"Hey there stranger, give us a wave"

Day 2 - i decided to play it safe and order scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. before i leave the hotel, i'll go for the traditional Irish one (i'm really brave).

we took a 3 hour tour (a threee hour tour...) of the city today! our tour guide was epic! he was an Irishman named Garbhán (pronounced 'Garvan'). We started at city hall, then went to Dublin castle, Temple Bar (which is an area similar to 6th street), Trinity College, the Parliament Building (which inspired the design of The White House), lots of mueseums and churches and ended at St. Stephens Green. the entire tour was an incredible (and epic), abbreviated history lesson.

this is me inside Dublin Castle - which isn't very big. notice the "Record Tower," at the very top, which is the oldest part of the castle. this is called the Record Tower, it sits between the main part of the castle and the chapel.

more of Dublin castle from the inside

this is next to Dublin castle. it used to be where the water from the river - used to fill the moat around the castle - would pool. it was called "the black pool," which translates to Dubh Linn in the Irish language. you guessed it - this is where Dublin got its name.

looking at Dublin castle from the outside, you can see several different styles of architecture. Garbhán lovingly referred to this style as "Lego influence"

Christ Church Cathedral. this church is in the middle of the area that the Vikings originally settled when they "blew in" off the coast. it has suffered through Ireland's hard times, once operating as a bar...and then a brothel.


this is a hotel in Temple Bar. it's across the street from a pub where a band called Feedback got it's start.

Garbhán told us the story - after the band had won a big contest, they went to celebrate at the closest pub, which was across the street at this hotel. since they were dressed like a grunge punk band in the 70s, the bouncer told them to "feck off."

this made the lead vocalist of Feedback very upset and as the bouncer chased him off, he yelled "one day i'm going to own this hotel, and i'm going to kick You out!"

....and he was right, except, the band changed it's name to U2. more impressed now? ((this hotel is also mentioned in Gilmore Girls. when they go on their Europe vacation, they spend 2 days hanging out in the lobby of this hotel waiting for Bono :) ))

this street in Temple Bar is named after Rory Gallagher and this is an Exact replica of his guitar (he's Jimi Hendrix's favorite guitarist)

Also notice, all street signs are written in Irish and English (with the Irish on top, of course)

this bridge was designed by the same men that designed the Titanic. most famous bridge in Dublin.

"this pub is older than our country" - this is where Garbhán brought us after the tour for a pint

with Hillary and Tracie, enjoying a traditional Irish meal (fish&chips) at the end of the tour.


Random fact of the day: Vikings (who play a large part in Ireland's sad history) never actually wore helmets with horns on them. it makes complete sense, but was a little disappointing.

a few of us decided to have a low key night to fight the jet lag. we tried to go see Sex and the City 2, but EVERY theater was sold out, so we ended up walking around Dublin for about 2 hours, picking up a couple bottles of wine and heading to the hotel.

on the way home, we saw an ambulance collecting a woman who was the victim of a hit and run. ironically it was right after we had a convo about how Brad was being paranoid about the crosswalks and no one ever got hit. the strangest thing about the scene was that random ppl were walking up to the police, paramedics AND the victim and asking what happened and offering condolences.

it's been a looooong day. Hillary and I have been up for 19 hours straight, so we're going to sack out.

hope you enjoyed the pics!