What happens when you miss your flight? You get to the airport as soon as you can, cry to the nice Aer Lingus man, get really lucky that he is only charging a fee rather than making us buy a brand new ticket, and plan to camp in the airport for the next 7 hours.
Actually, I have to admit that I’ve enjoyed these past few hours because I ate my first big Irish breakfast and I’ve been completely passed out sleeping in a booth in the food court. I must be beyond exhausted to sleep 3 solid hours upright in the middle of a bustling airport with tons of people all around.
So how was my first day in Dublin?
Nothing short of wonderful! Even while I was waiting for Tammy in the airport, so many Irish women were very friendly and giving well wishes on my travels.
Our hostel wasn’t too bad. It was extremely cramped and smelled of feet, but half of our bunk mates were from Ann Arbor. Small world!
We walked through Trinity College and wandered through the Book of Kells exhibit. It is regarded as one of Ireland’s finest national treasures. It is an ornately decorated book from around 800 that contains 4 gospels of the new testament. How incredible to gaze upon a piece of art and history almost 2,000 years old.
Unfortunately, no photography was permitted. Tammy commented on how bad I had to be itching. My response: already scratched the itch. Take what you will from this paragraph.
We then took a double decker bus tour around the city and landed at the Jameson distillery. I already spoke of this in a precious post. It is SO true though, between Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker black label, and Jameson, the Irish was the best. The American whiskey made me shudder by smelling it. Ew.
We then volunteered for a “beta” version walking tour of the history of the Guiness family. It was a good way to discover the city – even though it was cold!
In exchange for providing feedback on this practice tour, we were awarded with a free hostel pub crawl that usually runs €12. Can’t say no to that!! We went to 5 local pubs – getting a free half pint of Guiness at the first and free shots at the following 4 bars. All drinks were Irish. The bailey’s shot was the best, of course! Two of the pubs had live Irish music; it was SO fun. There was dancing at a few too. The final pub we went to was where P.S. I Love You was filmed. Tammy and I met some friends too – of the Irish variety and fellow backpackers from various places in the world.
We had a long walk home in the rain – bless those walking shoes! It was a great day.
