As the sun sets over Dublin

For the long weekend a group of 11 of us made the journey to Dublin Ireland. We took the train Thursday night, which was a very interesting experience to say the least.  We then hopped on a ferry which took us from holyhead Wales to Dublin.  The journey was long and tiresome but we made a few friends, who also happened to be from the states, along the way.  When we first landed in Dublin the sun was just starting to come up over the harbor.  It was really something spectacular to behold.  We then took a bus to the hostel where we dropped off our luggage.  Joie and I stayed behind and caught some sleep while everyone else went out on full day tours.
That night, Joie and I got to experience Dublin's pub and club scene through going on a pub crawl. We met loads of really awesome people including Anne, who was a bit crazy.  We lost her after the first pub, but found her later on with something strange.  She had gone to the toilets only to come back with a new hair cut! She let some women in the toilets cut her hair! Shockingly enough it actually turned out pretty good for getting a drunk hair cut.  We also met one of the tour guides, who's name was Neil.  He was about 3 years older than us.  He was a literary student who worked at the James Joyce center, which I was thrilled with since I, also shockingly enough, love James Joyce. The pub crawl was a lot of fun. We got to experience the stereotypical Dublin pub with an irish band that sang Irish songs song from Irish pub (Galway Girl). It was amazing! We also went to Wheeler, which is the pub in P.S. I Love You. Overall it was a very good night!
The next and last day of our trip to Dublin we made our way to the James Joyce center.  Neil gave us a tour and also showed us this amazing sandwich place that had the best veggie subs.  He then took us to a war monument park, were we ate and chatted about life.  We were all finished with our sandwiches and talking when he jumped up and decided to take us to the Dublin museum of art, which was down the street, to show us his favorite painting and Francis Bacon's studio.  Francis Bacon's studio was amazing! They had taken all of the stuff from his old studio and set it up exactly where he had left everything.  It was a giant mess, but the space also held something very creative about it.  We then left Neil to search for the Jameson distillery and a church, which supposedly let you rub the finger of a dead saint.  Sadly, the church ended up being closed (which was weird since it was a saturday). So we made our way to Jameson.  The distillery was very interesting, but honestly the best part was all the different Jameson's that we got to try. By the time we were done with that itwas time for us to head back to the hostel to pack up and catch our flight back to London since I had plans for the next day.  Overall I loved experiencing Dublin as a city through the eyes of a local, but I do wish we had done a tour through the country side. I guess there is always another visit! I will definitely be going back!