I met up with my friend Elaine who's studying at University College Dublin. But first I had to say good by to Ciara and family. I had so much fun with them, and it was hard to say goodbye. I really hope I see them again. The bus ride was beautiful and peaceful, it was finally a nice sunny day. I finally got to downtown Dublin, and figured out the bus system and got to Elaine. Their city buses are double decker- so cool. Elaine met me at the stop, it was so great to see her smiling face :) We walked through campus to get to her campus apartment, and oh my is it nice. And they're doing a ton of construction to make it even nicer. I was really blown away by it. It was like a real American campus. Even her apartment was American-ish... Everything was new and clean and made you feel like a human. It was so beautiful. I'm glad she didn't visit me because she'd probably catch the Black Plague in my apartment. We hung out for a bit, and we met up with some of her friends (who, I might add, are amazing) for dinner. We went to a super cool restaurant downtown- it was a restaurant/pub with many floors and a band played- it was really cool, you had to be there. I got fish and chips and a platter of beers- one stout, one lager, and one ale. They were all really good, I think I liked the ale the best. Her friends are so fun, they love dessert, so I got some toffee pudding and oh my heavens it was insane. Wow it was so good. (Again, not actual pudding, pudding as in desert) We listened to the band for a while, then headed out to a pub across the street for a few drinks, where I had my first Guinness. It was good, although after all these beers I was realizing how accustomed I had gotten to Belgian beers. It was good to try something different. We met a handful of Americans there, and chatted it up for a while with them. Then we headed out with some of our new friends in search of another bar, but everything was closed... The Irish get so drunk so quick that everything closes between midnight and 2am. Very different from France, but I appreciated it knowing that I had an early flight the next day. We peaced out to our new friends and got a cab home (the buses stop running at 11pm). We got back to Elaine's place and I said goodbye to everyone, I had a ton of fun with them, they're all really cool people. Elaine and I took a breather, then headed out to the bus stop to catch the bus to the airport. I was sad I only had one night with her, but I was so so happy to see her smiling face :) I had a great though short stay in Dublin :)