"He's an Irish Monkey, He Likes His Potatoes"

This weekend I went to Dublin and loved every minute of it.

I met up with a great friend from Cincinnati named Lauren Dayton, who is studying abroad in Dijon, France. With Lauren were three girls from her program. Also, Lauren has a friend named Elliott from college who is studying abroad in Dublin. It was a great group of kids and we had a blast.

I am apologizing in advance for the bulleted list I am about to provide you. I feel like I would be repeating myself if I typed about each thing, because I would be writing ".....and it was great, and I loved it," so just assume that I thought everything was wonderful.

Friday:

-Landed in Dublin in the afternoon

-Toured the Guinness Factory

-Went to dinner at a great pub called O'Neills

-Had some cider and called it an early night

Saturday:

-Woke up early to go to the Dublin Zoo! I hold zoos to pretty high standards, seeing as Cincinnati's is pretty top notch, and I still enjoyed this zoo very much. We went right when it opened and it was a bit chilly, so we essentially had the place to ourselves. Going early was definitely a good choice because they had just fed the animals, so they were all very active. For example: we got to see tiger cubs romping with one another, we saw orangutans eating potatoes (very Irish), and got very up close and personal with a peacock.

-Saw the Wellington Monument

-Had lunch at a great restaurant

-Saw St. Patrick's Cathedral

-Explored St. Stephen's Green

-Walked around Merrion Square

-Went on a musical pub crawl, where we got to learn about Irish musical traditions, learn some songs, saw great performers, and laugh a lot.

Sunday:

-Went to a great brunch

-Saw the National Gallery

-Wandered the streets

-Went back to Barcelona

More things I liked about Dublin:

-Nice Irish people!! It was SUCH a change. The Catalan people are quite rude, cold, and snobby..so I really appreciated the Irish. Very friendly, always joking and laughing, very helpful, and a lot of Gingers!

-We had great weather. It rained every day, but only for maybe 15 minutes or so. For the most part, we had sunshine! Yes it was a little chilly, but I enjoyed the brisk temperatures.

-I just really liked the overall feel of the city. It definitely has hustle and bustle to it, but it's much more relaxed. It had an old feel to it with a big modern twist. I liked the open streets and the architecture

-I loved the amount of green grass all around the city

-I also liked the potatoes.........

So now I am back to life here in Barcelona. The weather has started to change a bit. It has been verrryyy windy here the past week, bringing in some cooler temperatures. Cooler being lower 60's (tough life, right?).

I came home to find that Maria was given an orange Canary as a gift from her veterinarian.... haha I didn't know that vets gave out presents, let alone birds. Maria already has a bird named Groc, and that has caused some major drama in her life. Groc was so great, and sang so much and was very chipper. About a month ago, she had the vet cut off a mandatory leg-band that domestic birds need to have..and well that caused quite the infection in poor Groc's leg...which then forced Groc's leg to be amputated!! Groc went into mourning and would no longer sing, and wouldn't leave his food dish area. Que triste. Well, every since the new bird, named Cay (pronounced: Ca-ay) joined the family, Groc has been back to his normal self! He is flittering around his cage, singing once again like he used to. Maria and I decided he was happy to have a friend, especially a friend with two legs. We also hope that Groc is not embarrassed by his lack of a leg. Drama in the bird world!! Anyways, that was something fun to come home to.

Not much going on this week in terms of classes (no surprise there). This weekend we were going to head to Prague, but plans fell through. I'm alright with that. I'm realizing I only have five and a half weeks left in Barcelona, so it will be nice to spend some more time here. I believe I will go on a day trip to a nearby town called Montserrat.

That's all I got, hope all is well!!