Travel is cool. (Part 2 of 10)

The second day we flew on Ryan Air to Ireland.

omg It was an uncomfortable flight, and we were packed in like sardines. My father noticed on their in-flight shopping brochure that they were selling lots of utterly useless things like bullet-proof wallets. There were actually advertisements on the overhead baggage compartments, like the kind you'd see on the insides of subway train cars. Well, at least we got there!

After landing, we stretched our legs for the first time in about an hour and went to find our rental car. I wish I had a good photo of it here: a large, green van with sliding doors on each side. It was, as my brother would say, very "tourist out loud." It turns out I only took video of the bus, but there are some pictures of us sitting on the inside!

Much of the first day was spent driving around, looking for Dublin's center, and searching for our hotel.


We saw some interesting things during our drive. From local band posters to strange statuettes of reclining women in home windows, to Hobbit-style front doors, my whole family enjoyed looking out at Dublin. We couldn't wait to get out to walk actually walk around!

Finally we came to our hotel, where we threw our things down and got ready to have a freezing night on the town.

It started with a walk to a nearby pub for food and beer. Mike enjoyed a few genuinely Irish pints of Guinness, which he reported were much better in Ireland than they are in the states.

Afterward we wandered Grafton Street, which is a bit like Church Street in Orlando, or Lincoln Road in South Beach. In other words, it's a road that is open to pedestrians only, with tons of stores and pubs lining the way.

From there we went to a really cool pub called The Duke, and we started our Literary Pub Crawl! This was lots of fun. Two actors led us on foot around a small area of Dublin, performing classic works of literature and sharing some Irish history with us along the way. Of course, in order to soak in our educational experience, the actors periodically dropped us at relevant pubs for another pint or two before we moved to our next location.

I was wearing my Equus T-shirt, and several college exchange girls from the states sat me down during a pub stop to interrogate me about the details (both artistic and physical) of young mister Radcliffe. :)

One of the most exciting stops on our adventure was the prestigious Trinity College at night, which is a beautiful thing to see. My aunt studied there for one of her master's programs, and she has always told me it's an incredible place. We were thrilled to finally see it.

Tipsy and tired, we headed back to bed, planning to visit the campus again the next day for pictures and, of course, to see the Book of Kells.

But that's the next day! :)