First day, walking around Dublin

Train station from the outside

Inside train station

We arrived at the Heuston train station around 12:30pm. Once arrived, we went to the information booth to find out about booking a train ticket and where to lock our bags up. We then got our bags locked up in the lockers at the station, and bought our tickets to Sallins (where we are staying with our couch surfing friends Anna and Kevin).

With our bags all locked away, we were free to walk around the city. Since the Guinness Factory was across the street, we decided to start by walking over there. We walked up a long street, then a tad further, and asked a security guard where the tour takes place, and he told us just a bit further up the street. So we headed that way and found ourselves at the right place. We weren't looking to do the tour just then, but wanted to find out info.  The regular ticket price is 15 euros per person (which includes 1 pint), and that's a bit expensive, but we still may do it.

We did go in and check out the shop and I bought a dark chocolate bar made with Guinness--it was delicious.

Afterward, we headed back to a busier street and walked down it, running into a 3 Euro store, which is like a Dollar Store in the US, but 3 Euros instead. Nothing good was there, so we moved on. The street was busy with people walking up and down on both sides and got busier as we kept going down. Being hungry, we were looking for somewhere to eat. We asked a bartender where a good place to eat was and he said there was a place called The Pale a little further down past the second church. So we headed down the street and ended up at The Pale, which we later learned was once a term for Dublin. It had a nice pub feel to it with a bit of a pub menu, but slightly more extensive. I ordered a beef stew and Rebecca ordered Fish and Chips, and I had a pint of Smithwick's as well. It was all very good. While there, we saw a couple looking at a tourist map of Dublin and we asked where they got it from, and they told us they got it from their hotel and said we could check it out while there. I did end up talking to the guy after running into him in the bathroom later, and found out he was from Canada, and his girlfriend from Brazil but they were living in London. Then after that, back at the table I asked to look at the map and they said we could keep it since there were plenty more at the hotel.

Random Window

We left the Pale and went on down the street where it stayed a busy street. We saw a lot of cool looking buildings, and a few really cool looking church buildings inside a district called the Viking District or something like that. Continuing to walk down the street we got into the Temple Bar district, which we have heard was a popular area, and we had figured it must be as it seemed like every third building was a bar. The area is definitely very cool looking, and has a European feel to it. We saw a bar with a big painted picture on a wall next to it that said it was the oldest pub in Ireland and has been there since 1198, we have a picture below.

Since the time was getting close to having to be back at the Train Station, we headed towards the river to go back in the direction of the station, but on another street. The river was a European city river with no growth at all, just stone and cement. It looked cool though. We saw a bit more of Dublin on the way back, then arrived at the station and got our bags and went down to our Train stop and waited for 20 or 30 minutes. While waiting, I decided to talk with an older man sitting by us, and he was from Ireland, living in Naas, and getting off at the same stop as us. We had a good chat with him there as well as on the train ride to Sallins.

When we got off the train he let us borrow his cell phone to call Kevin (we are staying with Kevin and Anna, who we met through couchsurfers), who came to meet us and take us to their place, which was literally right by the train stop for Sallins. Sallins is very small, I think Kevin said there were less than 1000 people living there, or something around that.

Arriving at their place, we dropped our bags and talked to Kevin for a good bit, he is a very cool guy, then took nice showers. He even made dinner for us which was very nice. Since I had almost no sleep in a long while, I was nodding off and decided to get to bed. Rebecca stayed up a little longer and met Anna, then came to bed sometime after.

Next is our first full day in Ireland (Exploring County Meath)...

Our Arrival in Dublin

We arrived in Dublin October 15 at 10am after an 8 hour flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Getting off the plane and to the baggage terminal brought us to many people speaking all sorts of languages. After getting our bags, we purchased two shuttle tickets to take us to a train station. The shuttle was a clean, new looking double decker bus. We took our seats on the second story right in the front with a huge window in front of us. Driving to the train station, we were able to see quite a bit of Dublin, it was about a 30 minute drive.

River in Dublin

Irish Parliament Building

The weather was mostly overcast, with some sky sticking out here and there, and the temperature was nice, around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It was interesting seeing all the cars driving by (on the wrong side of the street, with their wheels on the passenger side of the car), with taxi's of many makes and models, including a Lexus Taxi Cab. The city was very pretty driving through it.

Next is our arrival to the Train station, and walking around Dublin...

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We left from San Francisco Airport (at 11:50am), headed to Dublin, with one stop in Atlanta, Georgia.

At 5am we left our house in Sacramento to drive out to San Francisco in rush hour traffic, luckily it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think we missed a lot of it by going so early.

We got to San Francisco a bit early, and had breakfast with Rebecca's family, who was nice enough to give us a ride out there.

Where we had breakfast

Rebecca in front of the breakfast place

Then we got to the airport, where we realized that we were actually flying on a Delta Plane even though it said Air France (I guess they are the same company), checked in and boarded the plane.

Our Plane

The first was about a 4 hour flight into Atlanta. In Atlanta we didn't have a lot of time to switch planes, but it was enough to do it all comfortably and be able to board the plane fairly quickly. From there, we flew from Atlanta all the way up, above New York City and Boston, and above Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, then across the Atlantic to Ireland. The flight time in the air was 8 hours, and on that plane we had a few nice perks. There were two airplane meals, one was a pasta dish, bread and butter, cheese and crackers, a salad, and a brownie, and the other was an egg sandwich between English muffins, a banana, and orange juice. The food was pretty good for airplane food. Also, we each had a little TV screen on the back of the chair in front of us, and were able to pick out and watch new movies like the new Star Trek and others (and it was free). Plus, they were offering free beer and wine. We each had one glass of wine (it was box wine).

We weren't able to get much sleep on the plane, but it wasn't too bad of a flight, since we stayed fairly occupied.

Oh, by the way Donna, I did wear shorts and a tee-shirt instead of pajama pants.    =)

Next is our Arrival...