throw up the DUB

we rolled into dublin on planes trains and automobiles like john candy and steve martin.... rolling on no sleep and pints. it was pretty funny when we arrived adrian was like "i feel like i've come home".... i was like "damn dude! we are still in the airport, give it a sec". as we landed in ireland we were laughing about the family guy episode where the plane lands on the runway covered in bottles.

we arrived in ireland on xmas eve. met up with my cousin who gave us the keyes to his apartment while we were there which was grand.... to say it like they do. he did another walking tour showed adrian the sites, unfortunately my camera died so most of the pics i missed. this is one of the big cathedrals. one thing you'll learn about ireland is that its basically pubs and churches and green fields. we went to church on xmas day right downtown like two little boondock saints. it was good fun, they had a super choir. while waiting outside for the previous sermon to end a girl about our age stumbled out and after almost smashing her face on a steel gate basically collapsed in my arms. she fainted from basically being hungover and on no sleep as she went on to tell us how embarrassed she was. typical irish she then started cracking jokes and asked us if our typical sunday was spent lingering outside churches. mais bien sur!

all the pubs have someones name on it. i saw some familiar ones: ryan.....

the pub is run by russian emigrants and is painted black.....hmmmm. didn't you wear the number 12 in soccer as well? its all coming together

the gigs.... victorian rebel

adrian was pleased when we spotted this place. his checklist got that much shorter


unless my latin betrays me: st mary immaculate... the refuge of SINNERS.... haha

xmas eve is the biggest drinking day of the year, the pubs are packed, elbow to elbow. my cousin suggested we do the twelve pubs of xmas: at least one pint in 12 different pubs.... a glint sparkled in our eyes as our brains attempted to process the possibility and resulting effects. we started this journey at 1pm in stillorgan with my 2 cousins, then cabbed it downtown. on the way the cabby had us rollin. telling stories and jokes. we told him of our plan and he was like "christ lads! you'll have no problem finding 12 pubs here! you might even be able to stay on the same street" ..... he wasn't joking

initially the plan was to go straight thru but after pub number 5 we both were wiped. on 9 hrs sleep over the past few days. so we went back to kev's apartment and had a nap to recharge and then head out. went to sleep at 6pm and woke up at nine..... the next morning. rip van winkle with avengence. so we went to xmas day dinner at my aunt dympna's place, lots of good eats, wine, whisky and stories. we then went to a house party at my cousin's friends house. they had the wii out, the pool table, the irish mary jane and the tequila. at about 2 we shut it down and began to walk back to the highway where we planned on hitting a cab back to the apartment. we were in the suburbs so we figured if we walked toward town, we would find one. worst case scenario we walk about an hour to the crib. not seeing any cab we walked and we walked and we walked ....for an hour before we saw a sign on the side of the road for wicklow and waterford... i was like what duh!.... please no!!. turns out we walked the wrong direction and were heading out of town. so its xmas day at 3:30 am we are on the barren irish highway, half cut with a 2 hour min walk home, not entirely even sure how to get there, no trafffic, tried hitching, they drove by us like we were romanian gypsies.

i told adrian we might just have to sleep on the side of the road.... i saw the look of fear in his eyes. it seemed like someone or something was following us, carefully tracng our steps, waiting with eery patience. my knee was killing, feet were sore... the ring wayed heavy around my neck and samwise was not eager to carry me, i told him it was my burden.... my preciousssssss. from out in the distance hope charged our way, shining in the distance was a light, a yellow light, a yellow taxi light!

sorry about that but it was a devastating walk, as we road in the african dudes taxi and as the km's passed by we exchanged knowing glances with disbelief in our eyes, like we never would have made it. never has a 35$ cab ride been more welcome. what he was doing out there was beyond me. it was a xmas miracle. i prob woulda had to kill adrian along the way; for food.

with the engrained catholic guilt of not talking to his mother on xmas day adrian decided that a xmas convo with his mum was in order, so he sauntered off to the corner pay phone. i stayed. half hour later he busts in thru my door like "man, the craziest thing just happened! i was at the pay phone and a car just stopped right by me and they were just watching me for like 5 minutes. (keep in mind one of adrians friends told him to be very careful at night there because thugs will go around beating people up apres dark.) he said that finally another car passed by and the parked car drove off, he bust out of the booth, full sprint... all the way home. after he breaks out this story i look at him with a smirk like"so they had to use the phone too huh".... sheepishness.com. a good laugh though

boxing day we flew back to england. i mixed up our departure times and we arrived at the airport 5 hrs before takeoff. better early than late i suppose.