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About Lizzie's blog

Name: Lizzie

Home University: San Diego State University

School Abroad: National University of Ireland, Galway

Growing up with parents who love to travel, I was raised to be an independent spirit. After high school, I moved 8 hours away from home in northern California to attend San Diego State University. I am studying Hospitality and Tourism Management with an emphasis in Hotel Operations. With a combined love of people and travel, I hope to work in hotels all over the world.

Currently, I am studying abroad through Academic Programs International in Galway, Ireland and soaking up the hospitable nature of the Irish. While living in Galway, I am hoping to pursue as many of my passions as possible including: taking photos, traveling, writing, singing karaoke, and meeting new people. I hope you enjoy following my journey!

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oh what a day.

Lizzie's Ireland Blog

oh what a day.

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lizzie

3-16-2011 9:44 AM

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friday was pure chance, luck, and fun. thursday night, we spent the evening at one of our favorite pubs: the dail bar. and we decided we wanted to go somewhere. see something. do anything.

"let's go to dublin!"

so friday morning, my roommate lauren and i struggled to wake up early but we forced ourselves to move. and we headed to the bus station. we had 6 minutes to make the next bus so we got in line at the customer service/ticket desk and crossed our fingers. there was only one woman in front of us, so i was sure we’d make it. but do you want to know what i heard her say?

ticket man: so what time would ye like to leave?
lady in line: um, i don’t care. what do you think?
ticket man: uh. well it’s up to ye.

i couldn’t do anything except turn to lauren and giggle. a woman was actually asking the man selling tickets to decide her travels for her. we were now down to exactly 2 minutes before the bus took off. and when we got to the ticket man and asked for two tickets to dublin, he said…

ticket man: oh no, ye just but yer tickets from the bus driver himself.

and off we ran. we were literally the last two on the bus and we had to hop on right before takeoff. but we made it. and for the next 3 hours we read and listened to our ipods.

when we got to dublin, it was pouring rain. not a pretty light drizzle, but pouring. so lauren and i ducked out of the rain and into the nearest pub. we freshened up a bit in the bathroom and then decided to walk to the abbey theatre. i had had my eye on a play called no romance for a while now. and i knew that they offered student tickets and that the play was on at 8pm every evening. luckily, the rain had stopped and we found our way to the theatre.

but of course, this was a friday night. and clearly the show was a success because the tickets were sold out. but the most lovely, young lady behind the ticket desk tried really hard to get us tickets. she phoned another employee who had reserved two tickets for herself and asked if we could buy them. no. then i asked her if there were any other shows playing tonight and she showed us a brand new play that looked like it may have been about war.

lauren and i both wanted to see a show so as we decided we’d just see that one, the lovely lady said, wait i have an idea! she sold us two tickets for the handicapped section. it was a brand new wing a bit higher than the normal stadium and it only seated four people. we thanked her over and over and gladly accepted the seats. (i’m currently kicking myself for not getting her name, because i make a habit of leaving positive comment cards when i receive good customer service, and let me tell you, she was amazing).

but we had a few hours to kill before the play so we walked around a bit. we bought green face paint for st. patricks day and ate a glorious meal in a pub around the corner. we were so hungry that it may have been one of the first times that i haven’t taken a picture of my food before eating it.

then we headed to the temple bar district.

we had a pint in the quays bar

and listened to an amazing live singer. he sang both traditional irish tunes and well known american ballads. lauren and i were both boggled by the number of drunk, drunk people. but it was 5 o’clock on a friday, so i suppose we can cut them a tiny bit of slack.

and we wandered over to the famous temple bar. it was as expected packed full of people. but we squeezed our way in, managed to order a drink, and again found live music.

i snapped this photo while they were on a break. the temple bar just feels so cool. almost too cool for me to take photos in. almost.

then we stumbled upon an amazing gelato restaurant that i found when i was in dublin in 2008 with my family. so we of course both went in and ordered a small cup. lauren got a pistachio piece of heaven and i ordered an almondy type. even though i was freezing cold, the gelato was the perfect addition to our evening.

finally it was time to make our way back to the abbey theatre for our show and our “vip” seats. but really, we felt like vips. we had our own entrance. we were higher than everyone, and boy were we looked at. we were completely alone looking down on a packed theatre. i felt comfortable enough to pull out a few snacks from my bag and munch away. it was heaven. again, thank you lovely lady who works at the abbey theatre. you deserve a big huge promotion to manager of the entire theatre. or better yet, you should think about working in the hotel industry….

the show was great. it was a little bit dramatic but mostly hilarious. i’d recommend it a hundred times over. we were out of the theatre at about 11pm and we mosied our way through the cold cold air to the bus stop. unfortunately the next bus wasn’t until midnight. so we spent the next 45 minutes playing cards in a pub and getting warm. and then back to the bus stop we went where we were squished amongst a bus full of travelers. but over the next hour we hopped seats and people got off and eventually, both lauren and i found ourselves spread out in the very back of the bus. i slept and lauren looked out the windows, and around 3.30am we found ourselves back in our tiny apartment in galway.

oh what a day.

galway, ireland, dublin

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