Peri: Dublin! :)

Mitzi and I arrived in Dublin yesterday around 11:30 local time.  The flight was only about 7 hours, and it went by pretty quickly.  We had a slight mix up with our hotel and ended up having to take a taxi to the correct one, which was frustrating after an already long day, but it worked out ok.  When we got off the plane, I did not feel jet lagged at all, but as soon as we got to the hotel we set our alarms for an hour and a half for our nap, and woke up three and a half hours later!  We were pretty beat when we woke up but decided we should go out for dinner before it got too late.  The desk clerk at the hotel gave us a map and pointed us in the right direction for good restaurants.  Unfortunately, we did not go in that right direction… We walked around the neighborhoods near our hotel for a while, but did not find any restaurants because we were obviously in a residential section.  We decided to take a bus into the city center so we took a guess on which bus to take, and it ended up being a good decision!  We ended up in the city center by the river: a very picturesque area where the City Hall, various other official buildings, restaurants, a hostel, etc. are located.  At this point, we were sick of walking around and decided to stop to eat at the next place we saw.  Fortunately the next place we saw, The Brazen Head, is on the list of most popular things to do in Dublin!  It is the oldest pub in Ireland, established in 1198!  That is so hard to comprehend!  Mitzi and I had a great time sitting on the cobblestone patio with the locals.  We enjoyed our dinner and soaking up the atmosphere.

       After dinner, we asked the bar tender for directions and found out that we were not too far from our hotel, but still too far to walk.  After wandering around a bit, we hopped on a bus that appeared to go in the right direction… it did not.  After a bit we knew we should scrap the bus and just take a taxi (it was after dark by now).  We made it back to the hotel in the taxi and got a good night’s sleep.  Today we plan to stick to pre-planned (and hopefully correct) routes, and become more familiar with the area.  We are planning on going to Dublinia, an exhibit about the fascinating history of Dublin, located in an old cathedral, and then to Temple Bar, a popular area for shopping, restaurants, pubs, and nightclubs. 

river running through Dublin's city center

temple bar

in phoenix park

**Random things about Dublin:**

-All of the buildings are very old and quaint; I love them!  There are many, many condos and apartment buildings.  In one long building of condos, each one can look completely different.  Many people paint their front door bright colors, its so cute!

-No shower curtains.  Just a small piece of glass attached to the edge of the bath tub in front of the shower head. Not conducive to sharing the bathroom…

-You have to use your room key in the hotel to operate the elevator, and you must leave your key in a card reader on the wall in order to operate the lights in your room.

-Tiny (but comfortable) beds.

-I have not seen a single redheaded person.

-They drive like maniacs!  The lines that separate all the lanes are the same, no matter what they are dividing.  Some single lanes are shared by traffic going both directions.  Their cars, no matter what make, model, or year, look and sound like they are in terrible shape.

And last but not least….

-I do really like it here (except for feeling lost all the time).  It is a very quaint, unique place that has something romantic about it.  You know that everything has so much history and therefore so much more intrigue to it.