Well, this page has been a long time coming. We went to Ireland in March of 2008... and it's what... the middle of September now? (Yes, it is)

It started with a simple question... "Where do you want to go for our honeymoon?". The answer was easy - because during my travels while I was in the military, one of the places I got to go was Ireland. Of all the places I'd gone to, Ireland was the one that triggered the most jealous anger out of my then-girlfriend who could not go with me. Plus, I'm not a fan of tropical places that are more popular for honeymoons (too hot) (also I'm fat and pale).

I received no objection at the notion from my then-fiancee (in fact, you could call her reaction enthusiastic enthusiasm). We got married in March of 07, and neither of us had enough vacation time to go to Ireland that year (me just being out of the military and all), so we elected to go the following year, around the same time of our anniversary. We found a travel agent and asked him about different options/kinds of trips we could take over there. There were several choices... A) Rent a car and go to pre-assigned destinations, essentially taking a tour around the country on your own and getting discounts where you go (NO! They drive on the left side of the road over there. I don't think I can handle that... people tried to tell me that it really isn't hard to get used to but I don't believe them). B) Don't rent a car and take public transportation around the country, walking most of the time (this sounded okay - but also sounded stressful. I didn't want to spend 30 - 45 minutes of the vacation waiting on a bus that we might have caught had we gotten there 5 minutes earlier). C) Take a coach tour.

And a coach tour it was! Not only was it cheaper (didn't have to pay for a car, gas, or public transportation) but it had stops that we would not have stopped at had we gone on our own. Also a lot of the individual tours were at no extra charge... blah blah yeah this is boring I know. Long story short it sounded like the best option by far.

We paid for it, got our passports, and flew straight to Philadelphia. And then we flew straight to Dublin. We arrived between influxes of people in our "group" and were sitting around at the airport for a good long while. During this time I got my first shock on how worthless the US Dollar is when we bought two coffees for $8. Well, I guess this doesn't sound so bad if you're comparing it to Starbuck's... Well, after an hour of waiting/sitting on the floor near the CIE tour booth they finally felt sorry enough for us that the bus driver and tour guide, Jim Lynch would take us to our hotel as the only people on the bus. We sat up front (of course) and got a pretty good view of Dublin (except for the part where we were in a tunnel for 10 minutes or so... that wasn't very exciting). I remember him trying to pull out of the parking spot and his cell phone rang... and he sat there blocking parking lot traffic for a good 30 seconds or so as he slowly backed out of the parking space with one hand. Another thing I remember is him saying was that the new Dublin logo is the crane - and when we exited on the other side of the tunnel I saw why. Construction was happening everywhere. We talked about a lot of things, but since I waited so long to write this I don't remember most of it.

Our bus driver had quite a time finding a place to park the bus for us to unload our bags... There was no hotel parking at all, and the street was one lane with no shoulder... He promptly pulled up onto the sidewalk and we got out and checked into the hotel. We noticed a bunch of people sitting in the lobby... older folk, obviously American. We got keys to our room instantly, and a few of them looked angry as they were obviously waiting for their rooms to be ready, and we got ours so handily. It was that day that we were to walk the streets of Dublin with a tour guide, and visit a few historic places, including the Guinness storehouse. We were dead tired from jet lag, so we took a nap on our somewhat uncomfortable bed (two twins pushed together with Queen sheets on top). After our nap, we went to the lobby to gather up and get on the bus to tour places around Dublin... and come to find out, these "older folk" half sleeping in the lobby earlier were part of our tour group. Not only that, but more "older folk" who got their rooms before we arrived joined us. Come to find out, the coach tour is the preferred tour of senior citizens. Other than one woman, in her mid 30's traveling with her parents, you could have added my age to my wife's and we would still be the youngest person there. All this does is attribute to the wisdom of my wife and I (because old people are wise).

