Ireland, Day 1

We've actually been in Ireland two days now, but I'm just starting with the blogging and am running a little behind. 

We arrived here yesterday morning around 11 a.m. after a long but uneventful flight. I managed to sleep a little, but the flight from JFK to Dublin is under six hours, so by the time they feed you and you watch a movie or something there just isn't much time to get settled down and sleep. 

We were met at the airport by our guide, whose name is Samuel Chestnutt. Isn't that fun to say? I thought we'd check in at the hotel first and I'd have time to maybe freshen up and change out of my PAJAMAS, which was what I was wearing, but no - he took us straightaway to see the Book of Kells. So I spent the first day in Ireland roaming around in sweats and a ratty old t-shirt, which is why I don't have many pictures of our first day. Between the PJ's and the jet lag, I just don't appear up to my usual standards :)

The Book of Kells is located on the campus of Trinity College, and my favorite part was not actually the Book of Kells (since they can only display two pages of it) but the library upstairs, which has a copy of every book ever published in Ireland and smelled amazing - a sort of papery, smokey, woodsy, hard to describe smell. 

After that we want to Christchurch Cathedral, and had a private tour by one of the choirboys. He was adult though, so what do you call adult choirboys? I dunno, but he gave a very good tour and our group got to climb up to the bellfrey and ring the bells, and see the crypt where 4000 bodies are buried and which they now rent out for wedding receptions!

View of Christchurch from our hotel window

Our final Event of the day was dinner at The Brazen Head, the oldest operating pub in Dublin (open since the 1100's) where we had a fabulous dinner and listened to a storyteller talk about Irish history and folklore and musicians play traditional music. It was so great, and the food was wonderful, but I was just cryin-tired and could barely keep my head from falling into my dish of cabbage. It felt like we were out until the wee hours, but it was really only 9:30. 

As soon as we got to our hotel I had my earplugs in, my eye mask on, downed and Advil PM and was out like a light.