Apparently My Hair Smells Like a Waterfall.

Sophi here – again – due to Joe being excruciatingly busy with making sandwiches and learning about happiness. He actually is really busy, though.
This weekend went by in an exhausting and superbly entertaining blur.

On Friday I was walking around Temple Bar in search of a fun pub to go to, and who do I find? Two guys I go to college with (Chris & Doug) staring at me through the window of Farrington's! Farrington's is a cool pub named after a character in Joyce's The Dubliners, which I coincidentally just bought a copy of (for €3 at a discount bookstore!) 

I had a pint of Bulmer's (known as Magner's in the US) with the guys and then we went to the Temple Bar Pub (right), which was beyond crowded (and too tourist-y), and had another drink.

The next day we went all over the place on a walking tour of Dublin, led by an extremely charming Trinity mechanical engineering student, Niall. This photo is of Niall and me on the boardwalk by the River Liffey. Who would've thought there would be a boardwalk in the center of Dublin?

Niall seemed to really like us, so after the tour was over he took the four of us (me, Chris, Doug, and our new Aussie friend Nick) to a pub called M.J. O'Neill's (near Grafton Street) where I had the most amazing fish and chips that I have every had in my life - extremely tender and light on the breading. Delicious. The key is to go to the back of the pub (it's very big with lots of rooms) to the counter where you can actually see all the food right in front of you and order it on the spot. 
We left Niall at O'Neill's and went to the Guinness Storehouse. We all had a pint of Guinness (except for me because I'm not man enough to drink a whole pint) at the Gravity Bar at the very top of the building, which provides a pretty boring view of Dublin, actually. Some cities just aren't made for bird's eye view, I suppose. The bartender made a shamrock in the foam of my pint only (below) because I'm special.
Sunday night I went to Farrington's again with a copy of Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems, and sat there and read, and had a couple pints of Bulmer's. Reading a book at a bar is a surprisingly great conversation starter! One of the bartenders, Graham - a Finance major who has been working at Farrington's for three years (wowza!)- said he never has time to read poetry. So I, like a true advocate for literature, asked him for a piece of paper and a pen, and jotted down Langston Hughes' Desire. I'm such a romantic, right?

After Farrington's, around midnight, I went to catch the Luas home, but ran into some guys on Grafton Street who invited me to come along to Copper's (Copper Face Jacks), which is notorious for being the seediest club in Dublin. It's apparently the club that everyone goes to after midnight, once everywhere else is closed. But in all honesty, this place is classy compared to any fraternity basement. And we thought the Irish were the heavy drinkers! My coworkers had a laugh when they found out I went to Copper's. One of them, Chris, told me that way back when, some girl pinched his ass at Copper's. I pretended to be outraged, but it's not like I've never done that! :) God, I love it here. I have a huge crush on Chris, actually, even though he's married. He's amazing. I hate having crushes on married men, but it always happens.

I met this guy named Gavin at Copper's and we ended up making out which made me realize how much I hate PDA. But we had virtually the same taste in music, and he was a good kisser, so I let it slide - but just this once! He told me my hair smelled LIKE A WATERFALL. He seriously said that. And then he walked me home at three in the morning all the way to my B&B (nearly a 30-minute walk) even though he lives on the other side of town! 'Twas a good weekend.