As you may be able to tell, there is a fog in the upper left corner of the picture of the lawn-park-thing. On bright pictures, this fog will plague my photography skills until much later, when I notice it, and wipe my lens clean. Also don't mind the black edges around the aforementioned picture... those are there because I rotated it slightly to level it out and forgot to crop it properly (these pictures were selected and modified a very long time ago and I'm not in the mood to go through them again). (UPDATE: I went through them again. Fixed it.)

The Guinness factory tour wasn't so much a tour as it was a "Go in here, follow the signs". There was a lot to see and a lot to do, but unfortunately there wasn't much time to do it. Lots of history, lots of exhibits... people sitting behind counters with displays on entire floors with no one walking around, while the Gravity Room (the place where you get your free glass of Guinness) was packed with kids just out of college for the day. In hindsight, I would have not gone to the Gravity Room, as the Guinness there tasted just like any old Guinness in the states, and throughout our trip the Guinness I had in pubs across the country tasted better. The place was pretty neat all in all, and what I remember most are the Dyson hand dryers (picture found on internet) in the restrooms that you just won't see in the US (though you may have seen the commercial for them). I also remember the smell of the place being quite intoxicating. I do certainly love Guinness.

As far as the historical part of the tour went, I don't remember too much of it. The guide talked about how Ireland invested in education and ya-da ya-da... but the thing that caught my attention were when she mentioned tax breaks (because I had read the same thing in the Fair Tax book) for corporations that relocate to Ireland. Yeah you can invest in education, but the US still has a bigger pool to pick from of people just as educated, if not more. When you offer tax breaks, that's what really invites businesses over... even though the working wage over there is 3x what it is here. I know this isn't supposed to be a political post, but at times I think it needs to be mentioned because everyone (we met, interacted with) in Ireland seems to be much more politically aware than the average American... and I think this is worth noting.

After doing the tour(s) around Dublin we were to go back to the hotel and find something to eat (one of the few meals not provided to us by the tour). We ended up taking a cab to a pub somewhere downtown. The waiter was very slow, and didn't speak English. The couple we were eating with (in their early 60's), the guy sitting across from me got fish and chips, and asked for lots of lemon. The guy returned with a single quarter of lemon on a plate. There was a little hostility... but eventually the guy got the two lemons that he wanted. I had Guinness beef stew that was absolutely delicious. I don't remember what the wife got, but it wasn't as good as what I got. The bill totaled 45 Euros for the two of us, which translated into real English at the time meant $70. After dinner we took a cab back to the hotel, and it was that evening that there was a C.I.E. sponsored "get-together" with a drink (just one, though the brochure did not specify how many... but Jim Lynch definitely did). The back of the pub attached to the hotel was sectioned off for us, and it was very crowded. Everyone introduced themselves, and everyone's eyes were on us. We were the fresh meat of the group, and when they found out we were on our honeymoon it was difficult to escape smiling eyes for the rest of the trip.

We went to bed... I wish I could remember the name of the hotel, but it wasn't all that impressive. The lobby was nice, but the room pretty much sucked. The view was of a gravel and tar roof top, with another building right on the other side of it. There was a lot of construction going on throughout the day (which made it hard to nap earlier)... Luckily we were only there for one night.

Throughout Dublin we got a lot of talk from Jim regarding the skyrocketing house prices and various political speak about how the EU was providing a lot of services to Ireland, while simultaneously sucking away its soul. Below is a quick video of Jim talking about government owned housing (I was trying to save space on the memory card so I didn't record for very long).

Getting around Dublin was pretty interesting. Glad I wasn't driving. How this guy managed to maneuver this bus around the way he did I'll never really understand. Some sort of leprechaun magic. The place is chock full of narrow roads with narrow lanes; inches of margin of error where buildings are lined up right against the curb. Roundabouts with four lanes are pretty common. That, and cars are not scared to get close to the bus. There were times where a car would disappear completely out of view and no matter how hard I pressed my greasy face to the bus window, I couldn't see it... swearing that it went under the bus. Traffic was fairly bad. Like DC they have a commute problem where people working in the city can't afford the housing there... Though it's not nearly to the scale DC is.