Alex's Summer at Sea

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to the blog, so I figured I should at least get a couple of thoughts (and photos) on Dublin up. This is just the intro; stay tuned for the rest of my Ireland experience.
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For those of you that are tired of reading me write endlessly about food in the last couple of ports, rest assured I won’t discuss food in Ireland, for, in truth, it would be a woeful, depressing tale.

Now, to the topic of the blog. On Monday night we decided to do a musical pub crawl through Dublin’s “Temple Bar” area. A pub crawl, for those of you not in the know, can be thought of as a sight-seeing tour where the only sights are pubs and glasses, and the seeing gets harder as the night goes on. The musical aspect that made this tour unique was that we had a guitar player and a fiddler travel with us to each pub, playing traditional Irish music in each venue, while explaining to us some foundations of Irish rhythms and melodies.

What is especially interesting about Dublin’s pub culture is how diverse and all-inclusive it is. Previous pub crawls I have been on in other countries were filled with 19-25 year olds only; in Dublin, the crawl, and the pubs themselves, are filled with people everywhere from 18-60(+), Much to my surprise, one of my fellow ‘crawlers was not only the Dean of Semester at Sea, but also my International Relations professor. At the beginning of our voyage, our Executive Dean told us “nothing about Semester at Sea is normal.” This pub-crawl could be the quintessential SAS is not normal moment. Granted, I really like my Professor, and we said hello, and then talked a bit later on in the night, but regardless I don’t think I’ll ever find one of my Geography professors not only sitting with me in Maloney’s, but then following me across the street to BrewCo. Certainly one of those unique Semester at Sea moments that I won’t forget.
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The US Ambassador to Ireland came on board the ship for a tour and to address the faculty and senior passengers right before we set sail. A few lucky students, including myself, were invited to attend the briefing as well. The event was held in the faculty/staff lounge, which is normally off limits to students, therefore, for us, it was like breaking through to a magical wonderland where drinks are free, and the finger sized snack food flows to no end. After an hour or so of milling about in the SAS-VIP room, the Ambassador showed up and spoke briefly to the group. He gave a rundown of US-Ireland relations, and talked about some recent Irish political developments and then, yielded the floor for questions -- A couple of softball queries, and then some good ones from my favorite card carrying Democrat faculty members. One asked the Ambassador about the Bolton nomination to the UN, to which the Ambassador gave a skillfully diplomatic answer until he mentioned that the UN is a flawed organization and Americans aren’t happy about spending $2 Billion without anything to show for it. Something tells me it’s not the UN part of the equation we’re unhappy with; maybe, I dunno, it’s the us ignoring them part, Mr. Ambassador.
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Until the next Dublin installment, I leave you with a few photos of the city and the pub crawl:

The gate leading out of St. Stephen’s Green – a fantastic park with a duck pond and foliage located right in the heart of the city:

The famous Ha’penny bridged, thus named because back in the day it cost half a penny to cross. Good thing they don’t charge to cross the bridge nowadays, with the Euro exchange rate and all, it would cost Ha’penny times 1.2:

One of the last stops on the pub crawl:

What a grand idea! Your date thinks you’re just going to empty out the 2 pints you just drank, but really, thanks to that euro coin in your pocket, you’re going to emerge from the restroom smelling better than you ever have before. Brilliant:

Yeah, pretty much I’m just posting this picture because it’s me with three girls. (No, I’m not wearing vend-a-scent):