Hey there! Meeting a pen pal can be a wonderful thing which I had the pleasure to experience last weekend! Sabrina and I have known each other for about two years now. We met each other on Instagram thanks to the fact that we had Ireland-related posts on our accounts (we both really love Ireland!) During the last weekend I realised that meeting a friend from a different country (or even from your own one) can be so much fun! We exchanged thoughts, had long conversations, wandered around Dublin in the pouring rain which I really loved because it felt like autumn and that's my favourite season! I showed her places she's never been to (the Trinity Library that looks like a Harry Potter movie location, for example,) and she brought me to a pub I had never been to before. Moreover, I had a chance to meet a great English musician called Simon Gynn! He was playing music there for the night and took loads of various song requests. I was surprised and happy to find another R.E.M. fan when I requested one of their favourite songs of mine - Daysleeper (I'm listening to it while creating this blogpost :)
In this blogpost I am going to show you a few photos we took throughout the last weekend. Although, before I start I want to thank Sabrina for letting me upload her pictures.
We met late on the previous Friday night. My boyfriend Noel and I collected Sabrina from the train station near our house. When we came home, we had a chat and exchanged some gifts. I gave her Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and a letter I had written the previous evening. She gave me a Harry Potter-themed pocket letter, a handmade wand, a beautiful dreamcatcher and a gorgeous heart-shaped gingerbread that has "I like you very much" written on it! I'm not going to eat it because it's so pretty. I hung it on the wall in my dining room instead! You can find some pictures that I took of the gifts below.
Finally got my letter from Hogwarts, hehe :)
I really love dreamcatchers. I've started collecting them.
The gingerbread ♥
We spent the evening watching The Fault in Our Stars, eating pizza and trying different flavours of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans. How unfortunate - I got a rotten egg flavoured bean, eww! It was such a fun night, though!
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We woke up early enough the next morning, had breakfast and headed into the city centre. It was raining quite a lot but my boots and umbrella saved me! We took a stroll down Grafton Street where we found a guy who was busking in the rain! I felt so sorry for him, yet I was really impressed that he was sitting there in the cold and rain playing his guitar. I gave him a €2 coin. He played some of my favourite songs including Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan's Remember ♥ ♥ ♥.
The busker.
Sabrina doesn't like to pose while wearing her glasses but I think they really suit her!
We also visited the Trinity College Library which is really famous thanks to its well-known Long Room. It looks like a Harry Potter movie location, although it wasn't in Harry Potter at all (I think it should have been!) Pictures below.
Afterwards we popped into one of the best and most beautiful Costa Coffee shops around. I ordered a small skim latte as usual, and Sabrina had a raspberry-white chocolate cooler. She let me try it and it was so yummy! Sabrina had brought a polaroid camera with her so we took our first polaroid selfie there!
I also brought Sabrina to my favourite bookshop called Hodges Figgis where I bought myself a small guide book through James Joyce's Ulysses. I have a thing for James Joyce. I wrote my BA thesis on one of his books and he's close to my heart. I have never read Ulysses before but I am planning to do it before June 16th next year - that is when Bloomsday takes place. It is a great celebration that people from the whole world take place in.
Afterwards, we headed into Penneys (Primark) where we did some shopping. We also had lunch in Supermac's. We ate food that I call diet-free food (Sabrina had chips covered with grated cheddar cheese, and I had plain chips.) We also shared a large cup of Sprite.
We didn't have much time after finishing eating at Supermac's, and we needed to rush towards Temple Bar where Sabrina had a tattoo appointment. She got a Harry Potter-themed tattoo which I am really jealous of! I love how it turned out:
Here's a picture of the tattoo just after it was finished.
We needed to celebrate our meeting and the new tattoo so Sabrina and I headed to a great pub called O'Sullivans where Noel (my boyfriend) joined us for a few drinks. The atmosphere in the pub was amazing thanks to the musicians who played live music and the friendly staff. We had so much fun there! Also, we met Simon Gynn in O'Sullivans, the musician that I had mentioned in the beginning of this blogpost. He was taking song request so we had a chance to hear some of our favourite tracks. We had a chat with him after his performance and he turned out to be a really nice lad in person.
That's Simon!
Sabrina <3
Noel, I, Simon and Sabrina!
So this is where the journey has to end. I hadn't expected it to turn out so long! Hope you enjoyed this blogpost nevertheless. There are loads more to come as I have so many ideas for all the upcoming ones. Summing up, meeting Sabrina was an amazing experience that I truly enjoyed and will never forget. I hope we'll meet again later this year.
Bless snail mail friendships!
Caroline xxx
