We started off Day 3 early in the morning by taking a bus to the Dublin School of Ecumenics. Now, I know you're thinking that I spelled Economics wrong, but I didn't. Ecumenics is the study of how religion and politics are interrelated in Ireland (or, that's what I got out of the lecture at least...). When we arrived they served us tea and biscuits (which is the only reason I was able to stay awake at 9am...) and it was lovely. I actually thoroughly enjoyed this lecture, as it was interesting what a large role religion has played in Irish history. I would go into details, but I don't want to bore you to death. After the lecture we were able to eat lunch in the school's dining hall. It had delicious potato leek soup (in case you were wondering where to get some good potato leek soup).
Afterwards, we took the bus to the Dublin City Council to meet with one of the guys who is very high up there. The man who was speaking to us wasn't ready yet, so we got to play in a room that was dedicated to the urbanization of Dublin. It had a really cool floor that lit up when you walked on it, and the whole time I just kept singing "Billie Jean" and amusing myself by walking on different spots and making it light up. I seriously need to get out more. After that we sat through what might possibly have been the worst lecture of my life. Let's just say I have a page in my notebook dedicated to writing as many Beatles lyrics as I could think of and trying to make them look artsy (I failed miserably).
After the lecture we had about an hour to get ready before going out to a group dinner at the Merry Ploughboy Pub, which is a restaurant about 30 minutes outside of the city of Dublin. We took a bus there, and we almost died because it decided to start snowing again, and crazy Irish drivers don't know how to drive in snow. They also, apparently, don't know how to use windshield wipers. When I stepped out of the bus I got welcomed by Wolfgang throwing a snowball at the bus. Thanks, Wolfgang. We got there and were served a 3-course meal consisting of some kind of soup, mashed potatoes with chicken, and a dessert that we think was apple-cranberry crisp. During dinner, there was an Irish band who played traditional Irish tunes. Wolfgang was crazy and kept singing ridiculously loud and slapping the table to the beat. As I have said before, he is a riot. They taught us the chorus to every song and encouraged us to clap along. It was very fun. There was also a troupe of Irish dancers who danced for part of the dinner. They were amazingly good. After dinner the band had to help push the bus out of the 3 inches of snow that had accumulated, and we managed to survive a death-defying drive back to the hotel.
After we got back, we were going to go out close to the hotel, but apparently bars in Dublin that are near our hotel close at 11:30pm. So, we had to trek across Dublin on slushy sidewalks (although, nothing we aren't used to) to the Temple Bar area, where all the bars are open until 2:30 am. We found a bar called Fitzsimmon's which was much less crowded than Temple Bar and also better laid out. We met a group of five boys who were from Illinois and were backpacking across Europe. Christine (my roommate) and I decided we needed to go request "Bad Romance" by Lady GaGa, and the bartender informed us that any music requests had to be made to the DJ downstairs in the dance club. We were intrigued and managed to convince the Illinois boys to come with us. Now, imagine a a hot, sweaty, crazy raving dance club with black lights and neon lights and crazy people all fancied out. Okay, that's where we were. The boys convinced us to stay downstairs and dance until Bad Romance came on, and naturally it was the last song of the night. It was incredibly fun.
Afterwards, Christine and I made our way back to the hotel (the rest of the group had left far before 2:30) where we found 3 other people from our group in the lobby by the fireplace. We sat and chatted for about an hour before retiring. It was definitely my craziest and favorite night in Dublin.
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Score one for Bad Romance!
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