“Imagine if we met Hozier while we were here — wouldn’t that be crazy?”
That was one of the first things my roommate, Jessica, said to me over breakfast, after listening to Hozier’s album while getting ready for the day. It was the first full day of our study abroad trip in Dublin, Ireland, and we were already laughing about chasing down celebrities from the area.
While Jessica joked about meeting Hozier, her favorite musical artist, I brushed the idea off. Such chances were slim to none — what are the odds that we would just happen to stumble into him just because we were in his home country? Jessica had the same thought process, and we imagined that maybe in our wildest dreams we’d get to meet him before coming back down to reality and going about our normal day.
Our day passed as regularly as it could get when you’re in a foreign country. We explored Dublin and got to take in the fact that our long-awaited study abroad trip was finally unfolding in front of our eyes. By the time night fell, Jessica and I still weren’t satisfied with our explorations, so we decided to randomly wander the streets of this new city and enjoy the atmosphere.
Eventually, we began walking down Grafton Street, walking past rows of stores lined down the entire sidewalk. At this point, Jessica and I were somewhat lost and unsure as to our location and being determined to not use a map, I was instead trying to figure our what direction we were meant to be heading in. As my internal monologue grew more and more frantic, Jessica suddenly stopped walking and turned around to look back at a small group of people standing off to the side of the walkway.
“That guy looks a lot like… I could swear he’s Hozier,” she said to me in a low voice. I looked back at the man — he was tall, wearing regular jeans and a black hoodie. How was I supposed to know? As we stared creepily at the man and his companions, he took his hoodie off, revealing that he was, in fact, Hozier. Jessica sprang into action, and her love and devotion to her favorite singer propelled her forward to talk to him.
We crashed what was probably supposed to be a low-key hangout between Hozier and his friends, and Jessica introduced herself to him and told him how much of a fan she was. I just stood behind her, thinking about how ironic it was that although I live in Los Angeles (the hotbed of celebrity activity), this was the first time I was actually interacting with a famous person.
I took a picture of Jessica and Hozier together, and at the last minute asked if I could have one too, event though I had only said two words since first introducing ourselves to him. Jessica took my phone and prepared to snap a picture for me, and Hozier was being so nice to us and introduced himself to me, asking how I was doing. All I said was fine, even though my day was most definitely better than fine. We got our picture and I shook his hand before we thanked him again and walked away.
After we turned the nearest street corner, Jessica couldn’t contain herself any longer— meeting your favorite artist in the world can sometimes do that to you. We reveled in the moment, laughing and freaking out about meeting Hozier as we walked aimlessly in the rain. We were living in the moment and recalling every detail about the event until we realized that we had been walking down random streets for 15 minutes and had no clue where we were.
Although it took half an hour of accidentally walking down the same street several times to make it back to our hostel, we were laughing the entire time about how our jokes earlier in the day proved to be true. I couldn’t imagine the first day of our study abroad trip getting any better than randomly bumping into a celebrity, and it certainly felt like a dream come true to be able to say that we met Hozier while we were lost in Dublin. While the same trick didn’t work when we said we wished we could meet Harry Styles in London, meeting Hozier was certainly one in a million chance that made Jessica’s trip and mine to Dublin unforgettable.
If you're reading this, Hozier, shoutout to you for letting us interrupt your night and thanks for the good pictures!
