Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you fight with your neighbour. It makes you shoot at your landlord and it makes you miss him. (Irish Proverb)

I am not going to conceal the fact that a huge part of Erasmus involves going out and partying your butt off. If I did, I would deprive you of all the fun. When you’re in a foreign country where you don’t know anyone the easiest way to get to know people is to go out and have a beer (or two … or maybe three). I would also be lying if I said that I am a person who doesn’t go out much. I am definitely not one to refrain from a good pub crawl. I would like to dedicate this post to all of my friends with whom I had so many great nights out in Dublin.

Drinking is a big part of Irish culture, although it isn’t always as funny as it might sound. The Irish seem like they are made for partying. Surprisingly, they are – contrary to the common prejudice – not able to drink more than a person from any other nation. Still, their bodies are obviously able to sober up faster than the ordinary European’s. When you are still lying in bed, suffering from nausea and a headache that seems incurable, you already receive a call about the next party and you start wondering how on earth they could possibly be drinking again – already! Much to your surprise, you might even manage to get up (in pain!) and take the next bus to wherever that party is taking place. You’re lucky if you can stay out of any evil drinking games, because the Irish are big fans of those. I wouldn’t recommend anyone play Ring of Fire unless they can really hold their liquor.

Problematically, the alcohol prices in Ireland are very high, so you’re left to buy the cheapest booze available. This leads you to Tesco. There are side effects to Tesco Vodka that no one ever tells you about. They’re are the crucial part here. After your first gulp, you already have a foretaste of how your headache is going to feel the next day. If you are brave enough to finish your drink, you will start to notice how disgusting it really is and stop. But if you go on drinking you have mastered the evil spirit of Tesco Vodka. You might ask yourselves now what is so bad about this particular Vodka. Well, I only saw one person who dared to finish half a bottle of it. He basically started to behave like a monstrous psychopath crossed with a whiny pervert. Fortunately, Tesco Vodka takes care of the shame and guilt of such behaviour and simply erases your memory.

Because Dublin is a capital city with a respectable number of inhabitants, it provides many locations for going out. Thus, there is no way you will ever get bored of the numerous pubs and clubs. After we had gone to most of the traditional pubs, we hit some of Dublin’s clubs. Something I have to point out here is the fact that you do not get in if you’re not dressed “appropriately”. This is only an issue for girls. If you aren’t wearing a dress and heels you’re simply dismissed. On the other hand, they freely invite anyone younger than 18 to come in, although you’re only allowed to drink and smoke in Ireland when you’re of age. After a while I got sick of these policies and asked my classmates where else I could go. One of them took me under his wing and showed me a hidden spot that I still refer to as my favourite bar in Dublin: Fibbers. For Irish standards, the prices are moderate, it is not too crammed and after all that club trash I had to tolerate, the music was incredibly enjoyable.

The longest partying sequence I have been on in my entire life was on the 17^th of March in 2010: Lá Féihle Pádraig. Nowadays, it is celebrated all over the world, but you simply cannot compare any of those festivities to the one in Dublin. We took the Luas from Tallaght to O’Connell Street at 10 in the morning and were greeted with a huge parade, all held in green. That day, two of the Germans and I were accompanied by about a quarter of our local classmates, who kindly showed us all of the “Paddy’s Day Specials”. Amusingly, we even met their parents, who were keen on joining us at our table to have a couple of the must-have drinks of the day, which are a combination of Guinness, Guinness and Guinness. Great craic, indeed.

I would like to thank all of my fellow students for making the parties in Ireland as hilarious as I remember them and I can’t wait to reunite with all of them in autumn for a revival – Dublin style.