On the streets of Dublin

I love Ireland!! We left Barcelona and arrived at Dublin airport at midnight a few days ago. Stephanie's cousins were there to meet us and it took two cars and a van to transport the seven of us and our luggage to Tallaght to the house.
Being in a house has been amazing! The seven of us posted up, two in a room upstairs and five of us crashing on the couch and two air mattresses in their living room. It's been nice to no longer have dorms to stay in with a bunch of strangers.
The weather here has been great! It's pretty chilly most days, but after the heat and humidity of the last 3 countries, it was a welcome change. It rains off and on, but not as bad as in Cambridge.
The first day we were all so knackered that we slept til 1pm and then headed into Dublin to walk around a bit and go to dinner (Stephanie's cousin Erin took us to Captain America's...irony, no?). The next morning we got up early and headed into Dublin to explore Grafton Street and Temple Bar, lots of cool little shoppes and pubs and cafes. The next day we went on a tour to Maldehyde to see Maldehyde Castle, which was smaller than the average castle but still cool, and then down to Howth, this cool little fishing village. They had seals in the marina! Then yesterday we headed out to an all day tour to Glendalough, the Wicklow Mountains, and Kilkenny. Glendalough was beautiful; the scenery was amazing. Sarah Mac, Kristen, Alex, and I took a little hike along the lake and got some really pretty photos of the scenery. Then we drove through Wicklow (saw where Braveheart and PS I Love You was filmed) and ended in Kilkenny. It was Heritage Week there, so lots of stands were set up selling goods, candies, pies, etc. We explored Kilkenny Castle, which was gorgeous, and then walked around the town a bit.
Then last night we headed over to Johnnie Fox's, which is a traditional Irish pub, and it's the "highest" pub in Ireland. The view of Dublin from the top was absolutely amazing, and we had a great time singing along with the musicians in the pub (EVERY pub has live music 24/7) and drinking Bailey's. Tonight we're doing a big pub crawl in Temple Bar in Dublin which should be fun.
Ireland has been really great! The people are all very friendly, and the scenery is gorgeous. Dublin itself is a very chill city. It's not intensely crowded or rushed, and it's a short bus ride from where we're staying so we've been in and out every day.
Tomorrow I come home!! I can't wait to see what you guys have been up to and hear the latest.
I hope you've enjoyed my blog and I'm glad you guys were interested enough to keep reading! I will probably be putting up several facebook albums with pictures from each country within the next week so stay posted if you're on FB!
<3