Dublin...day 4

Day 4 in Dublin was rather successful. Got up on time, and attempted
to make it out to St. Partricks cathedral. We did make it there, but
not in time for mass, as it was rather unclear what time mass was.
Actually first, we stopped for breakfast at a restaraunt/bar thing. It
was pretty good, although we were the only people in the place by the
time we were done. They had tables with Guinness taps in them, which
was pretty awesome (in theory anyway).

Okay, so we didn't make it to mass. Then we trekked east to St
Stephens Green, which is a giant park in the city, complete with
fountains and a duck pond.

Then we made our way through the Grafton street shopping district, a
cool outdoor mall sort of area, complete with a visit to the Statue of
Molly Malone, which I hear is called "The tart with the cart".

This was in route to Trinity College, which is mega old and houses the
Book of Kells, a mega old book of the gospels. We took the tour, that
was nifty, although I learned a lot about this college that really
isn't mega important to me. The way old books though were sweet.

So then we went back west to Dublin Castle, a castle in downtown. That
was a little surprising - it was like touring a state Capitol or a
mansion. Huge, ornate rooms used for government stuff. Entertaining,
but not like I expected. Also a lot more history than we planned.

We hoped at this point to hit up the Guinnes brewery, but in the
interest of time we instead went to a prison which I'm not even trying
to spell. Also really old, also really historical. Turns out some
hugely important revolutionaries were executed here. Again, way more
historical than I really was prepared for, but sweet and old and creepy.

Finally we went back east to the Temple Bar area and had some much
needed dinner. We confirmed a couple of things that we had learned,
which I'll get to in a second. After dinner we wandered around some
more and achieved some groceries for snacks. The grocery store was
crazy busy, FYI.

Things we learned today. ( I may have repeated some of these, I don't
remember...)

* When eating, normally people are not in a hurry. Service is pretty
lacking - waiters just don't come check on you. Also getting your bill
does not happen in a timely fashion, ever. I think you're supposed to
hang out and drink tea. We were the only people in the place for
breakfast, literally, and we still sat there for 30 minutes.
* the food here...yeah, it hasn't been awesome. Maybe I'm being
tainted by the miserable exchange rate, I don't know. I mean the food
has been good, but so far nothing has been like wow better than the
USA. I did have some amazing cheesecake today though.
* Stuff closes down way early! After about 5pm, it's pretty much game
over.
* Irish accents are pretty cool.
* There are 9 pages of O' names in the phonebook.
* Our hotel doesn't have an alarm clock, or a bathroom fan, or towels
currently, all of which I totally don't understand.

Tomorrow were planning on leaving Dublin and rocking the blarney
castle. I'm excited about that - Dublin is really cool, however it's a
big city, like many other cities. I'm ready to see some sheep.

Mark D