agt_spooky | Ireland

Hey guys!

Greetings from Dublin, Ireland!

Had a fantastic first day here yesterday, as you can see by the photos. It was the first warm, sunny day they'd had in a week! We got in around noon and stayed out till about 10 pm. We walked and walked, just taking in the sights and sounds and people. Dublin is a busy, crowded city, but very vibrant.

I went to my first Irish pub and had my first Guinness! Woot! I'm not a beer drinker but I have to admit it wasn't bad. It turns out the Irish love the Americans (especially our accents). I was getting chatted up everywhere we went. At that pub a young Irish guy (Daniel) sitting across from us in the rooftop beer garden immediately turned when he heard me speak and proceeded to engage me in conversation for 45 minutes! It was actually really nice. :-)

We went shopping on Grafton Street, their biggest shopping district, and I picked myself up a few things. Then we went to St. Stephen's Green, a huge park kind of like a smaller version of Central Park in NY. Really pretty. We sat and ate lunch there.

Thanks to a tip from Daniel we had a great dinner at Fitzsimmon's pub, where he told me I had to get the Irish stew, since I like lamb. OMG, it was so good! They had a live band that night so I got to hear some traditional Irish music. Loved it!

Our last stop of the night was at the famous Temple Bar, for another pint of Guinness. Holy crap that place was crowded! They had live music, too.

Oh, the pics of Christ Church Cathedral is the view I have outside my hotel room window. Pretty stunning, eh? It's been nice listening to the bells.

My friends have wedding stuff to take care of today so I'm doing a hop-on-hop-off bus tour that Claudia recommended. It's another sunny day so I'm going to take advantage of it. It's supposed to be chilly and rainy here for the remainder of our stay. Blah.

Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow morning to post some pics from my bus tour before we check out of the hotel and head to Trim, where we'll be for the rest of the trip.