Canada day in Dublin!!!

Thursday, July 1, 2010
Woke up around 8, got some breakfast and was walking the streets of Derry in the pouring rain...our luck with weather has ended. We only had a few hours to explore Derry as it was a long train ride back to Belfast and on to Dublin and we wanted to get into Dublin at a good hour so we could celebrate Canada day in style. We were told that if we can see only one thing in Derry, it’s the bogside. There is a free museum there where the murals surround. It was very much like the “troubles” in Belfast and there were more murals to commemorate. It was pretty cool but by the time we got indoors the rain had ceased. So we decided to “walk the walls”. Derry is also a walled city and there are paths to walk...super cool! We headed around there and explored a bit of the city until...we found a Primark. Our ability to resist has ended. We wanted to get some red and white shirts or something for Canada Day. Primark as per expectations, did not disappoint. We both got a red and white striped shirt, red sunglasses, red nail polish and a red hairband. Along with our banners, Canada flags and tattoo’s should make for awesome outfits. We then headed back down to Tesco’s to grab some food and beer for our journey to Dublin. We grabbed our bags, loaded up a taxi and were off to the train station. We bought some vodka and orange juice and decided to take a little “roadie” for the train. What we didn’t realize was the bottle of juice that we bought was concentrated and super sweet. It was a 1L bottle of juice that was to be mixed with 4 additional litres of water!!! What were we to do but tough it up and not waste the vodka. It was probably the worst tasting drink ever!! Blah! It took us the entire day to get it down but we did. Anyhow, on the train back to Belfast, we met our guard from the other day and the conductor. Both, were really nice guys and were chatting with us about snow and how cold it got in Canada. The conductor told us -5 was their worst and couldn’t imagine anything colder. Hehe. We are tough cookies, us Canadians. Anyhow, we arrived in Dublin around 6pm, loaded down with beer and Primark purchases and were on a frantic search for our hostel so we could put our things down. It was a short walk once we got our bearings and easy to find since we were staying right along the Liffy River. Our hostel was cute and fairly modern but didn’t seem to have a lot happening. The girl told us we weren’t actually aloud alcohol in the hostel (of course!) but didn’t mind so long as we didn’t go crazy. Deal!! So we got ready in our Canada Day get up and went looking for people in our hostel. The common room was empty and there was nobody young and fun to hang with...or so we thought! We were sitting down in the little courtyard, enjoying our beers when two girls from Ottawa and Toronto (Emily and Steph) came down and said they saw us from their window and wondered what our plans were for Canada Day. We convinced them to come out to the Woolshed, an Aussie bar, as they were having a Canada day party. We headed out, looking ridiculous and arrived to an even more ridiculous party. It was crazy!!! The bar had 3 levels and everyone was decked out in Canada Day garb whether they were Canadian or not! There were shooter girls giving out shots, there were Canadian beers, karaoke, competitions etc. We took part in a little of everything. After the four of us tried our hand at a little Canadian karaoke (Bryan Adams) we sung the Canadian national anthem, partook in a chugging competition against some Irish boys and nearly won, and just danced the night away. For our efforts in the chugging competition we won a Moosehead hat and t-shirt and best of all...Swiss chalet sauce!!! Oooooohhhh yeahhhh!!!! We have big plans for making poutine in the very near future. Once we had enough of the dancing and drinking, it was time for the midnight snacks. We asked around and came upon a supermac’s, not a supermarket and not macdonalds, but a supermac’s! It was super good! Heather and I had a chicken sandwich and...CURRY AND CHIPS!!! They were really good too! It was definitely time to call it a night so we headed to bed and made plans to meet up with Emily and Steph for breakfast.