin.
At the hostel we all decided to take a short little nap…that ended up being 3 hours long. I could have kept sleeping too is Chris hadn’t of woken us all up! I guess we were tired. I forced myself to get up and we went in search of dinner. After wandering for a while (and after I bought myself a sweet Swatch- I will finally know what time it is!) we stumbled upon a great pub called McGrattons. It was full of old men in suits watching the soccer game after work- and excellent burgers. Not sure if it was because I was so hungry or if it was really just that good, but it could possibly have been one of the best burgers I have ever had. We went across the street to a local pub the guy at the hostel recommended to us and had a pint. It was great atmosphere- a bunch of men were singing and playing the guitar. Good times. Somehow I was still able to fall asleep that night- I’m worn out!

3/19/10
We had breakfast at the recommended place- a lot of food for not a lot of money- and it was basically the same thing we had everyday at the YHAs we had been staying at with DuPuy. After storing our luggage at the hostel me Allison, Jenny and Justin walked the streets until we had to meet up with everyone for the Guinness factory tour. I am a true convert- the tour was amazing! They let you taste the barley and smell the hops, then at the end they teach your how to ‘pour the perfect pint’ and then we drank our perfect pints with great views to the city. The first pint of Guinness I ever finished- delish. After some of us went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It was a bit of a let down just because it was extremely small, but they had some interesting stuff in there. Emma and I walked over to our next meeting place- Dublin is large but pretty manageable to walk around- and it ended in the rain. We were getting so lucky with great weather it was bound to happen. We saw everyone at the Calatrava bridge (it was new and very awesome- in the shape of the Guinness harp!) and took a look at the new Lebieskind theatre that just opened yesterday. We followed Chris to dinner- amazing little Italian place- I finally had the caprese I had been craving! We got our luggage from the hostel and went to the bus station to get to the airport. We were there by 11 and I slept from then until 4am when we had to check in for our 6am flight. Luckily we found a Starbucks that had some great couches for us to sleep on so it definitely could have been worse- and this way we didn’t have to stress about finding a cab at 4am and paying for another night at the not-so-great hostel.

3/20/10
Made it to Berlin safe and sound! Talk about culture shock- I know absolutely zero German- this will be interesting. Took a bus and the metro to the hostel, which was conveniently right by a metro stop and checked in. Much nicer than our last hostel! Now- shower and nap time. Still raining so hopefully it clears up and we can do one of the free tours of the city- we all will need it!