Ireland- Land of the Dads
IRELAND!!!!!! Such a freaking cool country. It is beautiful and fun and the people of Ireland are the nicest people I have ever met. I have been to Ireland twice. Both very different experiences and majority of my time was spent in Dublin for both trips. I say Ireland is land of the dads because it is homey, locals are friendly, everyone is always drinking a beer and locals are MORE THAN HAPPY to give you directions and are telling you to be careful.
Dublin in September 2022
Picture this: You and your two best friends are drunk in the Delta Sky lounge in JFK off of champagne. You have probably had a bottle a piece and boarding your flight to Dublin is blurry. But you do remember one of your friends getting upgraded to first class (fucking bitch) while you and your other friend lay on each other in coach to sleep through this red eye across the pond. You wake up in Dublin around 8am which is 2am EST so naturally it is time to hit the town. As you pull into your hotel, the cab driver has already told you the most fun places to go and see, where the best food is, how to be careful and take care of each other and about his cousin Johnny who owns a shop next to our hotel and if you get lost or need anything to go in the store and ask for cousin Johnny. This September in Dublin was cloudy and a little rainy so you are diving into pubs all day to avoid the rain. And with going into a pub you have to get a pint because you are there (you have to, ok?! I don’t make the Ireland rules). One thing about Ireland bar culture that is completely different than US bar culture is (people are nice) people will offer you their seat. All seats in pubs are first come-first serve, even if you are sitting down to eat. And in the US you already know people are guarding tables and saving seats and are aggressive when it comes to “taking a seat” that they are saving for someone. As soon as you and your friends walk into this pub, it is packed! You look around to see there is not enough seats for the three of you and as you turn to leave a woman with the thickest Irish accent on the planet yells “Hey kiddos! There are three seats over here with us, you can sit here!” You and your friends join the elderly couple as they get up to dance to live Irish music. You order a cider at 10am, watch this elderly Irish couple dance and be in love and smile at your friends. You have made it to Ireland.
This trip was supposed to be a week long, only spending the weekend in Dublin. All three of us were supposed to rent a car and drive across the country to see all of the things, Galway, Cliffs of Moher, and the cows and all. And my two friends did, but I had to cut my trip early…….. After two days in Dublin, it was our third and last day there. My drinking intake had dwindled down (you can only drink so much Guinness and cider) and my water intake had increased. We were eating lunch at a pub and my eye sight started to go blurry and narrow and I instantly thought I was going to pass out. I found an urgent care that was only $40 for a general visit and paid a visit. They told me I was hungover….. Like girl, I have been hungover before and this is not it. The doctor said “Americans don’t know how to handle their alcohol over here.” After my last night in Dublin of high fever and getting sick, I moved my flight back to JFK to the next morning, cutting my trip 6 days short. When I went to my doctor in the US, I was in fact not hungover but had a double ear infection and the flu <3
All that to say, a weekend in Dublin was still fun as fuck but I did not see all of the country stuff. You should ask my friends about that part!
Dublin in September 2023
Picture this: You and your best friend are at your local bar in NYC and have had two sips of a light beer. She says “I really want to go to Ireland.” So you pull out your Delta app and see what weekend is the cheapest to go and within the 15 minutes of her saying that, you have a confirmed seat to Dublin from JFK just for the weekend. Dublin is faster to get to from New York than it is to get to California. After drama on the flight to Dublin with zero sleep (this guy passed out in the aisle for no reason and everyone else was screaming and running around) you made it. This weekend is filled with tours, pub crawling and eating an insane amount of fish & chips. You make one hungover day trip to Kilkenny which is this cutie little Irish town with old castles, antique shops and really old people touring the area with digestive issues. Your bus ride there is fine but your bus driver on the way back to Dublin is drunk and swerving across the road. It is already scary because they drive on the opposite side of the road here and the driver is driving from the passenger side. So after surviving the bus driver’s DUI, you make it back to Dublin. Last night, lets go to a pub. At the pub, you and your friend watch a soccer game as 13 grown men hug and cheer and cry in joy when the green team is winning and cuss and cry again when the green team is losing. They are super sad when the green team finally loses so you offer them a baby Guinness (which is a shot, not a tiny beer). After chatting for a few minutes, you are best friends with these older Irish gentlemen. And a ton of pints of beer later they are telling you how careful you and your friend need to be when you are going out not only in Ireland, but everywhere in Europe and even the US (reminds me of my dad). After hugs and cheers later, you end the night and you end your time in Dublin where you will for sure be back.
