A Weekend With Pawgee.

*For those of you who don’t know, we call Paige, Pawgee. Long story short, I was in a weird mood, made it up, and it stuck. Pawgs for short.

Pawgs and I have been talking about studying abroad for almost two years now. It was always something of the future and always felt very far away. We talked about going the same semester and how amazing it would be if we could visit each other while in Europe. These WERE dreams. Now, it’s REALITY.

On Thursday, I hopped a plane for Ireland. I still can’t actually wrap my head around it. When I landed in Dublin, Paige was there to meet me in the airport. We freaked out a little bit and may have started crying. Good tears, though! We left the airport to wander the city and meet Paige’s “international family”. It took me a very long time to adjust to the fact that people were speaking ENGLISH! And driving on the WRONG side of the street.

If the every country could agree to do ONE thing the same, 

things would be so much easier.

We wouldn't need these reminders!

Friday we took a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Dublin. This allowed us to see all of the major sights easily. Though we took the cheap route and decided not to pay to go in any of the buildings, we wandered around the outside of:

Trinity College

Christ’s Church

St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick’s Cathedral (again) waiting for the bus. And freezing.

Missed the Málaga sunshine!

Dublin Castle

We also explored two art museums, ate lunch at the famous Temple Bar, and walked through St. Stephen’s Green.

We saw it all! It was beautiful and perfect.

And I can't forget the fact that we toured the Leprechaun Museum. You shouldn't be surprised that we passed up paying to see the cathedrals and historical monuments so that we could pay for a tour of the Leprechaun Museum!

And Friday night, we went out with some of Pawgee's sweet new friends. 

These girls are from UNC, too, so this is not the last I get to see of them!

Saturday, we caught a train to the nearby sea-side town of Howth with Paige’s friend Sarah. It was absolutely gorgeous. 

We walked along the pier where we were almost sent into the sea by the wind.

We then walked along the cliffs where we found stunning views of the town and the water.

Did I mention that I was there with Pawgs? That was the best part.

While taking the train back to Dublin, Sarah and Paige fell asleep. I felt it was necessary to stay awake because I did not want to take any chances missing our stop! We hit train traffic (what does that even mean?) and were stopped for a long time before being able to get into the station. When we finally got into the station, some other people opened the doors and the three of us got up to leave. When Paige got off the train, the doors shut before Sarah and I had a chance to get off! We just stood there while the doors closed with Paige on the platform and us on the train. Everyone on the train witnessed this and all we could do was laugh! Luckily, Sarah was with me and she had a cell phone so she could call Paige and figure out what to do. If I had been by myself, I would have had no way of communicating with Paige! We got off at the next stop and decided to take the train back one station. We missed the next train back by a couple of seconds and had to sit and wait about 15 minutes for the next one. We finally got on and were headed back to the right station. We didn’t even sit down so that there would be NO way of us missing the stop. Guess what happened. We missed it. I still have no idea how it happened, but again we passed through the station. Again, we got off at the next station, waited for the next train, and FINALLY made it to the correct station where we found Paige who had been waiting for about 45 minutes. What an adventure!

Being in Ireland was a little taste of home in a foreign land! It was so amazing to be able to spend the weekend with Paige. It felt so normal, and completely crazy at the same time. All weekend felt like a dream and I still can’t believe it happened. I got a little taste of what her life is like in Ireland and got to spend a few days with a great friend!