After a grueling 20+ hours of airports and luggage and customs we finally landed in Dublin! We went and got our money exchanged...(which is always depressing with exchange rates) and set off to our hotel. After getting there and taking 5 minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights, we got set up, then flipped the lights off and crashed for a few hours. This of course was not enough but it was a good amount to build a little energy before launching into the city. Quickly talking to the lady at the front desk we set off to find our first bus (or as Stuart likes to call them DOUBLEDECKERBUSES). That is to express the speed and ferocity in her saying of the word hehe. We rode the bus till we felt we were towards the center of the city and hopped off. Deciding on a direction that we hoped we would remember later we dived right in. Immediately we were met with such a variety of cultures and accents bustling about as if the world would end if they didn't stop moving. Jumping into the flow of a river of people we found ourselves crossing streets, alleys, and I tell you that you definitely have to keep you eyes open when doing so. We are told growing up to look both ways for safety and that we should never trust any driver till they are completely stopped etc etc etc. In Europe all cars have the right away and you are destroying the synergy of the town if you hold anybody up for even just a few seconds. Needless to say we have been extra careful in crossing the streets and been very mindful of our surroundings. Wandering the streets of Dublin we found ourselves covering the place in gigantic circles while venturing off side streets and walkways (no worries we didn't go down dark allies). Being offered everything from fruit to hair extensions, and the occasional scalped tickets we slowly started to figure out the city. Being polite, however curt at the same time was very helpful. As we continued our aimless and colorful journey we ran into one dilemma...we didn't know what time it was. Of all the things we didn't pack a way to tell time was one of them. Going into promising stores we casually asked if there was somewhere to buy a watch. We found one electronic store that simply put cameras in every item they sold...I repressed the gadgeteer within myself and moved on. I then got the strangest looks when we walked into what appeared to be a "convenience store" and asked for a watch. Essentially, there are mini food stores everywhere that are simply food and drink, not miscellaneous random items as well, even people from Kenya were looking at us weird given our request. There are specific shops for randomness however. Finding at last a promising jewelry shop that sold watches we found a wonderful man and woman that helped us find something reasonable. They were very inquisitive as to our grand journey, and offered some great advice for when we come back through. They asked us to stop by on our way back and to tell them of our travels and to get more advice. Running up and down and all around we figured we should try and figure out how the bus system worked, so we stopped into a tourist information center. Locking what information we could handle into our overfull and overloaded brains we wandered a little more, grabbed some food and headed back to our hotel. After some regrouping and planning for the next day we passed out.
With lots of love from our exhausted selves.
Till next time
Amanda & Matthew
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