Arrival in Dublin, Gaelic Football Championship Match

We arrived in Dublin and checked into our hostel. We walked into the common room of Litton Lane Hostel to see what was going on and encountered a handful of Spainards all entranced by the glowing of their laptops. They barely looked up to register our presence. Didn't look like it was going to be too crazy of a party hostel - who travels just to sit on a laptop in a common room?

The receptionist of the hostel was also a bit sketchy. We heard that there was a Gaelic Football Championship game going on and asked her how we could get the the stadium. She pointed vaguely at the map and mentioned that the stadium was somewhere "over there", and warned us to "avoid" an equally vague area because it "might be dangerous." She also answered our questions, which often did not require a simple "yes" or "no" response, with monosyllibic "yeaaaaah's".

No matter! We were in Ireland and excited to explore. We walked around the city, braving occasional bursts of rain and wind that interupted an otherwise sunny day. The weather in Dublin seemed schizophrenic, sunny one minute, freezing and cold the next. There were lots of people out sporting colored jerseys, supporting their teams. I couldn't tell which teams were playing because the jerseys were plastered with advertisements, but from what I could gather the "Kerry Group" was playing "Vodaphone."

Every bar was packed with hundreds of people, even though the game was not scheduled to start for hours. We found a bar that was less crowded and settled in to watch the game. We didn't really understand what was going on, but we did get to enjoy our first pint of Guinness!