Travels in Dublin, Day One

My first day in a European city. The flight from JFK to Dublin wasn't exactly comfortable or relatively enjoyable. Besides feeling sick to my stomach the entire time and not being able to sleep properly it was fine. :) I was afraid the flight delay screwed things up but fortunately it didn't. I was one of the lucky ones with flight delays. Only about 2 hours as opposed to some people having overnight delays. The cab ride here was surprisingly a lot of fun. I shared with Liz, Heather, Caitlin, Ashley, and Mary Beth, all from the mid-west. So far, so good.
So I missed the tour of Christ Church Cathedral, something I really wanted to see but maybe I can coerce someone to go back in the next few days. The Newman House tour was ok. The house was gorgeous and so well kept. The tour guide was pretty bored himself which didn't really add to the excitement. We cut through St. Stephen's Park to get there which was more than lovely. It was so beautiful and peaceful next to the busy Dublin streets. There are no skyscrapers here which, if you're used to going into any major American cities is so refreshing! We were told it was because of government regulations on how high a building can be built. Well done there. It makes it so much easier to see everything around you and that is so much more enjoyable to think you can see most of Dublin City in one spot. After Newman House a bunch of us set out to walk around aimlessly, just exploring. I would have no idea where I was if I were alone and more than 100 feet from Mercer. This is unfortunate. St. Stephen's Shopping Centre is surprising gorgeous, again, for a mall, haha. The Victorian detail is so beautiful and bright.
I should probably be out exploring now as well but I'm really content at the moment sitting in my room recording all of this. Note: Just looked at the clock and I can tell it's going to take a while longer to get used to military time. The room is really great too. Small, but absolutely love it. One hour to Orientation. I hope I'm not overestimating Dublin. I may be too excited to make an objective assessment of the place. But as far as I've seen it is beautiful and relatively quiet for a capital city.
I don't think I've ever been this tired before. That being said I don't think I've ever wanted to keep going just a little bit more when this tired. I think there's a few really nice people on this trip. It also looks like I'm going to have my first legal drink tonight. Just shy of 21 at this point I'm old enough to pub it up in Ireland....
Just got back from having my first legal drink. It's really not a big deal but I think it's funny. My friends and family wouldn't even believe that I would drink at all here. Anyways, we went to the Hairy Lemon right around the corner from the hotel. We stayed there a good amount of time before we went over to the Stag's Head. Soon me and Callie decided to call it quits for the pub scene and walk leisurely back to the hotel. Herein ends my first day in Europe. Note: Found a picture of the Shelton (my hometown) Gael mascot (aka Mr. Moriarty) on a pamphlet for "Viking Splsh Tours." The exact same picture. Wierd.

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