Day 59

McDOnald's Grafton Street Dublin 6:42 PM. 8-18-2010

Troy and I are dining at McDonald's again! We have been exploring Dublin the past two days. Yesterday we woke up around seven am and got ready to catch the bus into Dublin. On the way into town we tried to decide what to do first and ended up getting off near the Guinness Brewery. We got our tickets for the brewery tour and headed in. Troy was so excited! When you buy your ticket you not only get a free sample of Guinness but a free pint as well. Troy adn I walked through the storehouse for hours. We took our time and saw everything. Troy even got to pour his own pint of Guinness. I'm not a huge beer fan so I gave Troy my sample and my free pint, so he had nearly three pints before we left. We also bought some souvenirs in the gift shop. It took us four hours to get out of there. Next we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We got lost on the way there even though it's a large building that you can see from the street. Then we headed to St. Steven's Green and sat on the James Joyce memorial bench. We walked back past the Dublin Fusilliers arch and up Grafton street (One of the big shopping areas). At the end of Grafton we saw the Molly Malone Statue and wandered into shops looking at different souvenirs. We walked on and happened upon the Oscar Wilde Memorial (So great) and then we made our way up towards Samuel Beckett bridge. We walked back toward O'Connel street and found a hostel that cost the same as our campsite, so we booked it for Wednesday night. We then looked for the James Joyce center and the writer's museum but they were closed. We walked down O'Connel Street and saw the James Joyce Statue though. Then we headed to Mulligan's on Poolbeg street for a pint. We looked for some food after that and ended up eating at McDonald's. Then we headed to our bus stop with a few munties to spare and went back to camp.

This morning we slept until 8am. Then we started packing up. Troy informed me that we had 20 minutes to catch our bus so we started rushing. We checked out and ended up waiting 20 minutes for the bus. We got on and headed to the top. It was an open top, double decker tour bus and Troy and I were freezing. We barely beat the rain into Dublin. We got off the bus at O'Connel street and headed to our Hostel. The guy at the desk was very stressful. He was being rude to other people and I started getting stressed out. He finally muddled through all the problems that he had created for himself and showed us to our dorm. Luckily Troy and I get to share a bunk bed. We unpacked a bit, charged out cameras and had lunch. Then we decided to stay for another night in Dublin so we informed the front desk andw alked to the train station to get our train and ferry tickets from Dublin to Cardiff. Then we walked around, did some shopping, but all we bought was a bottle of water. We headed to the Temple Bar neighborhood and Troy got contacts for gigs. Then we wandered around going into music stores, market places and malls until we ended up on Grafton street again and here we are at McDonald's.