First night out...and the morning after

Last night's festivities included two pubs and one club. Let me introduce you to the players: my neighbor Lauren, roommates, and an entourage of 4-6 guys also on our program. We left our apartment building around 9:30, it was still light out, the city doesn't get dark until about 11. The location of our building is awesome; we are about one block from the edge of the city center and its only a few more blocks to all the pubs and clubs. But of course it was not until we went five blocks in the wrong direction that we realized how close our apt was to where we wanted to be. Eventually we saw masses of people gathered, and we knew that we were where we wanted to be. The first pub we went to was King's Head. After surveying the scene (and checking out a few hot Irish guys) we found a table and got our first round of Guinness. For anyone unfamiliar with the beer it is black, topped with a super thick foam; it has the consistency of milk and a bitter taste. Needless to say, I only had one Guinness that night. There equivalent to a girl drink is something called cider, it is either apple or pear flavored, and kinda tastes like Andre (yeah its good). After a couple rounds of drinks we decided we were ready for a new scene. Outside the pub we were greeted by two bachelorette aka "hen" parties, one group was dresses like playboy bunnies and bride in the other group was wearing a mini-skirt wedding dress (classy).

The next pub we went to was the Quay (pronounced key) and is one of the most popular pubs for the young Irish. I learned this first hand when one of said young Irish called me princess on my way to the bathroom and another one winked at me at the bar (too bad I couldn't understand what else they said). Like most Irish pubs, there was a live band playing mostly American classics, we freaked out when they started play Sweet Home Alabama. After the pub it was time for the evening to really start. All the clubs charge a cover fee, so we went to the first one that let us in free. Sidebar: high heels an cobblestone streets do not mix...ouch. It was very European: small dance floor, colorful lights, fog machine, bar, and random Irish guys hanging on me and singing in my ear. So we danced until my feet couldn't take it anymore.

The next morning I woke up to take a shower...too bad my roommate was already in there. Oh well...I'll just grab the next shower, right? Ha, if only it was that easy. What I later learned is that each apartment has its own supply of hot water, and once that hot water runs out that's it. I learned this the hard way while I was shampooing my hair. And too make matters worse, shortly after the hot water died, the water altogether died. Point of this story: it was the worst shower ever! After that experience, I headed into town to go to the farmers market. There were people everywhere: steer performers, tourists, and locals. The morning was really warm and clear. You can't help but just feel happy walking down the street surrounded by little shops and vender's.