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Chris had guests this weekend: Stefan, who studies with us in Bamberg, came over and brought his friend Kiwi along. They arrived Thursday afternoon and left Tuesday morning. The fun began right on the first evening when we decided to say hello to some pubs in Temple Bar.

We enjoyed really good live music in The Quays Bar, The Mezz(!!) and Farrington’s and had a really good time. Afterwards, on our way back home we had several remarkable encounters: after a lot of to and fro, Chris said „Bon Anniversaire“ (French „Happy Birthday“) to a woman in the Luas. She turned out to be Irish, not French, and was perfectly able to speak and understand German – she must have heard everything before, too! I instantly killed the conversation with some stupid busdriver quote.

In Kingswood we met a garda on a bicycle who caught my friends in the act of increasing the mineral content of the soil. At least that seemed to be what he thought as he said „Keep it in the pants“ to one of them. The last few metres on our way we speculated that he might just come back and reveal his real identity: Erasmus policeman from Bavaria, who understood every single one of our words.

Lesson learned: you never know who speaks German!

Happy new Year! Yesterday Chris and I showed Thomas a bit of Dublin: Trinity College, Grafton Street, National Gallery etc.
We really had to make plans for the evening, because we did not want to end up spending New Year’s Eve on our own.

Luckily we met someone during our explorations and kind of invited ourselves to a party. Moreover, we knew that there was a get-together at Anna and Georg’s place and Klaus invited us for some beers with him and the other Austrians. In the end, after a lot of back and forth and some stupid incidents, we just had a few beers and nachos in our living room and watched Mister Bean on telly before we went into the city centre.

At about eleven o’clock we finally arrived in Temple Bar, which was veeery crowded. Most of the pubs and clubs asked for entry fees (>= €20), but somehow we managed to find some that didn’t. Chris convinced us to get a shot of the „world famous ass juice“ in The Mezz. Well, it was probably not the greatest idea. Then we had a pint of delicious Smithwick’s in Farrington’s. There was barely enough air to breath, because the location bursted at the seams.

Just some seconds before midnight we arrived Half Penny Bridge where we met Anna, Georg, Klaus, Stefan, Immanuel, Julia, Lizzy and many more. The small pedestrian bridge was full of people from every corner of the world. You could hear English, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish and whatnot. Stefan had bought lucky charms for everyone (a pig with a top hat for me) and some stranger hugged everyone.

Being used to the extensive (and expensive) run for the best fireworks in Germany it was a bit strange to see no fireworks at all. Therefore it became boring outside very soon and Georg led all of us to a Hogan’s, a cool bar in Georges Street (haha!).
Unbelievable: they closed at quarter past one in the morning. On New Year’s Eve! So we asked some local who told us to head to The Globe, another nice pub just around the corner. That was a straight tip and we had a pretty good time over there until they closed, too.

All in all I had a ball. I have to admit that I missed the fireworks, though. New Year’s Eve in Ireland is indeed very different from German Silvester. It ended for me lying happy in my bed at approximately half past four in the morning where I dozed off while listening to some audio book using my mp3 player.
Some hours later, in the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up with „Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds“ in my ears. A great song for a great night.