Ireland

       Only five days into the trip and I'm already overwhelmed by the number of stories I have to tell.  We landed in Dublin at 8AM on Friday a bit weary from the overnight flight, but with enough adrenaline to remain driven by our quixotic expectations.  Inspired by those expectations, we decided that the best way to get around a country to which neither of us have ever been (where they drive on the right side of the road btw) was to rent a car (for a mere 20 euros/day).  This ended up being a terrific idea, but initially, in the middle of Dublin’s 9AM rush hour madness it seemed idiotic.  Even so, we made it through unscathed to downtown Dublin, which proved to be a bit of a letdown.  Our morning and early afternoon was spent walking around town seeing the sights,  searching for a bank (we managed to go to 3 banks that had no money inside), griping about the cost of parking, and getting pages added to my passport at the US Embassy.   Throughout we met delightful people, but were mostly underwhelmed with Dublin as a whole.  From there, we headed out of town in hopes of stumbling upon a castle and finding a place to stay for the night…or perhaps running into Bono-who knows?  We jumped on the motorway and jumped on a few narrow countryside backroads.  At one point we encountered a semi on a road that seemed narrow for the Festiva itself,  but after pulling into some shrubs, we managed to avoid the behemoth.  After several more kilometers of aimlessly driving through the countryside and basking in Ireland’s natural beauty, we discovered a sign for a castle in the town of Ballbriggin.  This turned out to be a fantastic little town with friendly people at every turn. Also, it happened to have an inexpensive Bed and Breakfast with rooms available.  Can’t say that I ever expected to be sharing a room at a B&B with Awal, but it was cheap and had two twins, so we’re good.
After a great dinner at a local pub, a good night’s rest, and a traditional Irish breakfast (with enough cured meat to feed a hyena), we set off for the local castle.  Not really much noteworthy to say about the castle strangely enough…the building itself is gorgeous and the surrounding rolling hills are stereotypical Irish countryside (or at least how I imagined it).
In our last few hours in the country we made our way out to New Grange which, according to Beverly Murray (the lovely older lady we met in a coffee shop) is the one place you must visit if you’re in Ireland. Now, I managed to catch some of its significance, but I figure Wikipedia can do a better job explaining than me.  We made it back to Dublin just in time to return the Fiesta and catch our flight to London.  Two chaotic, jet lagged, sleep deprived, disoriented days in Ireland isn’t nearly enough.  I feel like I missed a ton and would love to return one day.

Sorry this is all I have at the moment...I'm trying to catch my writings up to my physical location and I'm not there yet...