Ireland Trip Part 2

 Day 2 in Ireland was tour day.  However, after staying up until 4, we were a little pooped.  So we slept until noon and didn't get on our Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour until the early afternoon. 

 The bus was great and our very first tour guide was really funny. You can see him in very front right seat.  He made fun of the Spire of Dublin or the Monument of Light.  He said, "Look at that monstrosity! It looks like a giant flag pole!" He also said the statue of Sir John Gray was great but currently being used as a lavatory for the birds. 

 Half of the top of the double decker bus was uncovered which was really great the first half of the day when it was nice outside. 

 We hopped off at the first stop for us which was Trinity College.  We wanted to see the Book of Kells but it was closed from 1-4 pm. Waaahhh.  Our tour guide said that in the book (which is the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), they drew pictures of what they thought animals looked like that they had never seen.  So they drew lions and tigers and they all looked like dogs because that's all they knew. HA!
So since we couldn't see the book, we walked around the beautiful campus instead.

 Well actually Andrew ran. :) 

 He also reached for the metal orb when he saw this monument.

 I took a picture of us to prove that it was actually sunny and beautiful for a moment in Ireland. 

Did you know that Boston College and Georgia Tech are going to play at Aviva Stadium in Dublin soon?? There were advertisements everywhere. 

 Our bus passed by some Viking tour boat/busses.  They looked like they were having LOTS of fun.  They were wearing Viking Helmets and doing a lot of yelling.

 The next stop was Stephen's Green.  We saw a man basically covered in birds eating things off of him.  So of course, I took a picture.

 But anyway, it is a beautiful park.  We walked through it all and as it turns out, like a lot of Ireland, some major violence took place in that park.  It was a bit unnerving to read about all the battles and death that happened in those very spots. 

 Right next to the park is Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.  Gorgeous! Also, fun fact, did you know this was U2's first gig? It was the dandelion market first and that's where they played. 

Ummmm TK Maxx??? What??? There's a minor story behind it.  Check the link if you are interested.

 The next stop on our tour was Christchurch Cathedral.  Incredible.  My camera cannot do this church justice. 

 I don't remember who this is but look at this gold plated carved out tribute. 

 This book is more than likely older than our country.  I should have taken notes. ;-)

Had to snap a picture of this bible.  Incredibly beautiful.

 The stained glass, the detail of the stone, everything was so cool.

Look at the intricate tile floors. 

 This 3 story ORGAN!

 This church is also known for its crypt.  How creepy right?? I was looking for any Starks that might be buried in there. ;-) Andrew thought it was pretty metal.  ha!

 Apparently it was renovated in the early 2000s and now is part of the site-seeing. 

 I had to take a picture of the cat and rat.  They were alive at one time when the cat chased the rat into the organ and they got stuck.  They became mummified and were found many many years later.  Now they are on display in a super creepy crypt.  Perfect addition. 

PS- I went to the restroom in the crypt.  It was exactly like you would think a crypt bathroom would be. 

 One final shot of the church.  Did I mention there were a few tombs right by the pews? Awkward.

 We hit the next church which was just down the street from Christchurch.  We didn't tour St. Patrick's Cathedral but we did spend a lot of time in the lawn. 

 Moody weather church shot of Andrew. :)

 We hopped back on the bus to continue the tour.  I passed by this poster and had to take a picture.  Instead of calling it Cinderella, they call it, "The Ugly Sisters and Yer Wan!" Huh.  Who woulda thought?

 These were the languages they offered for the tour.  Of course I'm going to look for the American flag but no one actually speaks "American".  Haha!

 Sad news for us.  It started to rain on us while we were on the top of the bus.  At first it wasn't so bad and the umbrella worked.  Then it started to blow and get a little crazy but there were no spaces left for us to sit where there was a roof over our heads.  Not good! Finally we just moved downstairs and found terrible seats to finally get out of the rain.  We tried to make it to the Jameson Factory but it was closed.  We saw a few other things and then hit the Temple Bar area for dinner.  I didn't get any pictures the rest of the night because we were definitely taking it easy that day. We had a big day tomorrow so we went to bed early.  Day 2 complete!

