Dublin day 1

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Our flights were on time and fairly comfortable. I slept for about 4 hours and Mark slept for about 2--miracle, that, as he usually does no more than nod a time or two on a plane. We arrived at about 9 a.m. The weather was cool and showery, kind of what we had read in the forecast. Our bags were 3 of the last off the plane but we had them in hand and were in the cab to the hotel by 10:15. The cabbie was very friendly and asked us lots of questions about what we would be doing while in Ireland. When we told him we were renting a car and traveling around the country side, he said, "Oh, you'll have earned the Victoria cross by the time you get back for that!" We told him we had lived in Japan so were used to driving on the other side of the road but he still seemed skeptical. I'm sure we'll do fine.
We got to the Hilton Dublin and our room was ready. Now normally, our idea of staying in a foreign country would not include staying in a Hilton Hotel but one of the ways to make this trip affordable was to use our Hilton Honors points of which we have a fair number. So we are at Hiltons whenever we can swing it, which is in Dublin and Limerick. The desk clerk told us we had been upgraded to the club floor (ooh la la! I thought!) which turns out means we get a free newspaper (not so ooh la la, I thought.) The room was very comfortable and clean, small for an American hotel in America but plenty big for what we need.
I was not feeling so well and with the cold and jet lag and the dreary weather, but with time being short in Dublin, we wanted to see what we could see with minimum effort. The desk clerk gave us a map, showed us the best walking route into the city center and suggested we buy a pass for the hop on, hop off bus route. We followed her excellent instructions to St. Stephens Green, a small park in the center of Dublin. We found the hop-on, hop-off bus stop and a bus was there. We bought our tickets (21 Euros each--not a bad deal) and started on the adventure. The guide was very funny and pointed out some of the funnier things in Dublin like the statue of Molly Malone. He said when the statue was unveiled, the locals were very amused at the low cut blouse she was wearing and the story quickly spread that she must have been a fish monger by day and a lady of the evening by night. So the nickname for the statue soon became "the tart with the cart" or "the trollop with the scallop." The bus goes a pretty wide route, by the real "down town" sites of Trinity College and St. Stephens Green, and out to Kilmainham Gaol and the Guiness Storehouse. We got off at the Kilmainham Gaol and took the tour. It was quite interesting, especially learning about the Easter uprising in 1916, and how the leaders of the uprising (13 of them, I believe) were executed over 10 days time. Each day the local Irish press would write a story about the latest revolutionary that had been executed and it was reading these heartwrenching stories that galvanized the Irish people into a united force that eventually threw off the centuries of British rule. It reminded me of the Alamo. The Americans were unsuccessul at the Alamo but the defeat is what made the people decide to fight for Texas independence.
We got back on the bus and finished the tour around. I slept through a lot of it, quite honestly. We got off at St. Stephen's Green and walked over to Grafton Street which is the main shopping street in Dublin. We walked down Grafton Street to Temple Bar. Most of the 110 Euros we had bought in Atlanta were gone after the cab ride and the bus tickets. I got another 200 Euros out of the ATM, thinking that would last us a while. I was really not feeling well by this time so we found a place called Gallagher's Boxty in Temple Bar for a quick dinner. Temple Bar is a very trendy neighborhood full of bars and restaurants not far from downtown and south of the River Liffey. Mark ordered Irish Stew and I ordered a Murphy's Stew which was made with beef and Murphy's stout. I had a beer and Mark had a Murphy's with his meal. Neither one of us ordered a boxty which is a potato pancake type thing with various fillings. The people at the table next to us (4 American women) each ordered boxtys and they looked interesting. Mark said his Irish stew was excellent (I didn't tast it due to the cold germs and all) and my Muphy's stew was very good. After dinner I could not keep my eyes open so we strolled back to the hotel. The sun seemed to be coming out some tonight. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better weather day. I cannot wait to go to bed. I think I will do that now.

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