Mature Students Society...lunch yes, pub crawl no

So earlier this week the Mature Students Society hosted a lunch in the GSU Common Room.  What is a mature student, you may ask?  Well, I'm told if you are over 23, you are a mature student.  Basically, anyone who has completed undergrad is considered a mature student here.  Interesting.  Perhaps it's just the name ... 'mature students'... something about it has an 'older' ring to it.  Ah well, age is just a number sometimes.

Juliette and I went to the luncheon, met a few nice people who we'll probably never see again, ha ha.  From there, the CSC (Central Societies Committee) held a Postgrad Clubs and Societies Day in the Atrium, so we went there to check if any other societies looked interesting.  I briefly considered joining the kayaking society, but then decided against it.  I wanted to join the Gaelic Society, but nobody was at the table!  I will just have to email them instead.

We then had class from 3-5pm, then planned on attending what we had seen advertised at the "DUMSS pub crawl" at 7pm, starting at the Pav, the campus pub.  (yes, there is a pub on campus.)  We even asked the GSU guy during the campus tour if DUMSS was the Mature Students Society; he said yes.  Wrong!  We get to the Pav and eventually saw a group of students sitting around on the sofas, all decorating white t-shirts with sharpies.  Yes, white t-shirts, sharpies.  I later saw on one of their t-shirts that the "MSS" stood for "Management Science Society". 

After a good laugh at our error, we left the Pav and headed to McDaid's pub on Chatham Street, just off Grafton. 

McDaid's pub - Harry Street, Dublin

I liked McDaid's.  Small, cozy. 

From there, we went to Market Bar for a bite to eat.  3 of us (Juliette's friend met up with us) split 2 appetizers (called 'starters' here) -  Mussels and Patatas Bravas, which was basically potato wedges with a "spicy" tomato sauce and garlic mayo.  Matt, I remember your warning about what they consider "spicy" here - it's more like mild, you are so right!

I liked Market Bar.  It's in a beautiful building in city centre.  It reminded me of an airplane hangar, the ceiling was so high.  It wasn't overly crowded, but definitely seemed like a popular place.  Great ambiance.  I would definitely take friends here.  hint, hint...  :)

(image from Market Bar website)

patatas bravas - yum!

2 more new places to add to my list.  Perhaps by the time I'm done with my LLM, I could write a restaurant/pub review book?