I decided very last minute to go with a friend, Katrina, and a few of her friends to Dublin to catch Walk The Moon on their european tour at The Academy in Dublin. My original thoughts were to do down for the concert, and try to get a late night bus back that same night potentially. I had a lot of work to do for the next week that I wanted to get out of the way while I had the chance. But, peer pressure got the best of me, and I ended up staying for two nights. [It really didn't take much convincing, there was a pub crawl on the line, compared to writing a paper...]
So once the six of us got on the right bus [after the first bus completely dissed us and drove off] we were on our way to Dublin. It took us awhile once we were in the city to find the hostel, since our map reading skills were less then adequate. We then meandered our way over to The Academy. While the opener band, The Rubens (?) were doing their set, Katrina, Erin, Ricky and myself decided to get face paint that is customary at a Walk The Moon concert. As we are getting our faces all colorful we begin to chat up what I assumed was just some guy who worked for either the band as a PR rep or someone from the venue... nope. Turns out is was the lead singer in casual clothes, and glasses... nothing gets passed us. Regardless, he was incredibly humble and just a chill guy to chat with. If you haven't listened to any of their music, I strongly suggest checking them out, and he wasn't to shabby on the eyes either ;)
So after a great set by the band, we headed over to the Temple Bar area to sip down some seriously over priced drinks and enjoy good company.
The next day we woke up early to get the hostel's free breakfast and went out adventuring around Dublin. We started out with a meal at Supermacs. Our go to eating spot for the weekend, I'd say we ate the majority of our meals here or the attached Papa Johns. After lunch we headed over to the Trinity College campus, which was absolutely gorgeous. We stopped of into an exhibit about movement that I believe is put on by the colleges science department. Some of the pieces that stuck out was a sound proof dark chamber that you go into, where they play what it sounds like to be in a mouth. It was in fact as weird as it sounds, of course I couldn't stop laughing through the whole thing, so I doubt I got the intended experience. There was also a room where flashing lights at different rates and sounds played, and they reorganized the firing pattern of your neurons. It sounds like a torture chamber, but after about two minutes you really don't notice the changing patterns, and it becomes rather relaxing.
After the exhibit, we hit up the Oscar Wilde statue in the park and went into an art museum where they had a great installment of drawings done by Yates as well as some other great pieces of art. By that time we figured we should get some food, so the girls [Katrina, Erin, and myself] ventured off in search for some chinese takeout while the boys [AJ, Jacob, and Ricky] went to Spar. We linked back up at the hostel where we started drinking with fellow travelers. By the time we were supposed to leave for the pub crawl the majority of us were fairly drunk and ready to go.
This is the part where the weekend gets a bit hazy. I'd say we went to about 5 to 6 bars, each of which we got a shot on the house, and then we would buy additional drinks. At one of the bars we were ushered downstairs to play some good ole fashioned Beer Pong. Erin and I partnered up, and I failed the team miserably... it was an embarrassment, but to be fair I think AJ and Jacob lost as well. As we progressed throughout the night we ended up losing AJ and Ricky at Whelans, but at Dandelion we met some nice Irish fellas who were absolutely hysterical. Once we decided to call it a night we ended back at Supermacs until closing for some late night drunchies [drunk + munchies]
Sunday morning we woke up and decided to get some food and try and get a bus back to Limerick. We ventured back into the heart of Dublin to Bewley's. A great cafe, famous for their tea, but I had to get some coffee before I passed out and opted for an equally delicious cappuccino. We ended up missing the bus we wanted to catch, but that just meant another hour of exploring. So we went to St. Stephens Green for a quick visit and then hurried back to the bus stop for the next one out to UL.
Overall, It was a fantastic weekend, and I am glad peer pressure got the best of me and I ended up staying for the entire weekend.
Let me apologize now for the photo quality. They were mostly all taken off of my phone.
Some of our face paint. At the concert everyone does a bit of face paint to match the band's tradition of doing it.
Walk the Moon.
One of the only group shots where we are all looking sane and smiling. This was after we got our face painted by Nick from the band. From left to right: Myself, Erin, Ricky, Katrina, Nick from Walk the Moon, AJ, and Jacob. Photo courtesy of the wonderful Katrina Lim.
To the left is the river that runs through Dublin, the River Liffey.
To the right is the floor mosaic of the original Bewley's cafe. It is now a really nice Starbucks [shocker.] and a larger Bewley's Cafe is open around the corner.
Getting Wilde at the park.
Here we are at the Old Storehouse on out pub crawl around Dublin. I have no idea where AJ went in this photo.
Wonderful cup of coffee from Bewley's to hopefully make make me look less like the walking dead from our night out.
The entrance to St. Stephens green, and a bust from the art museum that I thought had a striking resemblance to Bill Murray.
