Dublin and Drogheda

Yay for Ireland

Maddy is here. Maddy and Niki. Woohooo. For those unfortunate souls who haven't had the pleasure of meeting her, Maddy is my friend from Christchurch. We have been friends forever and shes about to go live in Spain and it worked out that I could make it to Ireland for my last week and she could for her first week....ANYWAY

Dublin rules

We only had one full day. Oh and also, another useful fact: Maddy and I were in an Irish band together in high school called Drogheda. We have medals to prove it.... oh yeah.

But yes. Dublin is an amazing city. Its huge (fecking expensive) and so alive and fun.

The night we arrived was catch-up night so we just roamed. We ended up at a burger place in Temple Bar and only realised once we had sat down that it was a New Zealand themed burger place. They served Steinlager and Mac's Gold and the tomato sauce was in bottles shaped like tomatoes.... epic fail gingers.

The next day we did a lot of history related things. It was awesome. Irish history is the best. We went and saw the General Post Office (GPO) which bore visible scars of the 1916 Easter Rising.

We went to Dublin Castle and got a really good tour for only 3.50! woohoo! It was cool. We learnt a lot.

Trinity College

St Patricks Cathedral

We had a picnic in St Stevens Green.

Molly Malone - Cockles and mussels anyone?

The Red Rose Cafe! It wasnt in a harbour.

AND we went to Kilmainham Gaol.

Recognise it? They filmed 'In The Name Of The Father' here. Excellent history and the tour was awesome. and only 2 euro! Maddy and I were particularly interested in the gaol because we used to sing a song together about one of the Easter Rising leaders who was gaoled there and executed there. The song is about how he was allowed to marry his girlfriend the night before his death. And we saw his cell and the place where he died and even saw a cell belonging to the girlfriend - Grace - who later got arrested for involvement in the Civil War.Joseph Plunkett's cell was the last one on the left.

As I mentioned, our band was called Drogheda, and Drogheda is actually a port town about an hour north of Dublin. Naturally we had to visit. Really all we wanted was this:

However, our twilight trip to Drogheda became all the more memorable thanks to Thomas - a 42 year old balding drunk man wearing a Mr Happy tshirt who insisted on buying us drinks in the first bar we had happened to wander into. In exchange for the free beer we had to listen to his life story. Twice - he seemed to forget which parts he had already told, and the details kept changing... oh boy... what a character.

We also witnessed a crime.

Oh and LOOK - this was in the windows of the town hall.

It reads: We have been sent to EXTERMINATE the recession. ....WTF?

So yes. Trip to Drogheda: TICK!

If had been day time we could also have visited Oliver Plunkett's severed head..... shame shame.

Oh the hilarity when Maddy is around.

Much manic laughter I can assure you. Its lovely to see her again.