We set sail on Tuesday, June 23rd, for Berlin, Germany. There are four of us from the Engineering group going on to, what is being referred to as, the after prom party. We have multiple destinations, and in true American fashion, we’re going to as many places in as few of days as possible.
We went ICE, high speed, train from Leipzig to Berlin. It was a great time for me to catch up on my blogging since there are plugs on the train. When we arrived in Berlin we bought a one way ticket for the S-Bahn train, which is the local train similar to Chicago’s L. We arrived at the stop, and walked about 5 blocks to our hostel. We ate at a little Italian restaurant across the street, and settled into the hostel bar for a few last German beers. After a few quick Euchre games and good conversation with a man from Dublin, we were ready to call it a night.
We caught the local train to the airport and checked in. Ryanair is notorious for charging massive amounts of money for baggage, and we have clothes form the past six weeks. Some of us packed a little lighter then others. I came in on the low end at 18 kilos in my big backpack, and a 10 kilo bookbag. Frank came in on the high end at 36 kilos.
We arrived safely in Dublin around 11 am. We went to the tourist information desk, got bus passes, and made our way to downtown. But wait.... What's this? Something is tickling my ears.... Everyone is speaking english. You completely underestimate the power of eavesdropping until it's gone. We could now understand what everyone was saying on their phones. Absolutely weird feeling. As a group we're still speaking German in order to be polite, only to realize we're in a mainly english speaking country. We dropped our luggage off at the hostel and made for lunch. After an irish stew and a Guiness we sat in the park and enjoyed the cloudless sky until it was time to check in.
After we checked in we had some computer time in order to tell our parents that we were in fact alive, and to contact a few people that we knew in Dublin. Frank's cousin is studying abroad, and coincidentally, she is only a few blocks from our hostel, which is located next to the Temple Bar, the most pretisgious bar in Dublin.
A quick nap was in order after all of this. Three hours later, we got up checked our emails and headed out to meet frank's cousin and a few of her friends. We met them at the main entrance of Trinity College in Dublin, much to our surprise there were about 8 girls waiting there for us. We grabbed a quick bite at a pub, and we headed for the bars.
I must interject a little tid bit of information at this point. After being in Germany for 6 weeks, eating pork in everything, and drinking amazing German beer, our alcohol tollerance is a wee bit higher then ever in our lives. It takes a little more alcohol then normal for us to became inebriated. Also, Dublin is the most expensive city i have ever been to in my life. It is almost impossible to get a meal for under 10 Euro, or a beer for less then 3,50.......I spent way too much money in Ireland.
The next morning we woke up and Headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Guiness Brewery, and the Jamison Distillery. The guiness brewery was very cool... They walked you through the entire process, then at the end, you are given a pint of guiness and taught how to taste it. The beer we drank was 4 to 10 days old; Absolutely Delicious, although i'm not a fan of the beer in the US and A.
After an afternoon of tourist attractions, we were ready for a nap, but that's just not our style. We set up a meeting time with the Trinity college girls, and got ready to go out. About 20 minutes later, all four of us had showered, musked up, and were ready to rock for the night. We bought some beer with our left arm, met up with the girls, and headed to their place to pregame. After a few games and much conversation we headed to an authentic Irish pub.
We got to the basement of the pub, where it was very dark ordered ourselves a guiness, and enjoyed the live music that was being played by a guitarist and a recorder player. Above is a video with not much to see, but lots to hear.
After a few drinks, and a few great songs, a man came running down the stairs screaming something. He had such a thick accent that it was very difficult to understand him. It almost sounded as if he said Michael Jackson is dead. That's obviously not possible, so we must have misunderstood him. NO! That's definatly what he said, he must have known we were American, and has decided to make it his mission to mess with us. When the band was done playing, he went up to them and told them. They announced it, there were cheers, and they immediatly began to play smooth criminal with the words, "Michael you ok? you ok Michael?" This was then shared with more laughs. When the band finished, we all headed for another bar, it was starting to get late and the four guys in the group had to be up at 4 in order to catch our flight to Edinburgh, Scotland. I had one last 5 Euro beer and started to say my goodbyes, which is difficult to do to a group of 8 girls. Dirk had put down about 8 guiness and was starting to show it, but Frank did not want to leave, and Jay was already home in bed. We got back to the hostel around 1, perfect! Three hours of sleep and a one hour plane ride. Frank rolled in about 3:30 just in time to wake up for the day. Let's just say Frank and Dirk were feeling a little rough the next day.
