First Day

I made it to Ireland in one piece! No real problems on the flights or anything..We are staying in the dorms at the University College of Dublin right now. The dorms are pretty nice. We each have our own room and bathroom which is nice..My shower only has one temperature and that is scolding hot but hopefully I can get that figured out before too long!

After we got settled in we took the bus down to the center of Dublin. We mostly just walked around and looked at all the different stores..We stopped at a place called The Temple Bar which boasts the largest whiskey selection in Ireland. However, it was only 2:30 pm (Ireland time) which meant 8:30 am central time and we all figured that would put us to sleep quickly so we passed on that and stuck to food, which was also good. We watched some horse races at the bar while eating. I had no idea people got so into watching the races. People were cheering and yelling the whole time. Afterwards, a couple of us girls were standing outside waiting for everyone to finish paying and we were serenaded by a  couple street performers..they also gave us the first "you aren't in Kansas anymore" joke of the trip.

We continued just walking around and looking at all of the buildings. They are really beautiful. They all look so old and you really feel like you are just surrounded by history. The weather was also gorgeous. It was probably low 60's and completely sunny the whole time.

For dinner we went to a place a little off the main street area called The Bleeding Horse. Bad name, good food. We ended up meeting four guys from Liverpool who joined our group and we got to talk to them. They were pretty entertaining to put it politely. We watched a futbol game (that's soccer, mom) and talked with them for quite awhile.

Once we decided we couldn't handle anymore of the Liverpool guys we left and attempted to find our bus stop..That turned out to take about 30 minutes and more than a few laps around the block. Eventually we found our way home safe and sound. We may go back out later but that just depends on if we can stay awake now or not. Ireland is 6 hours ahead so all of our schedules are pretty messed up.

I think tomorrow we are going on a bus tour called the Hop On Hop Off or something like that. We may also go to a futbol game depending on how early it is..I'm not that into the sport itself but it would definitely be a fun experience. We may also tour the Guinness Factory if we have time, which could be fun.

All in all, my first day was successful. Dublin is a fun city and has a lot of cute little shops (it kind of reminds me of Laguna but larger, Aunt Diane). I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!