Day One: Airplane zombies, Book of Kells, and Guinness

Our trip to Ireland started out a bit more stressful than I would have preferred. I was already nervous about the 1 hour and 40 minute time between flights, but Paul and Google answers assured me that it was JUST the right amount of time. Of course, then we had a plane delay.

I decided not to be nervous about it, because vacations shouldn’t be about stress, yo. But there *was* a moment when they were considering cancelling the flight. Eep. Anywho, we got to Atlanta at 7pm, and our next plane (to Ireland) was supposed to start boarding at 7pm. So we booked it in the airport along with almost everyone else from our first plane.

Fortunately, we made it in time, and the moment I sat in the final plane seat, I was no longer concerned. The flight was even shorter than it was supposed to be – by about an hour – because of good tailwinds. Huzzah! We landed in Ireland, super excited to start our day.

Except that we were pretty darn tired. We had left home at 3pm, and it was difficult to sleep on the plane, since they constantly walk up and down the aisle to give out free booze. It was approx. 3am to our bodies, and we maybe got 2 hours of sleep on the plane. So we were struggling to keep our eyes open.

We learned that driving in Dublin was a bad idea, so we drove to our hotel, which was on the outskirts of the city. Luck was on our side, and they let us check in super early, so we didn’t have to worry about our luggage in the car.

We left the car (which, by the way, Paul drives like a pro despite it being a manual on the wrong side of the car that drives on the wrong side of the road) at the hotel and took the tram into the city. Holy bananas, I wish every city in America had a tram! It was SUPER easy to figure out how to get around Dublin in it.

We went right away to Trinity College to check out the Book of Kells. The problem with the tram, though, was that it was too tempting to sleep. Paul had to practically shake me to keep me awake. I also slapped myself a few times.

There was a tour of Trinity College that went with seeing the Book of Kells. That college has some amazing history. It was cool to hear about all the famous people who went there, and the buildings were so old and SO pretty!

After touring the campus, we went to see the Book of Kells. I’ve been super excited about seeing it. It was super cool, however, there were crowds and no lines or whatever, so the Book was just on a table, under glass, and people just randomly went up and politely pressured others out of their way. So I didn’t get to look at the Book of Kells as much as I would have liked. It was too crazy in there.

Fortunately, the next stop was the rest of the library that holds the Book of Kells. WOW. What an unbelieveably gorgeous library. Paul had to guide me around the crowds, because my eyes were fastened on the books and the ceiling, not where I was walking. I want to own that library. Those books *need* to be read!

After Trinity College, we cancelled our other plans because we were sleep deprived zombies. Of course, we couldn’t cancel our first Guinness beer! We went specifically to Brazen Head pub, the oldest pub in Dublin, from 1193 A.D.!!!! It was really cool. What a perfect place to drink our first Irish Guinness. J

Then we struggled to stay awake for the tram ride back. But we were determined to get on Irish time, so next we went out for dinner. I would like to apologize to Paul again for how cranky I was. Since I’ve never been sleep deprived before, I didn’t know that I get very very grumpy when I need sleep. Oops.

Finally, we stumbled back to our hotel, and fell asleep almost immediately. We slept 12 hours that night, and I didn’t move at all. Bliss.

Random lesson of the day: Tesco is NOT like walmart, despite what people say. Nope, it’s just a crappy and small grocery store with one aisle of swimming stuff and an aisle of toys.  They do have Bourbon crackers which are also not what they should be.

Random lesson of the day part deux: It’s impossible to find plastic cutlery to buy for making our own sandwiches. They don’t like plastic here. Oh, and buy a shopping bag ASAP for groceries.