Hello from Ireland!
The trip over and the first day were a huge success! The flight was great - business class is a whole new way to travel (don't worry though - I'm not getting to used to it). I do have to report that though my body was in much less pain after an 8 hour flight in business class, I don't know that I slept that much more. I was just more comfortable. The food was good though, and it was nice to be so well taken care of on an airplane. (Oh, and Calista Flockheart and her son were one row back from me....I didn't get to meet her, but she was very nice.) We landed in Ireland around 9am local time and got to the hotel by around 10:30. Getting through customs and out of the airport here was a breeze!! Much easier than arriving in the US. :) When we arrived at the hotel they didn't have our rooms ready yet, so we headed out to explore (and fight the urge to fall asleep). Thankfully our hotel is right next to Trinity College which is one of the biggest attractions in Dublin as it houses the Book of Kells. Unfortunately I was so tired that I forgot to bring my camera along for this excursion, but they didn't allow pictures of the Book of Kells anyway, so it was okay. After that, we headed back to the hotel to shower up before Aoife and her boyfriend picked Evan and I up for a tour of Dublin.
It was so great to see Aofie!! Bryan met her on a study abroad to Belgium right before we got married. She's lived in Dublin her whole life, so it was really nice to have a local show us around! They took us to some really pretty parks, Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, lots of great streets, and we ate at Crack Bird. Crack Bird is what they call a pop up restaurant. Apparently that's becoming popular here (Evan said they're also popular on the west coast back in the States). Anyway, it's where one restaurant fails, and another comes in but doesn't change any decor or anything. They just lease it for 6 months or so and focus on making great food. It definitely didn't disappoint (and we were starving). We liked it so much that we went to their sister restaurant (SkinFlint) for dinner. It was an awesome gourmet pizza place. After Crack Bird, we walked around some more and then experienced our first pub - Stag's Head. I had a really good cider there. I could definitely get used to the pub life. Very laid back. Everyone here is sooo nice. We had heard the Irish love Americans, and it's definitely true. Everyone has been incredibly helpful and accommodating.
Here are some pictures I took of the day. (Sidenote: Bryan gave me a crash course in taking good pictures before I left, but they're certainly not up to par with what he normally captures on vacation...haha! And many thanks to Amy for letting me borrow her camera for a whole month!!!)
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| I may not have emphasized this - but yesterday was AMAZING weather. It was around 60 degrees and clear, blue skies. Aofie made sure to remind us that this type of weather is incredibly rare for Ireland, and especially for Dublin. We certainly weren't expecting it! |
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| A view of part of the Dublin Castle (pretty sure I got that name right). |
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| Another view. |
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| Aoife and Patrick - they were such fantastic tour guides, and it was so sweet of them to take time out of their busy weekend to show us around Dublin. |
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| Aoife and me |
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| Stag's Head - the pub we went to. |
After dinner last night I crashed around 9:30pm local time, and slept until 8 this morning. It was much needed! :) This morning we got breakfast at a local place and are about to head out to catch the train to our town. Can't wait to see what adventures await us. We've heard great things about the town we're going to, so I look forward to getting the "quintessential" Ireland experience....or so we've heard!
I'll update soon! Love to you all!
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