Slainte!

My weekend in Dublin ended this morning VERY early, as myself and my two friends had to be at the airport before 5:30 am! I had an incredible weekend in Ireland, and didn't want to leave; this was surprising as Ireland really wasn't very high on my list of to-visit places until my friend invited me to take the trip with them.  Nothing personal, I had just already been there a long time ago and remembered it as being really pretty, but really slow-paced, and not much to do.  There did really end up being a lot of things to do and see, but the pace was slightly slower than the previous few trips I had taken.  This turned out to be EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED!  I really enjoyed spending time in Dublin, and interacting with the locals, who were really nice, and helpful! We had random strangers asking us if we needed directions, suggestions for dinner, etc... Although we decided that as a whole, the men were much nicer than the women...that could have had something to do with the fact that we were a group of four girls...two redheads :) The guys we met were certainly interesting let me say!
The day-long bus trip that we took on Sunday was definitely the highlight of the trip! Although it also left outrageously early in the morning (we really didn't have any sleeping in days), it was a relaxing day filled with beautiful sights of the countryside, small towns, sheep, the gorgeous Cliffs of Moher, where we had a stroke of luck and the wind blew all of the thick fog away for us! Our tour guide was really nice, funny, and had a great accent; he even sang for us along the way!
I ate some delicious food, first of all including "flapjacks" sort of a granola bar but chewier, with chocolate, and nuts and toffee etc on top of it! Other than that, the stews, sheperd's pies, Guinness (must admit had to choke that one down on the Guinness factory tour!), and irish breakfast were the icing on the cake of a wonderful weekend! 
The last day, my friend and I went to the famous Kilmainham Gaol (jail) outside of Dublin, and although we were too late for a tour of the actual jail, we were given free tickets to the museum of the history of the jail, which was really interesting for my friend and I after taking a course last semester at BC that included discussions about prisoner justice.
We also stopped by The Church, and beautiful old church that was converted into a bar; the melding of the two is really interesting and pretty! Pretty much every restaurant that we were in there was some type of live music going on, and it was really cool to hear a mix of contemporary and very traditional songs played, and to see that the locals knew all the songs and sang (and danced) along!
The final biggest surprise was that we stumbled upon Boston College's office in Dublin! We were strolling around the Saint Stephen's Green area, taking pictures of one particularly pretty rowhouse with relaly cool ivy/roots (?) growing along its walls, when I noticed that the window shades said Boston College! We rang the bell, and went in where we met a really welcoming women who works as the BC Ireland liason, who gave us a tour of the beautiful old historic house, told us about BC's Ireland program, and then gave us suggestions of places to eat, and visit, and shop!  It was such an unexpected treat, and made us feel really at home in Dublin!
All in all it was an incredible weekend and I now feel like I have quite a different image of Ireland in my head! I hope to go back again, and hop from inn to inn, and have more time to wander around the countryside!
Back in Paris/land of french :) couldn't be happier...
A bientot!
xoxo Gillian