The place where all the goblins and ghouls started, the tradition to celebrate the day where the veil is thin and you can see those that have passed on. Of course now it’s about the best costumes and candy for the young, and the old. Boo! We arrived in Ireland wearing shorts, and two pears of jeans, with at least three shirts, a sweater and our winter coats. We were really hot, but being frugal, we only wanted to check in one bag, it costs 30 euros ($37) for one bag weighing 20kg (~44lbs, and yes our backpacks are heavy). We flew Ryanair, and the total cost for the both of us to fly from Cologne Germany to Dublin Ireland cost us only 42 euros. It’s cheap, and basic. The moment we arrived we’re greeted by a ton of Halloween decorations in the airport, from black and orange balloons and blow up witches to skeletons in graveyards displayed by baggage claims. We left the airport to catch a bus to our hostel. Ireland so far is the only place we’ve been to that doesn’t have a train connection to the airport. On our bus ride we saw gremlins and ghouls, and some very realistic makeup on a guy that I though was in a terrible accident. Traditionally the Irish celebrate halloween two weeks in advance. They get so hyped, it’s like last minute Christmas shopping in the states haha.

Our hostel the Kinlay house wasn’t the best we’ve stayed in but it wasn’t the worst. It was styled like a large frat house internally with multiple winding floors. You could see down the center. And a disorganized kitchen but it was large.
Our first stop, get some halloween paint. Not wanting to spend much money, we just purchased liquid latex, fake blood and some really cheap kiddie face paint. With that Daniel became a zombie ( I used my personal makeup to contour his face and make his skin pale) and I attempted to be the queen of hearts. After getting ready we headed to the temple bar area, where we met some Germans on holiday, and some Irish guys. I honestly just remember this one guy saying he met his wife tonight, that he was in love with her because she was into marvel and DC comics. I was amused. The night was a lot of fun, and everyone was there, it was like franklin street times ten. Just a big party. I’ll admit that some of the costumes along with the makeup had me do a double take, I had to think twice about why a doctor was roaming the streets in their uniform or why their was an officer wearing sunglasses at night. But they really do like halloween. And I like them for it! I really enjoy halloween, I think purely because I get to test my more creative makeup skills, and people welcome the thought of my testing whether I can achieve what they envision.

The next day we got up for a free tour of Ireland. I did not know that trinity college is where they filmed the Harry Potter dining scene! And that the cliffs of Moher was another spot, really cool for a Harry Potter fan. But the Irish started as a predominantly Pagan culture that then became Protestant and had riff raft and at some point converted to Christianity. Trinity college was formed by Queen Elizabeth in 1592.
A really interesting fact is that trinity college had a headmaster, named George Salmon that was asked if he would allow women into the university after all it was started by a woman. His response “over my dead body”, three days later he died. He is now buried under the main archway of the school where women are indeed walking over his dead body. The school also has a scholars test that they call skulls (I’m sure I’m misspelling that but the pronunciation is the same). The top students that pass the exam have everything taken care of for them at the university. They even have their own dining hall that they can only order in. It is also said that during exam time they’re allowed to order a pint of Guinness during their tests, a pretty crazy perk, but okay.
Dublin was named after a black pool, literally. It is now covered with grass and the Celtic symbol.

Also while in dublin we visited the Guinness warehouse to learn a little about their history. We were excited to taste the beer because we met a fellow from Ireland in France who ventured to America. He said the taste of Guinness in America was terrible compared to the taste in his hometown. When we arrived at the warehouse we purchased our tickets for 13 euro which included a free beer at the end of the tour. This may have been the most expensive beer we’ve ever paid for. We strolled around the factory learning how Guinness was made. I think the thing we both found most intriguing was how they built a barrel back in the day. The process was rigorous and to make one barrel it could take up to 4 hours depending on how skilled you were. After we wandered around we were able to redeem our free tickets in which we could either pour our own beer and drink it or go up to the sky deck and drink overlooking dublin. We chose to pour our own beers for the experience. Daniel used to be a bartender but never poured Guinness which may be the toughest beer of all to pour. To pour it correctly all in all the process takes 119.5 seconds. While waiting in line the lady was punching tickets for those who wanted to redeem their free beer by way of pouring it themselves. I got my ticket punched while Daniel claimed he was merely a photographer snapping pictures to remember the moment but we all know Daniel too well and this was not the case. He noticed that once inside no one rechecks tickets so he was able to pour his own beer and redeem a second beer on the sky deck. While on the sky deck we met two amazing women from NC, Amber and Yvonne. It’s crazy, we sat next to fellow nc-ers. We sat there and had such a wonderful time talking to the both of them who were visiting England and decided to take a little trip to Ireland. They were incredibly nice! The both of them also explained their awful experience at an Irish hospital, where they witnessed two nurses fighting over an IV pole because they had so few. There were patients in the hallways who had been there for hours, old, young, sick, bloody. Doctors on call never showed, and some patients had to call home to have their children deliver cholesterol medication because the hospital didn’t have any, how insane! Such a poorly equipped hospital. After we said our goodbyes to Amber and Yvonne we headed to a Mongolian barbecue buffet for the early bird special. Delicious!

Ireland is a pretty cool place to visit. They have restaurants everywhere and a ton of buffets! There’s a little something for everyone here. It is small and I think one trip may be enough, but you never know.

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