cmcefalone's Travel Journals

cmcefalone

 
What is the most interesting thing you learned in another culture?

in Ireland, they refuse to seel u anything BUT breakfast food before 12 noon! rediculous! and in prague, they give you a shot " but expect you to sip it... the way their liquor tastes i wouldnt even want to sip it either!

  • 23 years old
  • Currently in Roma (Rome), Italy

Living in Italy!

arriving to Perugia

Ireland... crazy, crazy dublin.

Ireland Dublin, Ireland  |  Mar 04, 2009
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 we left at 4:30 am, no one else did 

Our plane was scheduled to leave at 10:20 am from Prague to Dublin. We didn’t take off until 12:30. This totally screwed our entire plans up for Dublin. We arrive and get a taxi to our hotel. Our driver was really cool, and actually drove on the wrong side of the road, and the wrong side of the car. I had no idea that people in Ireland drove opposite sides of the road and that the cars were set up opposite too. It gave me a little vertigo but we were okay, I had enough Dramamine in me from the plane. He told us all the cool irish food to eat and drink and where to go and we asked him if he drank Guinness he said “when my wife lets me, she tells me I need to stay away from the pint” HAHA! So cute, in his little irish accent with his white hair and short stature like a leprechaun. So he drops us off, we check in, get ready and head to the Guinness storehouse because we had tickets and it was closing at 5. We were starving so we decided to stop somewhere to eat. Somewhere Irish so we could try some typical irish cuisine. EDDIE ROCKETS! Haha, the Europe branch of Johnny Rockets, it wasn’t irish but it was American and we were craving it so we went in and had chili cheese fries and burgers and great fattening American food. After, we get to Guinness and we take the tour of the factory, and we got to taste fresh brewed Guinness and we also got to a try and Guinness muffin with a whip cream spread and it was DELICIOUS! We saw all the original and first bottles and every type of merchandise that Guinness ever sold and learned how they made it, and about the history etc. It was really cool. Im not a fan of Guinness at all but we were in Ireland so why not. After that we walked around the main streets and shopped a little bit but the Castle was closed so we decided to do the things that were closed the next morning before we left. We got back to our hotel to get ready for dinner and the bars. So we asked around for some traditional irish cuisine restaurants and they pointed us to a place called the “winding stair”. It sounded awesome but when we went in it was a loud smoky crazy environment and we weren’t ready for that yet we wanted a quiet relaxed dinner. So we went next door and ate sushi! Best sushi in Europe I have ever eaten. After we went over to Temple bar which is where allllll the bars are. We decided to stop first in THE temple bar and there was a band playing irish music with the flute and everything! It was so cool, so we ordered 2 pints of coors lites and we were the only people in there drinking beer that wasn’t black. After hanging out and meeting people and listening to the band we made our way to another bar… we wanted to order bottles this time because the pints were hittin us pretty fast and the 2 pints were 12 euro alone! So we order 2 bottles of corona and the bill comes to 11.50 euro. That was pointless but we hung out and watched the football (soccer but in Europe its football) game on tv and cheered and had a nice time with the irish. It was about 2am and it was closing so we went to a different bar and there was a band, and irish dancing and Guinness and leprechaun hats and it was crazy and we loved it, so we went in! I go to the bar and I want to order a baileys because im tired of this 12 euro beer crap. I ask the bartender “what do you serve with baileys?” He  looks at me and says “…ice”. So I payed for the 5 euro cocktail of baileys and ice and tino bought a beer. We met these 2 guys who were really insane and belligerently drunk and fun and after a few hours they actually got me and tino to irish dance! Haha we don’t even know how but we did it and we irish danced all night. Funnest night of the entire spring break. Tino looks at me and says what are these people doing its 4am don’t they have work tomorrow it’s a wed night! Wouldn’t you know that when we left at 4:30 am, no one else did, and when we were up at 7:30 am finishing up our sightseeing, everyone from the pubs was out doing their daily jobs. Gotta love the irish! So we had our breakfast and we wanted to go to the castle but it didn’t open until 9 so we saw trinity college first which is the first college of Ireland so its really old and pretty. Then we went to the castle but it was still closed so we just walked around and took pictures and then headed to temple bar to go into their merchandise store. We bought some more stuff and then tried to find a last minutes restaurant that could possibly serve us our irish cuisine we’ve been looking for. 7 restaurants and not one single place would serve us anything other than breakfast before 12 pm. Our plane was leaving for rome at 12:40 so we had to give up and hail a taxi back to the airport. Wouldn’t you know our plane is late again by an hour and a half. My biggest advice to you is to avoid ryanair… that airline is always late… fly skyeurope. We landed in Rome and needed to take a 45 minutes bus to the train station so we could get back to Perugia. We get off the bus and we  head into the train station and we are buying our tickets and I ask tino for his money, he reaches for his coat pocket and realizes he doesn’t have his coat on… it was still on the bus! He runs and luckily catches the bus in the middle of the street and gets his coat. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

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