Ireland Trip Part 1

 With it being the year of our 10 year anniversary, we decided we needed to take a big time trip to celebrate.  When we received word that one of Andrew's friends was getting married in Ireland, we decided to make that our big time trip.

 We started off the best way we know how... with a couple drinks because we were really nervous about flying over a really dark ocean in the middle of the night for 7 hours. 

So thanks to American Airlines for pointing out on their TV screens that the sinking of the Titanic happened just south of where we were flying.  Grrrrrrreattt. 

 But we smiled through it and had a really great flight!

 I made sure to take a picture of the type of plane we flew.  It was a 330. 2/4/2 seats, in case you were wondering.  HUUUUUGE, Yuuuuuuuge plane.  Seriously.  Took us forever to deplane. There were like a billion people on board (Morganism).

 We flew all through the night and didn't sleep more than a few hours so we were tiiiiiiiirrrreeeddd.  But we were able to check into our hotel room early and take a nap and we were ready to take on the world!

 What to do first?? How about visit the Guinness Brewery? Brilliant!

 We had to get picture from another angle.  Because selfies! Plus it was a giant location. So much to see!

 This is a model of one of their shipping boats.  There were so many things to see and films to watch and much to learn!

 But we were most looking forward to learning how to actually drink the Guinness.  They gave us wee little Guinness drinks and they had little drink stands while we learned how to do it. 

 My favorite part was looking at the advertising they have used in the past.  Very creative. 

 A women needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.  It was a fish pedaling a bicycle.  Did that make people want to drink Guinness? It must have!! :-) You'll have to check out Andrew's video for our reaction to seeing this for the first time.

There were 7 floors in the main center of the building that was shaped like an actually pint of Guinness. 

There is a full panoramic view at the top where the head of the glass would be.  The views were amazing. 

 The Guinness wasn't bad either! I normally do not like Guinness but it was amazing.  I drank a lot of it while we visited.

 Here's a group shot.  I really hope that the scenic views would show up behind us but oh well.

 After our tour, we started walking to the next pub on Duke Street to go on a Literary Pub Crawl.  We got out of our Guiness Tour late so we missed the Pub Crawl but we started one of our own.  We walked and walked and I took picture after picture. 

 Each building was so cool. 

 The signs were fun too!

 Hey that's Thomas's street!!

 We stopped at a pub on one point.  I loved this sign. 

Group photo at the first pub!

 We also stopped at another pub.  This was the mirror in the bathroom.

 This was in the corner of our booth.  A hot whiskey pot?

 This pub was a bit homier. The bartender came to our table and asked where we were from.  Like everyone that asked, we told them "The States" even though they already knew.  When we told them we were from Indiana and Colorado, they immediately started asking about the legalized pot.  Too funny.  The super nice bartender told us there was a great restaurant nearby that we would probably like. 

 He was right! We actually ordered bone marrow.  Whaaaaaaaa????

 It was delicious! And YUUUUUUUGGGEEEE.

 After that, we met the rest of the pub crawl at the last bar and enjoyed the bars until they closed.  Then we went to Bruxelles which was a late night bar (meaning open after midnight). Bruxelles, we learned, is a Thin Lizzy bar. So of course we had to get a picture with the Thin Lizzy statue.

 After we closed down Bruxelles, we decided to crash a McDonalds.  A Mackie D's if you will.  There were so many young young people there. Turns out by this time, it was 3 in the morning.  So we were definitely the oldest people there.  Fantastic!!

Andrew ordered an old fave.  A Big N Tasty, which I learned from Wiki was phased out in 2011.  RIP Big N Tasty (in the US).  Dublin is still running strong with the BnT!!
 

 We had a romantic walk home while complaining about how we felt after eating Mackie D's. 

 A lovely bridge picture, don't you think? For 4 in the morning especially. 

The street by our hotel was eerily silent as we walked home.  So strange.  But we made it.  Dublin felt pretty safe.  Our first day was a success!