Guiness Guzzlin'

Once upon a time, I had a good Portland job and a steady paycheck. I shopped at Trader Joe’s, drank crafty cocktails, and had regular conversations about mundane celebrity gossip. Then one day, I had a melt-down, quit my job, and joined the ranks of millions of crusty backpackers trekking their way across the world.

Major travel-bug status.

Yet, four months of traveling Asia should have cured me, right?

Wrong!

Turns out, I’m perpetually crisis-ed and bugged.

After a summer of Montana mountains, mini-trips, and Portland weird-ness, symptoms of the travel-bug resurfaced. Restlessness, hours of drooling over #travel on Instagram, random cravings for haggis and Asian street food, and the mysterious appearance of an over-seas plane ticket on my bank account…

Hello Dublin!

Shamrocks, Leprechauns, Pots ‘O Gold, pub life, an abundance of potatoes…all that jazz…

I must say, the journey over was a b****…a 5 am flight from PDX, 5-hour layover in Newark, and a 6-hour red-eye flight to Dublin. I arrived utterly sleep-deprived at my hostel around 9:00 am the next day, only to learn that my bed wouldn’t be ready for 6 hours…

Of course, it only seemed logical to use this time as a jet-lagged zombie to get my first taste of Irish culture!

Guinness, a venison pie, live Irish music, and chats with friendly locals…not a bad start! Of course, they did most of the chatting, whereas I just smiled, nodded, and tried to decipher what the f*** they were saying…

Irish people are extremely nice and friendly, but can be quite difficult to understand!

Anyways, the next day proved to be much more productive.

Christ Church Cathedral

Hideous.

Utterly disgusting.

Dublin Castle too.

St. Patrick’s Cathdral

Like most European cities, Dublin is quite historic & beautiful.

After a day of bobbing around the city center, snapping away at my camera as I drank in these lovely sights, it was time to move on to my other favorite kind of drinking.

Beer, beer, beer.

Although Dublin loves its traditional beers, the hostel staff were only too kind to share this microbrewery gem with me. They brew a variety of delicious porters, stouts, IPAs, and red ales!

Mmm…helps me not to miss my beloved pumpkin beer as much.

Sadly, my first night out in Dublin ended with an event so traumatizing, that I had previously only witnessed it in my worst nightmares…

The Porterhouse is located in a touristy, historic area called Temple Bar, which is chockful of popular bars, pubs, restaurants, and nightclubs. Soon after I left the Porterhouse, my BRAND NEW IPHONE 6 was pick-pocketed right out of my money-belt bag…which was strapped on to my torso.

Apparently, there are some nasty Romanian pick-pockets running amok in the area.

BE CAREFUL IN DUBLIN!!!!!

Needless to say, that certainly put a damper in my night, and subsequently drove me to REALLY indulge in some Irish culture…..

& drink until 6:00 am.

So what do you do when you wake up from a couple hours of drunken sleep with a wicked hangover and the miserable realization that your brand new Iphone 6 is still gone?

Irish breakfast!

Eggs, sausages, bacon, black pudding, white pudding, mushroom, tomato, greens, toast, & tea. All that’s missing is a big, fat Bloody Mary…

Delish.

My remaining days were spent further indulging in Irish culture by drowning my phone sorrows in Guinness, talking to jolly Irishfolk, and taking more ugly pictures:

Four Courts

Trinity College

O'Connell Monument

Custom House

Brazen Head-Ireland's Oldest Pub (1198)

Drinking Fun Facts:

1. It’s extremely common for the Irish to have a pint at any and all hours of the day–morning, noon, and night. It’s encouraged, even.

2. Age means nothing when it comes to going out & getting crazy drunk. I went to numerous bars on Saturday night that were completely crowded with drunk partiers…all at least 40 years my senior.

3. Slainte means “cheers” in Gaelic.

4. It is not customary to tip bartenders.

5. Many Irish refuse to drink a Guinness outside of Ireland, since it “doesn’t travel well.” I must say, I don’t blame them–the Guinness in Dublin is the best I’ve ever tasted.

Guiness Storehouse

Guiness Factory

Drunk Dublin munchies:

Seafood Chowder with Soda Bread

And....my old favorite...

Sticky Toffee Pudding!

Other facts:

1. Gaelic (or just “Irish”, as they call it) is taught to all Irish students from a young age. Everyone speaks English, but the use of Gaelic is still quite widespread throughout Ireland.

2. Celtic mythology and folklore are prominent in Irish culture, and are often taught to youngsters in place of actual history.

3. Ancient Celtic warriors took magic mushrooms before they fought, because they believed they made them immortal.

Oh Ireland…

So yes, my new fancy phone was snatched right out of my money-belt my first night out in Dublin. Yet, I can’t deny that it’s a lovely city, with friendly people, plenty of live music, and abundant history.

And yes, I do believe I drank more Guinness there than water.

I’ll be back in a few weeks, but until then…

bring on Berlin!