6-15-11 Dublin, Day One...

The flight was long. Not just a little long, but a whole lot long. Don't get me wrong....I am SO not bitching. Having done it once before, I didn't even feel delirious when we got off the plane. Might have had to do with the coffee, but not sure  =)

The flight to Atlanta was 4 hours. The flight from there to Dublin was another seven plus hours. It's hard to stay in a little tube that long with people you don't know. But we survived, got on the bus and found our hotel.

Then, they told us we couldn't have our rooms until after 2pm, so Chris handed us all a map of the city and told us to go have fun and come back after two. My kind of day!

Upon opening the map, I discovered a veritable plethora of amazing things within a miles walk of this place!

Can I just say how beautiful the people of Dublin were?!? I took my map and started walking along the street, looking at stuff and things. No fewer than FOUR times, during that initial, solo walk, I had different people stop me on the street and say "Are you okay?" "Do you need help?" "Do you know where you are going?" "Do you need help?" I prefer to think this is the benevolence of my fellow man rather than that I just looked SO completely clueless wandering around the streets of Dublin on my own =) I am sure I had the big TOURIST stamp in the center of my forehead. What do you MEAN there aren't a lot of crazy hippies with orange braids running around Dublin?!?

Things I learned....don't necessarily pay attention to people selling you stuff. I have to buy a converter for my international power do-hickey because it's the wrong kind. GRRRR....so, updates could be a tad slow until I figure it out.

Here's what I saw on my small walk around today:

Enduring the cattle to get our passports stamped at the airport. Even the stamp is green!

The view outside the bus on the way to our hotel.

The leaning tower of Dublin? In glass?!? Interesting!

Nice metal work on the lamp post!

Still getting used to all the traffic going the "wrong" way =)

Awesome looking little pub down the street from the hotel.

Funky purple chair in hotel lobby

These look like "Alice in Wonderland" chairs =)

Map of Ireland framed in the lobby of the hotel.

hahahaha....see? everyone looks tiny in these chairs!

Royal Irish Academy of Music, passed on my first walk about

Oscar Wilde plaque on side of building during walk about 

Hard Rock Dublin near Temple Bar District

This reminds me of other places in France, very cool.

Pubs, pubs everywhere.

Love the details and color of this building!

Another awesome building.

I think this Rolls had been parked for awhile, it didn't move all day yesterday =) 

Restaurant

Temple bar district

Saw building for the Irish Times while walking back to hotel

Peace! Will update when I can, out of battery!