June 21st, 2001
DAY TWO: Dublin Ireland
HOSTEL: Globetrotters (IHH) 46-7 Lower Gardiner St. (01 873 5893)

So after little to no sleep on Aer Lingus we arrived at Dublin airport to the bombardment of HUGE (and I stress huge) signs warning of Foot and Mouth Disease. This was a nice gesture considering we were only in this foreign country for what, a few minutes before we start getting nervous about where to go. The airport tunnels took us through customs with no problem (provided we stepped on the "foot and mouth desensitization" mats) and set off to get out of the airport. Keri had to call her mom so we found one of the odd blue and orange pay phones. After five minutes of trying to figure out the phone system with our non descriptive phone card we gave up and found the exit. It's a really odd feeling being in a foreign airport and stepping outside of the airport for the first time. The question arises, where the hell do we go first? Luckily a bus driver noticed our confused looks and told us he'd take us into town for 12 pounds (roughly 13 US dollars). Since we didn't know the way to walk, we figured this might be a good idea. The first time you drive in Ireland on the wrong side the road is the strangest feeling in the world. The bus driver dropped us off near the bus station in Dublin. We figured the first thing we should do is drop off the big bags we had, after all it had only been an hour or so and our over packed bags were breaking our out-of-shape sore backs. The "Lets Go Ireland" book saved our butts and we found Globetrotters Hostel pretty quickly thanks to the maps included. Unfortunately we couldn't check in though because it was too early in the morning, but at least we could drop off the big parts of the bags and just walk around with our daypacks. Because of the incredible weight you stress on your back we both highly recommend taking a travel bag that you can break apart. They get heavy really quickly so a small daypack that comes off allows you to bring around just the things you need for that day. So after a quick bite to eat we started walking around Dublin, not really knowing where we were headed. Keri and I found out rather unhappily that every shop we went to was still closed because it was too early in the morning. We decided to go kill some time and came across St. Patrick's Green, which is kind of like Dublin's take on the Boston Public Gardens. We sat down and did some relaxing feeding birds and taking some pictures. After which we hit the neighboring Trinity College and saw the incredible Book of Kells. By this time, the jetlag and lack of sleep that I was facing was really starting to kick in and made trying to see everything a real hassle. For lunch we tried "Johnny Rockets" a 50's American restaurant which was (to say the least) a nightmare. We figured it would be simple way to get a quick bite to eat, but needless to say Irish trying to do simple American food didn't work. We got out of the restaurant in one piece thankfully and made it over to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Ireland's national cathedral that was once run by Jonathan Swift. Keri sat and drew for a bit while I checked out the amazing stained glass and torn flags. After that we could barely hold ourselves up we were so tired and around 4:00 we called it a very early day. We headed back to Globetrotters where we hit the bed and didn't wake up till the morning.

(Click on a picture to enlarge and see captions)