Day One in Dublin (aka 3 days later but I finally have internet)

Welcome to Ireland!

We have been here a few days but this is the first time I have had reliable and usable internet.

I'll give you the short version - we left Massachusetts on time, we got to the airport on time, our flight left about half an hour late and still got in early.  I don't remember airplane seats being quite so uncomfortable but I did get to watch my choice of a movie.  I chose Bernie with Jack Black and Shirley MacClaine because someone (I can't remember who) just told me I should see it. Oh by they way - airplane food is as bad as I remember.

We got through customs quite quickly and our luggage was on the belt, undamaged and with nothing missing.  Always a plus!

We upgraded our rental car (I could have packed more stuff!). It is diesel so it will get much better mileage and is less expensive to fill up.  The car has a bigger trunk so all of our stuff in concealed, and I feel a little less vulnerable riding in it overall.  It is silver so I am happy - I am not a fan of red cars.

I would post a photo but my card reader does not appear to be working.  I don't know if it is the computer, the card reader or the card but I am trying not to panic.  I assume all will be well when I get the card into my new laptop back home.  This machine is pretty old and the card may just be too big for it to handle.  I know I had that problem with my old camera.

Onwards and upwards...

We got in our rent-a-put and drove into Dublin proper.  Actually, we sat in the car in the rental lot for half an hour looking at maps that made no sense.  We finally decided to just drive and see where we wound up.  Luckily, we wound up in Dublin!  We parked on the street, found a place to stay and left our luggage at the hotel until our room was ready.  Ken re-parked the car in a lot for the 2 days we'd be there and we walked everywhere we went.  Dublin sort of reminded me of New York.  It has pockets of neighborhoods, no parking and accommodations run the gamut from cheap to expensive.  We chose a place that doesn't make it into the guild books but suited our needs perfectly.

After the car was parked, we went in search of our first pint of Guinness.  We found ourselves at O'Neill's Bar and Restaurant.  The food was okay, the pint was good and we had a nice walk around the area.

We went back to our hotel - the River House Hotel in the Temple Bar district.  We decided a nap was in order.  We set the alarm for 5PM local time.  We'd been up for about 24 hours at this point and thought 5 hours of sleep was a good plan.  We both got up when the alarm went off though I don't think either of us was very happy about it at the time.  We took showers - and were human again!

We went out wandering and had dinner at Les Freres Jacques - a lovely French restaurant near our hotel.  After dinner, we strolled around looking for (listening for?) live music and found ourselves back at O'Neill's.  They had wonderful live music and a rowdy crowd on a pub crawl.  I was sitting next to two young guys - one from Australia and the other from 'back home'.  He was from near Saratoga in Glens Falls.  Small world.  On the way out we discovered the name of the band (just two guys on guitar and banjo) were called All Folked Up!  Gotta love it!

The music ended around 11:30 and we headed back to our room.  It was a noisy night out on the streets of Dublin but we didn't hear a thing.  We were out cold and enjoying dreamland.  End of Day 1.