More, and more Dublin

Day 2 started with a good, hearty Irish breakfast, which is the same as an English breakfast except it includes black and white puddings. We decided to take a tour of medieval Dublin, going through the Dublin Castle, which is part castle and part office building complex, the Chester Beatty Library, which was Leo's good idea (it houses an amazing collection of ancient books), we walked around some churches (mostly from the outside, since they charge steep fees to actually step foot in the door), then decided to go to the Guinness Storehouse, since when in Dublin, do as the tourists do. The place was an amazing homage to the marketing strength of a decent, but in my mind, not AMAZING, beverage. The Gravity Bar at the top of the Storehouse, where you get your "free" pint of Guinness after shelling out 14 euros to get into the place, did provide a really nice view of the city. We got some fantastic fish and chips at Leo Burrdocks, which is a small take-away restaurant near Christ Church, and we picnicked on the lawn of the church in the sunshine. After a few more pints of Guinness and a bit more wandering around, we found a Nepalese restaurant for dinner, where the amazing food was slightly tainted by some debit card issues my parents had been having since arriving in Dublin.

When we woke up on day 3 it was windy, rainy and cold. It's amazing the impact that the weather can have on you. So long as the sun is shining, life is good, things are going your way, and the world is your Irish rock oyster. When the weather is bad, everything looks bleak and oppressive. This is how the day felt. We had been planning to get out of Dublin and go to hiking along the cliffs of Howith, which is on the water, just north east of Dublin. But since it was miserable out, we altered our plans. We went to Trinity College to see the book of Kells and walk around the Library. In the hopes of staying somewhat dry, we then went to the National Museum, which had an awesome collection of people who had died and been preserved in bogs. It was a small museum, so we thought we'd round out the morning with a trip to the Natural History Museum, but were informed that it had been closed for the last 6 months, so we headed once again to a pub for some more Guinness (do you see a theme here). Due to ongoing debit card issues, my folks decided to head back to the hotel where they could call the company and try to resolve the problems that kept plaguing them - it turned out the problem was that the hotel had put a hold on a large chunk of their money, without telling them, so it appeared to their bank that there were insufficient funds on their card. After a few more drinks to ease the pain, we decided on some traditional Irish sushi for lunch followed by some more drinks, some Euro football watching, and the most expensive doner kebab I've ever eaten (10 euro for a doner and chips).

On day 4, there were gale force winds blowing across the Irish Sea. This was the day we were supposed to leave. The woman at the front desk checked online for us and called the ferry port and told us that there was nothing saying that the ferries had been cancelled. Our ferry wasn't until 2:45, so we thought we'd try to get in a bit more sightseeing before we left. According to our guidebook, not much was open on Sunday, and practically nothing before noon, but there were a few churches we'd be able to go into between their services. In the gale force winds and driving rain we marched to St. Patrick's Cathedral, only to be met at the gate by a very surly woman who barked at us that we were not welcome to come in. At the next church, though not met with such nastiness, we were turned away as well (though invited in to pray if we wanted). Cold and dejected, we found a coffee shop, where the woman at the counter tried to rip us off, but we decided to sit there for awhile anyway to wait out the storm. Though the winds didn't die down, the skies did clear up and we reclaimed our luggage at the hotel and hopped in a cab. We joked with the cabbie about the ferries not running due to bad weather, and just as we were turning into the ferry port, the cabbie heard on the radio that the ferries were cancelled. Not believing this news, we checked at the ferry port, and not only were the ferries cancelled, they had been cancelled since the previous night. Angry, cold, tired, wet, and in need of a Guinness, we climbed back into the cab, went back to the hotel, and checked back in, giving them a few nasty glances and some passive aggressive comments. After some Guinness, once again things didn't seem too bad. We went to the National Portrait Gallery (since it was now after noon and some things were open), relaxed a bit in our hotel rooms, and then had a wonderful meal at a place Leo had found, Eden.

Day 5 we awoke and the skies were clear. We grabbed some croissants and headed to the ferry which I had made sure were running. We got on the 8:45 a.m. ferry and hit Hollyhead 15 minutes after the first train to Crewe departed. We got on the next train which was an hour later. Once we got to Crewe it was another hour until our next train to London. Leo and I, who had both planned on going in to work, as it was Monday, were both getting antsy. Finally, after an extra day in Dublin, 2 hours on a ferry, 5 hours on trains, and 2 hours standing around, we got back to London. Leo went off to work for the remainder of the afternoon (and evening), my parents headed back to their hotel, and I headed home.

Looking back, we did do some interesting things in Dublin, had some good meals, and had a lot of quality bonding (drinking) time. But I'm not sure if I'll go back to Dublin any time soon.

Pictures will be posted, but this evening we're off to Copenhagen, so it will have wait until we return.