Ireland Trip- Day 3

Slept horribly last night! We passed out early, but both of us were wide awake from about 1:30am to 3:30am. I guess the time changed messed with us. Once we got up for the second time, we walked over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, but it was closed for the holidays. So I go yet again without seeing them. After that we walked around a bit and got into our first fight of the trip. Will has no sense of direction and kept trying to lead us away from the River Liffey, our point of reference. I was strong-headed and after a couple frustrated tiffs we made it back to the college and found our bearings again (for the record, I was right and we found the way back after I directed us).

Our next stop was to the Kilmainham Gaol (jail). We took a bus there (it's about two to three miles from the city) and got there just as they went to lunch. In the words of the Brit in front of us, 'Typical, bloody typical.' Luckily, there was a pub just around the corner, The Patriot Inn, so we popped in there and had a couple of pints over their lunch hour. There were a few old 'regulars' there and one of them struck up a conversation with us about where we were from. Then he kept talking about the 'Colorado Kid.' I had no idea what he was talking about but it is fun to talk to locals.

Finally made it back to the jail, but the wait time for a tour was too long, so we decided to walk to the Guinness factory and save the jail for tomorrow morning. It wasn't very long walk to Guinness, but after a couple pints we both had to pee like a mutha. So, it turned into what may have been the longest walk of my life. There was nothing around - no bars, no restaurants, nothing... until we found a train station. Thank God! But it was a pay toilet! And we only had enough exact change for one of us...uh oh. Found someone to change a Euro for us and then proceeded to take a 30 cent pee (and poop for good measure). :)

Next stop was the Guinness factory. It was a cool building and the tour was interesting, but nothing special. It was crazy crowded, though; people everywhere! The funniest part of the Guinness tour was taking Will's pic next to the massive officer cartoon guy. Will posed the same way as him, hilarious! That'll be a framer... Saw some pretty cool views of the city from the 360 degree viewing area, drank our free pint, then bussed it back to the city to get ready for New Years'.

Had a bit of trouble finding a restaurant that was open for dinner but eventually came across a place called O'Sheas. It was a cute little restaurant, but there were only two girls waiting on about 50 people so it wasn't the quickest dinner ever. I had shepherd's pie, which was delicious going in but absolutely awful coming out. I made it about 45 minutes after dinner before I spent a good 5 on the toilet. NASTY! Poor Will had to listen to it from the room (though I tried to warn him to leave)!

Felt much better after purging my meal out my ass, so we headed out for drinks. Walked through Temple Bar area but opted to look for a more low key crowd. Eventually, we found O'Donoghues on Merrion Row, the same bar/B&B that Mom, Molly and I stayed in when we were in Dublin. Had a drink there, then went across the street to Foley's. We were probably the youngest people there but a guy was playing Irish music on his guitar so we stayed for a while.

We wanted to hear the ChristChurch bells at midnight so we started to walk back towards Grafton Street, stopping at Kehoes for a drink. Got outside just a few minutes before 12am and started walking in the rain towards the church. 12am came and went... and no bells. Damn. We did see about two fireworks go off over the river, but all in all a rather unimpressive New Years' celebration. Stopped off in Fitzgeralds for our first pint of 2008, then went home (after stopping in McDonald's for our first quarter pounder of 2008. It doesn't really count as two dinners in one night since the first one left me so quickly). HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2008!!!

Great way to start a new year- with my fantastic boyfriend in a fantastic country. We're having a great time!

Ireland Trip- Day 2

Landed in Paris around 8:30 this morning. And after pleading with the stupid Air France people to switch our flight (even if our luggage wouldn't make the transfer) we boarded a 12:30 flight and landed in Dublin just after 2 PM. Got the passports stamped, and then Low and Behold! found our luggage waiting for us (the luggage went to JFK when we went to Paris.)

Figured out the bus system and found a room at the Lynhams hotel on O'Connell Street. The room itself is a bit of a dive. Not bad, but not the nicest for $100 a night. Guess we are paying for location over luxury. After a quick shower (or what you can better call a damp rinsing off, thanks to no water pressure) we headed out to explore the streets of Dublin. Our first stop was to Patrick Conway's- the oldest pub in Dublin City Center - for our first official pint in Ireland.

Ate dinner at a place called Fitzgeralds on Ashton Quay. Fish n' Chips and Irish stew. We were so tired from our trip we were in bed around 7:30pm. By that point we had been awake over 30 hours since leaving CHI the day before.

Ireland Trip- Day 1

And we're off...travel plans changed slightly. We were supposed to fly from Chicago to New York, then New York to Dublin and get in at 7 AM on the 30th. But our 1st flight to NY was oversold so we each got a $400 Delta credit for giving up our seats and then Delta booked us on a flight from Chicago to Paris, then on to Dublin. So we went to Paris $800 richer! Ironically enough, another couple on the original flight to NY was headed home to Dublin on the same flights and they gave up their seats, too. It was pretty sweet- they gave us some advice on what we should see. Paidraig, the Dubliner, suggested that we go to Kilmainham jail, so we'll be sure to check that out!



The flight itself to Paris blew! It was such a small plane for an overseas flight. Will and I were in the 2 seat aisle side of the plane in the 2nd to last row. It was so cramped we didn't sleep at all. The only redeeming quality on the plane was the personal tvs. We played a lot of games- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Blackjack, and Mahjong Tiles.