The Pub Crawl: A Downward Spiral into Temple Bar

For my first night in Dublin, it was decided that the best way to cap off the evening was a proper rowdy pub crawl through Temple Bar, the area where youngsters from all over the globe flock to for booze, music, and craic.

Jenny had plans for the evening, so Rick and I ventured out on our own.  At the first bar, we met Robbie, our tour guide, who promised not to leave us behind, but neither to take care of us if we got too drunk to take care of ourselves.  We got a couchsurfing discount, so ended up paying €8 each for cover, which included one free beer at the first bar and drink specials for the rest of the night.  We ended up paying about €3.50 per beer at each place, and often got a free shot as part of the deal.  I found that one beer at each of the five bars we visited were more than enough to warrant a taxi ride home and a nice hearty hangover the next morning.

The best thing about a pub crawl is that you'll meet other travelers from all over the world.  As soon as we got to the first bar, the Workman's Club (sorry, but that'll be the only pub whose name I can recall), we met Steve (not his real name, but an Anglicized version I came up with) and Louis from Paris, Julia and Ashley from Seattle, and Mick from Dublin (actually, Mick is one of my couchsurfing hosts and had planned to meet us anyway).  We all got along instantly, except maybe for the two American girls who ended up living up to the "obnoxious American" stereotype to a tee.  But Rick, Steve, Louis, Mick and I were a team, and we had a blast!

The Irish way to go out drinking with friends is to participate in the "rounds" system.  One person will buy drinks for all of his friends, and then when it's time for the next round, someone else will buy, until everyone's had a turn.  Of course, you can imagine how fun (and expensive) this gets, the more friends you have in your group!  Somehow, I managed to only spend €5 for the entire evening, besides cover charge, and considering that beers were €3.50 a pop and I was buying 5 at a time, I have a nagging guilty feeling that someone got ripped off.  All in all, though, it was an excellent time with some great new friends.  We got to hear some live "trad" music, meet people from many different countries, and pose for some hilarious pictures (coming soon).