September 18, 2010 – Day One Part 2
Well it's 1am in Ireland
The day started out cold and rainy. We went downstairs for a continental breakfast that was supposed to end at 10:30am. We got to the dining room at 10 sharp and sat down. I looked at the girls and said, "Um...everybody eating in here is wearing ALL black!" We soon found out (by us asking) that breakfast was over at 10 and the workers were inhaling the leftovers. I'm not sure how long they would have let us sit there. We ended up walking to a breakfast shop for great pastries and awful coffee. I did get a coke over ice and it was WONDERFUL!!
We bought a 48 hour hop on hop off bus pass when we first got to Dublin so after breakfast we hopped on the bus to Trinity College Ireland
We waited in line for about 15 minutes to get in to see the Book of Kells. The only funny thing that happened there was that I slipped while simply standing in line. I blame it on the weight of my back pack and my abnormally small feet.
We waited in line for about 15 minutes to get in to see the Book of Kells. The only funny thing that happened there was that I slipped while simply standing in line. I blame it on the weight of my back pack and my abnormally small feet.
The Gospels were awesome and were written so beautifully. Did you know that the original order was Matthew, John, Luke and Mark? The book had beautiful pictures of each of the gospel writers with a Tudor (aka the Tim Tebow rookie hair cut). After we looked through the gospels, we walked to the library which is 65 meters long and contains over 200,000 of the oldest books. The smell of old books was intoxicating. We're all book worms so we loved it! Before we left campus, we bought a deck of cards in the gift shop.
What?? We needed to further our learning! Sadly photography wasn't allowed in either parts of the college.
What?? We needed to further our learning! Sadly photography wasn't allowed in either parts of the college.
After Trinity College, we hopped back on the bus and went to the Guinness factory.
Fun fact...Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on the property for next to nothing! The company is only in the 251st year of the lease. We took the tour of the storehouse, which is seven floors designed around a central glass atrium mirroring the shape of a pint of Guinness.
Amanda attempted to get her Guinness Certificate by pouring "the perfect pint" and making a shamrock in the foam. She got an A for effort but did not pass the shamrock test! Her parting gift and all of ours was an overflowing pint of Guinness.
Fun fact...Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on the property for next to nothing! The company is only in the 251st year of the lease. We took the tour of the storehouse, which is seven floors designed around a central glass atrium mirroring the shape of a pint of Guinness.
Amanda attempted to get her Guinness Certificate by pouring "the perfect pint" and making a shamrock in the foam. She got an A for effort but did not pass the shamrock test! Her parting gift and all of ours was an overflowing pint of Guinness.
Here's the real "perfect pint"!
We ate lunch at the Cafe there and all had hamburgers. I must say that the Irish have really nailed the chips! Their fries are fantastic.
We hopped back on the bus, toured for another hour or so and went back to the hotel for a nap. We found our room with no trouble. We all woke up at 8pm and bundled up to try and find a pub with American football on TV.
We found it!!! Can you believe it? A local sports bar had ESPN America on three TVs and it had the UT/UF game on. What luck!
We found it!!! Can you believe it? A local sports bar had ESPN America on three TVs and it had the UT/UF game on. What luck!
September 19, 2010 – Day Two
Well we figured out why the "people in all black" looked at us like we were crazy when we walked into the dining room yesterday. We made it for breakfast this morning and it was much how I envision Barney and my brother in law Dan would react if they found out that the apocalypse was going to be here in 3 hours!! Those workers were BUSY!!
We sat down at a large table between a group of Germans. The breakdown in communication was comical. One of the guys stared at Cheryle while she was fixing her coffee. After watching her, he held up four fingers. She said "Yes! Four scoops of sugar!" Then she leaned over to me and said my dad calls it little girl coffee.
Because of the chaos we all just ordered the Irish breakfast aka heartburn on a plate. It was baked beans (we all decided it wasn't our mama's baked beans...kinda like straight out of the can), mushrooms, a cooked tomato, two different kinds of sausage (we think), bacon (our ham), a fried egg (that when you bit into it, it didn't run at all!!), and toast.
We ate a ton of toast.
Because of the chaos we all just ordered the Irish breakfast aka heartburn on a plate. It was baked beans (we all decided it wasn't our mama's baked beans...kinda like straight out of the can), mushrooms, a cooked tomato, two different kinds of sausage (we think), bacon (our ham), a fried egg (that when you bit into it, it didn't run at all!!), and toast.
We ate a ton of toast.
We're about to check out of the hotel, pack up Piecea and head to the souvenir shop we've walked by at least 200 times. Amanda has referred to this shop as "the greatest souvenir store ever!!" Then we're going to the Jameson Museum.
September 19, 2010 – Day Two Part 2
We're on the road to Kinvara. This morning we bought souvenirs and went to The Old Jameson Distillery.
Amanda got picked to be in the taste testing group. She was the only contestant that picked Jack Daniels as her favorite over scotch and Jameson. What can I say, she has a very sophisticated pallet.
Now that I've read her this email she said that Jameson was smoother and better, but she didn't want to be a traitor. I can hear "proud to be an American" playing in the background.
Now that I've read her this email she said that Jameson was smoother and better, but she didn't want to be a traitor. I can hear "proud to be an American" playing in the background.
Back to funny stuff from last night:
1. Our bathroom sink has separate faucets for hot water and cold water. When Amanda was washing her face she tried to make warm water by putting one hand under each faucet, then trying to join the hot and cold in her hands before splashing her face.
2. We got a little lost walking to the sports pub last night. Dublin has terrible street signs! Scratch that...they don't really have any street signs and if there happens to be one, it is posted on a building in REALLY small print!! We walked past a local and asked for directions. Some how what we asked for really confused him. His accent was really thick (or tick as he would say). So even though we were all speaking English, there was a definite language barrier! He kept saying, "it's NOT a restaurant, it's a pub, it is!" Um...ok buddy, just tell us where to go!
3. We finally got directions and started walking again. I was getting a blister and was bringing up the rear. As we walked by a pub with two (not so nice) girls standing outside, I tripped. Not uncommon if you know me well. One of the girls laughed this obnoxious fake laugh. We all stopped dead in our tracks. Carrie whipped around ready to rumble. Luckily for those girls I cared more about the UF game than my pride, so we headed on to the sports pub! : )
3. When we got to the pub the first thing we saw was a big white helmet with an orange T on TV. Heaven!! We made it. There was a table right by the TV, but it had no chairs. Not a problem. We threw all our stuff down, peeled off our layers and stared at the TV. The waiter kept saying they had other tables, but we wouldn't move so he rounded us up four chairs.
The walk home was uneventful and we fell asleep after Amanda gave us the score of the AU game at halftime. We woke up to the unmistakable voice of Amanda saying we won in overtime! All three of our teams won! A great day tis was!
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