Friday, October 09, 2009

Ireland: Day 3-6

After I'm home and rested...which may take some time...I'll blog all the details I can remember about our trip to Dublin. It has been an incredible time, far exceeding our best expectations. The weather has been sunny and beautiful on the days we spent outside and windy and rainy on the days we planned indoor activities. God was smilin' down on us.

I seriously can't shake this accent.

For now, I'll just remind meself...er...myself to write about the Shelbourne Hotel, O'Donaghue's Pub, St. Stephen's Green, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Celtic Whiskey Shop, Hodges/Figgis and Bestsellers book stores, Ballyknocken, Cork, Cobh, Blarney Castle, Foley's Pub, cemeteries and monuments, The Irish Writer's Museum, and shopping, shopping, shopping.

Not to mention whatever I'll remember later and whatever hasn't happened yet. This trip has been a well-timed gift. I'm grateful for the chance to be here and grateful for friends with which to share the stories.

The whole week has been mighty craic!

Monday, October 05, 2009

Ireland: Day 1. (Or 2??)

13 hours on three different planes. And have I mentioned that I can't really sleep sitting down? We left at 7:00 am Sunday in Fresno and got to Dublin around 8:00 am on Monday. Lisa kept thinking that restaurants were closed and churches should be in session. It weirds you out.

After checking in and sleeping for five hours, we went out for a walk. There are pubs in Dublin! No, there are lots and LOTS of pubs in Dublin. We walked about four city blocks and saw at least 20 pubs. I'm not counting restaurants here. Just pubs. Pubs, pubs, pubs.

The streets were packed. We couldn't figure out why until Lisa pointed out that it was 5:00 pm on Monday. Everyone was leaving work, catching buses, and presumably heading for a pub. There are very few cars, tons of buses, and throngs of people afoot. The street is lined with statues (and pubs) and there is something to see in every direction.

We walked along, in no particular direction, marveling at the architecture, laughing that we passed two Burger Kings in two blocks, and trying to stay out of everybody's way. We saw a beautiful building, took a picture, and realized it was a post office. We passed the Bank of Ireland as we strolled. Finally, we found ourselves along the backside of a long building that was fenced off. We continued around the corner to see where we were. At the gate, we saw a lot of students walking out and discovered that we were at Trinity College. We went into the courtyard and all the sounds of traffice were silenced. We stayed a bit, but we are touring the school later so we headed back to the hotel for some fried haddock.

No Guinness yet but I'll let you know when it happens. It will most likely be in a pub. We are in a beautiful city that uses foreign currency with the nicest people and having an incredible time. More to follow, as we suck it up and decide to pay many euros for wireless charges.

Friday, October 02, 2009

Ireland, Baby!!!

My wife works hard and earns these cool incentive trips. We stayed at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. We toured historic Savannah, GA. We had the most incredible week in Hawaii. And now we are headed to Ireland on Sunday.

As I type that, it seems like a pattern...every trip is better than the last. Next year, we may be going to the moon.

We are going to stay at the beautiful Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. There will be food, excursions, gifts...and yes, we are going to kiss the Blarney Stone. At least I am. Lisa hasn't decided yet. Something about germs.

I doubt if I will do much blogging while I'm there. But I'm excited. If I see Bono, I'll tell him hi.

Free Counter
Hit Counters