18 Hours in Dublin (Ireland - Day 1)

Jason and I got back from a week in Ireland last Saturday. Things have been a little hectic around here while we've been getting caught up at work, but I'm finally getting around to posting at least some of the pictures. There's really no way to sum up the trip but to say that Ireland was the most amazing place we've visited yet. The rugged, green landscape against the ocean backdrop was SO beautiful that I can guarantee you the pictures won't do it justice. In any case, I'll start this post from the beginning...

We arrived in Dublin on a Saturday and headed over to pick up our rental car. I had stupidly booked the car in my name which meant I was going to have to do all of the driving (my first time on the left hand side of the road!). I wasn't very excited about this, but things started looking up when we got to the rental desk and they offered us an upgrade to an automatic for only 3 euros per day - whew! At least that way I could focus on staying on the correct side of the road and not worry about having to shift with my left hand!

Once we had picked up the car we headed for our first destination:

We were pretty excited about touring the Guinness Brewery because we thought it would be a tour of the actual brewing process and we'd get to see how the beer was made. It turned out that the tour was in a mock plant where beer used to be brewed many years ago. There were basically just TV monitors that you could walk up to and watch short videos about the brewing process - not all that exciting. On top of that it was VERY busy. If you're ever in Dublin and you decide to go, be sure to buy your tickets in advance online! We hadn't done so because we were afraid our flight would be late getting in and we'd miss their opening times, but boy did we seriously regret it after a 30 minute wait in line!

On the up side, Jason did get schooled on how to "pull the perfect pint of Guinness":

He was even awarded with a certificate documenting this achievement!

I guess if science doesn't work out for him, he's always got Guinness pint pulling to fall back on now! He does still have some learning to do before then though; I don't think he could yet achieve this feat:

If you look close, you'll see that the pint-puller who poured this pint managed to "etch" a shamrock into the foam with a few flicks of the wrist while pouring. Impressive!

After our visit to Guinness, we headed to our B&B to check in. B&B's are hugely popular in Europe, often very nice, and a much less expensive alternative to hotels. They have a very different reputation/presence here than in the US, but I'll leave that tangent for a different post. By the time we arrived at the B&B (probably less than 5 miles away from Guinness) I was so flustered with the driving that I couldn't wait to get out of Dublin! I'm sure it's a nice enough city, but it was NOT for me! Picture Chicago driving (maneuvering around traffic, buses, bikers, pedestrians, etc.) but with unfamiliar signs, strange road markings, and being on the left hand side of the road for the first time in your life. No thank you (and hence our short 18 hour stay in Dublin)!

In any case, we finally made it to the B&B. Once checked in to our tiny, quite unimpressive room we were confused by the presence of a very large armoire in such a small space:

On closer inspection, Jason made the startling discovery that this was in fact NOT an armoire. Our room was equipped with it's very own coffin sized sauna!?!?:

Does anyone else find this extremely odd? We laughed about it the entire trip. I decided I had to give it a try since it was there, but I only lasted a total of about 1 1/2 minutes - it was so small I felt like I was trapped in an oven!

Check back soon for pictures of the more scenic parts of our adventures. Up next, the Cliffs of Moher...