Birthday and Limerick

So my birthday was awesome. Wednesday night, we went to a club called D TWO. The people who go there are like the girls from “The Hills,” with bleach blonde hair and orangey tan skin to the high heavens. They all wear skirts too short for them, and it was incredibly crowded. We had a fun night, but I wouldn’t go back there again. But the club is also 18 and over on Wednesdays, whereas every other night is 21 and over. So that could have attributed to it. Thursday night we went to a place called Doyle’s in the city centre. This place was fun. It wasn’t too crowded and the music was more rock and less techno. So many clubs play horrible techno music and it gets annoying. Friday I went to the Garda Immigration Bureau to get my “visa.” It didn’t take too long – only 4 hours. Then around 3pm Caroline, Emma and I left Dublin for Limerick. Everyone kept asking us WHY? but we want to see everything in Ireland, and Limerick is a place in Ireland. Plus, the book “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt (a true story) takes place in Limerick so we wanted to see it.
So, the hotel we ended up booking was great. For 15 euro a person per night, it was a beautiful hotel with a full Irish breakfast in the morning. I found it on a hostel website, but it ended up being a hotel. Even though it was about a half mile outside of the city centre in a boro called Roxboro, it wasn’t half bad. We took a taxi around town all night because we didn’t know where we were going, but we ended up at a place called the Wicked Chicken. It was a pretty old looking bar, but the people seemed nice. The bartender was smiley, and had dreadlocks. This was definitely the more rock/punk place in town, which I was totally cool with. And since there was live music, we were totally psyched. The bad who played was AMAZING. They are called The Gorgeous Colours. We chatted it up with some of the band members before they played their set, and they were just so nice! The Irish are perhaps the nicest people in the world. They just love to have good conversation and they enjoy all the small things. The video of them is at the bottom of this blog. They were just so enjoyable, as Emma and Caroline would say. Saturday we woke up early to get to Adare, a small village 20 minutes outside of Limerick. Apparently it is known as the prettiest village in Ireland, but I’ll be the judge of that after I see the rest of Ireland. The thing with Adare was that it so tiny and it was just one street of shops, and a few friaries. It wasn’t THAT great. But it definitely was cute. Then we took the bus back to Limerick city, saw King John’s Castle, the River Shannon and did a little shopping in this great consignment shop called Enable Ireland. They are all over Ireland and the (cheap) procedes go to helping those with disabilities. The city itself is filled with scary looking people, like bad teeth (or no teeth)…just a bit dirty. It was a pretty dirty city overall to be completely honest. Now I know why so many people asked us why the hell we wanted to go there. It was pretty unimpressive. It was filled with more nasty old drunk men than any other place I’ve been thus far. And the younger guys had no problem whistling at you from across the way. It was just sick..people in Dublin just aren’t like that. I didn’t appreciate it. On the bus ride home, we almost witnessed a fight, and I lost my makeup case. I have to call the bus station to retrieve it.
But anyway, Saturday night we headed back to our “home” and went out to a club called Pod. Thank god I got in for free with a pass I picked up, because if I had paid I would have been upset. It was quite possibly the worst clubbing experience I’ve had. THEE worst music EVER, and boring locals. Just so dumb.
Yesterday the girls and I went to Stephens Green shopping centre to food shop and get internet; YES, ours crashed AGAIN. In the foodmarket, we kept colliding with other shoppers, for reasons unknown.. I mean the aisles are pretty tight... and each time we ran into someone, they smiled and laughed and said sorry and were just so happy to be there. We were laughing because at home we would have gotten the evil eye and the middle finger. It's just another world here. On our way out, this 40-something year old man was dancing to his reflection in the store window, like Bee-Gees style. It was HILARIOUS. I wish I had had my camera to capture the moment.
Anywhooo, take a look at my new pictures and videos LOVE

The Gorgeous Colours


A 1312 Augustinian Friary


My album from Limerick

Limerick and Birthday Festivities!