My initial impressions of Dublin is that it reminds me of a smaller version of Boston. Lots of people proud of their town, proud of their team, proud of their heritage, and lots of pubs (bars) to argue those points to anyone who will listen. Dubliners are very friendly. The city seems to be divided up into historical sections...Gregorian, Old Dublin, newer parts...Nothing terribly official mind you, but you can definitely see where certain eras begin and end.
Following the nap we took after arriving in our hotel, the Clyde Court Hotel, we decided to finally get out into the city.
The first tour we went on was the Viking Splash tour, which is a fairly decent tour of the city proper in a converted WW2 Duck straight out of Pontiac Michigan used for the American troops on D-Day. We got to wear Viking hats, shout like vikings, and be a general nuisance as we drove around Dublin. This included a trip into the water to visit parts of Dublin only accessible with boats, including catching sight of U2's recording studio used in the 80's. Good tour, good way to relieve stress.
After that, a quick pop into the local Starbucks (!!) For a latte, then off we went, walking a few miles to the Guinness plant/tour/store. It rained, and I bought an umbrella, which now makes two umbrellas in two European trips. So we get to the Guinness building... and it's closed. It is Sunday, and we forgot the different operating hours. It was now about 6:30pm local.
After a quick cab ride and an Irish cabbie seranade of "Nothing Could Be Finer Than To Be In Carolina", we hit a local pub called O'Donoghue's for some Guinness. Forgetting that we hadn't eaten since basically 7:30 am, i got buzzed pretty quickly. Then across the street to Foley's for a serious burger, chips, apple tart and Jack Daniels and Pepsi. I had to convince our Japanese(?) waitress that her establishment did indeed have other spirits besides Irish Whiskey. They had a good Gordon Lightfoot style singer in the pub, but we were done for the day.
A walk back to the hotel, and crash for the day. A very long combination of yesterday through today with about 4 hours of sleep in between. Tomorrow we head out of town for a castle visit.
Today's funny moment:
Mom tried to flush the toilet in the Starbucks and instead pulled the "I need assistance" cord.
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