Slap me silly and call me a leprechaun

As our time is winding down my roommates and I felt it only necessary to have one last hoo-rah. There was no debate...Dublin, Ireland it was. The trip could not have been more perfect - a perfect ending to an amazing semester! In my previous blogs I have said each trip was better than the last, but Ireland topped all these. I don't know if it was the lack of language barrier or how much Ireland made me feel like I was home, but this country has quickly become my favorite place on Earth. Everything about the country was beautiful and lively, even covered in snow. The Irish truly uphold their stereotype of drinking and singing, but in the most carefree and welcoming way. The fact that I also got to share this trip with my best friends here made this memory that much better.

Let me tell you all about the Emerald Isle...
    Being the excellent planners we are we chose to venture to Dublin in December - in the midst of their "Big Freeze." Climate shock is an understatement seeing as how we left Athens in t-shirts and couldn't put on enough clothes in Dublin. Our only solution was to join the Irish and warm up in the pubs :) We arrived at our hostel and a few hours later we were out on a pub crawl. Live music, dancing, & some berry cider made our first night in Dublin a complete success!


On the pub crawl - Jessica, Me and Jessi





Kearney's - Me, Jessi, Alicia, Leigh, Janine, & Jessica





Amazing live band at Kearney's

Day two we decided, for whatever reason, to brave the elements and take a walking tour of Dublin.



Dublin Castle




The infamous Temple Bar

The lack of photos on the walking tour is due to the fact I was trying to avoid frostbite on my fingers...

3 hours later and few toes less we were glad to seek shelter inside... inside the Guinness Factory nonetheless. Dublin's pride and joy is the Guinness Brewery and we felt it a must see. The factory was really neat. It was a self guided tour and at the end you are in the Gravity Bar that overlooks all of Dublin. Good times had by all!



"The world drinks over 10,000,000 glasses of Guinness every day"
That's impressive!



Leigh & I enjoying our free pint

 Now there is definitely more to Ireland than just Dublin. Therefore, we decided to take a leisurely day trip into the countryside. A two hour bus ride inland found us in Kilkenny. A quaint little town that look like it was picked straight out of a storybook. Our first order of business was exploring an authentic Irish castle - Kilkenny Castle

After the tour of the castle we explored the town a little bit and stopped into...you guessed it... a pub for some lunch.

Best Irish food EVER!

Jess and I waiting for the bus back to Dublin



Our last night in Dublin we had to go out on the town. We stayed literally 3 doors away from the infamous Temple Bar so we decided it was a must to visit. Literally the best night I have ever had! Live music, dancing, and too much laughing. Best night. Also, a funny thing about Ireland is that in the pubs if we heard it once we heard it 15 times... Johnny Cash! He still lives! ha

Here are some pictures from us at the Temple Bar.



All of us with an AMAZING group of sisters we met :)

Monday morning came around and we reluctantly headed to the airport. I have never been so sad to go back to Athens. Ireland was so amazing. While my enthusiasm may not come across in this blog this weekend was the best time of my life. I think the added fact that all of my best friends were together for one last hoo-rah made the realization that we will be leaving soon a reality - we all just wanted to stay in Ireland and freeze time.

So back to leaving Ireland... we flew into Frankfurt, Germany and had a wonderful 6 hour layover, so we decided to head to a Christmas Village in downtown Frankfurt. In the words of my friend Janine "Germany does Christmas on steroids!" It was neat to be down here because it was actually St. Nicolas Day in Germany - a pre-Christmas holiday where the children put there shoes at the end of their bed and St. Nick comes and fills them with candy. So the Christmas spirit was in full force when we were visiting.


Christmas Village!



Getting German pretzels was a must!




One of the hundreds of Christmas shops!



There you have it... the last 'trip' blog I will do for this semester. I'm still really sad to no longer be in Dublin, but I wouldn't change anything about this trip or the people I have met. I LOVE IRELAND!

Look for at least 1 more blog before my departure, but until then...

Love & Leprechauns