To have crack* is to have a good time, and thats exactly what I did my second night on the tour.

The entire tour went to the one place tonight, a little bar/pub/club with a varying age range and no lack of confident Irish men.

Like, drunk Irish guy: Hi, where are you going?
Toilet.
Can I come with?
And not taking 'no' for an answer.

In ireland they have 'lock in' not 'lock out' like Australia does. So come 2am everyone slowly left the bar/club/pub and drifted into the street. Myself and another young aussie was still too pumped and keen to stay out. We had a nice conversation with a man about where to have some crack. (Remember that means to have fun, although that was not what we first thought.)

The place we were recommened to go to was nicknamed something along the lines of 'fwa fwa'. Well no, not really but at least the locals knew what I was talking about when I said it.

Due to lock in we would have walked straight past it, after all, the lights were all off and for all intents and purposes the place was closed. We were very lucky to just happen to ask for directions right in front of the place. The irishman, Cyril, we asked just smiled and pointed at the name. He noticed our confused looks at the closed appearance of the place, and just smiled motioning us down the side alleyway.

He lead us inside and the barman looked up and quickly said 'Are you lost?' more of a statement than a question.

Oh, one of those bars, where everyones a local and strangers arnt welcome. Our guide was quick to defend us, I imagine us knowing the place by its nickname helped a little.

So we got our drinks and started chatting with Cyril. We talked about Ireland and he taught me some quickly forgotten Irish, and soon everyone in the pub had come to have a chat to the little aussies.

It seems everyone in Ireland knows an aussie, has met an aussie, has been to Australia or knows someone in Australia. Suspiciously, a lot of the time their friend in Australia was in the same town as you, but only if you said where you were from first.

As much as you are not welcome in a local bar, specially those hidden behind closed stores and accessed down alleyways, it seems the Irish just need a little time to warm up to you. Afterwards you get tales of adventures, local knowledge and shared drinks.

At the bar, and many other places I've noticed, there are bottles of mixed soft drinks. Im not too sure if they are srlf service, but as soon as I asked what they were a glass of it was put infront of me to try. Same goes for people drinking drinks I hadnt seen, just as the west coast rose shown above, ask what it is and get offered a sip.

Eventually, after being given too many drinks and really feeling the effect of travelling all day, we sadly said goodbye to our new friends and skipped home.

Thanks for the interesting night, Ireland.

*I should mention crack is actually spelt craic...