The Luck of the Irish

I got to spend this week with some wonderful friends from home, Jessica and Brittany! Jessica was my roommate at TAMU last year and they are both fellow TriDelts. We really had such a good time! When Thanksgiving came around, I started getting a little homesick since this was my first Thanksgiving away from home. But I know what I am thankful for now :) Jessica and Brittany really brought my spirits up and inspired some more encouragement just when I needed it.

GPS Jess!

We spent the weekend in Dublin, Ireland! Boy, is this sure a fun city! We definitley got the Irish pub experience :) One of my highlights was visiting the Guinness factory! Even though Germany is well known for their beer and I've lived here for 5 months now, Guinness is my new favorite beer (even more than a Shiner).

Enjoying our Guinness.

Having dinner at a pub.

We enjoyed a night at this pub and met some fun characters!

This is a famous pub in Dublin and the area is named Temple Bar. All of the pubs were so cozy inside, all with some great live music and all decorated so sweet for Christmas :) So I didn't know this, but the Irish actually have their own language, Gaelic. I thought it was Enlgish (which it technically is, no one speaks Gaelic on the streets) but everyone learns this in schools and there are still a small percent that speak it as a main language in their home.

 We saw everything we wanted to in the city...

At the city castle.

At the world famous Trinity Univeristy where we also were able to see the Book of Kells.

An evening stroll through the streets.

In the city gardens. We got lucky with the weather.

At St. Patrick's Cathedral. A fun fact we learned on our city tour was why the Irish symbol is the 3 leaf clover. St. Patrick had a vision from God to convert Ireland to a Christian country (I cannot remember what century). So he went to the King to convert him first (I also cannot remember which King) and knew that the whole country would follow the King's decision. He explained the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, using a 3 leaf clover. Ireland is well known for having deep historical religious roots (and Vikings). So, St. Patrick's Day is actually a celebration for this man. I guess its purpose nowadays has strayed a little from the history. They never told us what the Luck of the Irish actually was though... Nor did we see a Leprechaun carrying a pot of gold.

We all had so much fun in Dublin but we decided that you need at least 3 days (we had 2). You need 2 days in the city and 1 day for a trip out to the country. We were so sad not to get to see the world famous beautiful landscape in Ireland. But now we have our excuse to go back!

We spent the rest of the week in Munich. They got to meet a few of my friends here and we enjoyed Gluhwein altogether at the Christmasmarkts and sightseeing around town.

I literally just said good bye to them at the train station and I'm excited to say hello to my mom tomorrow in Italy! Thanks Jess and Britt for being such awesome friends! I'm so glad you came and I got to share my life here with you :)