From Granada, With Love: Dublin, Ireland

           After traveling for two days I finally arrived in Dublin around 1pm on Tuesday, the 23rd of August. My first impression of the city was wow, this is small. After chatting with the cab driver for a bit I found out that Dublin is only 1.5 million people and all of Ireland is only 4 million. To put it in perspective the city of Chicago with 8 million people, is twice the size of this entire country. Which explains why I was so shocked, when I thought of Dublin I thought of a big city that liked to drink and party. Yet when I arrived I found a small city that drank mainly beer and was very reserved. So for all those who claim they are Irish and that means they can drink a lot. Think again. Irish people do not party half as much as Americans, they sit, chat and sip on beers. The first day I stuck with my plan I had told my dad, I was going to go to the nearest pub get some drinks and hopefully make friends. And what do you know? This loose plan actually worked I met some French and German girls and we ended up going to two nearby pubs that night.
            The second day I ran into some boys wearing Boston Red Sox hats, seeing the hats I realized I had finally found some Americans and went to talk to them. And since those guys had been the only Americans I had seen in the entire city so far we became fast friends. So on the second night me with my newly acquainted Duke University friends went to a couple pubs, one from the movie, P.S. I love you and then onto a club. The clubs in Dublin are nothing like those in the U.S. There was no techno, house, trance or top 40 mashups. There was an open roof and a live cover band. The Irish band was amazing, they were covering American songs better than any band I have seen before. But they weren't playing typical party music they were covering all rock music even going as far as to cover a Blink 182 song. It blew my mind. After having spent all summer working in bars and clubs it was a shock to see what another country referred to as "clubbing". Luckily at the end of the night we found a McDonalds, but this ended up being a shock too, this was no ordinary McDonalds. It was open 24 hrs, complete with body guards at the door and 7 euro big macs. Which is $10 USD. Now I would like to know what it is they put in their big macs that make it worth $10 instead of $4.
             As for the sightseeing I toured the Guinness factory with the boys from Duke, and gave myself a self-guided tour of Temple Bar, Grafton St and St. Stephens Green/Garden. Since the city is so small the past two days I have set out on my own and wandered around trying to soak it all in and by this point I think I have seen everything there is to see. The city has no distinct culture to it like other European cities, at least not that I have seen thus far. The one claim to fame Dublin has is it's pubs. At one pub we went to yesterday there was a Guinness and Carlsberg tap at our table and it recorded how many pints you drank just like at Bull&Bear in Chicago. And if you know where to go you can experience the fabled dark and ominous pubs that make Dublin what it is. Below are some pictures I have taken over the past two and a half days.