Monuments, Picnics, and Trying to Stay Up All Night to Catch our 6:00am Flight

November 15th

It was so cold during the night, that Blake had gotten up and taken the towels hanging in the bathroom to use as blankets.  After breakfast and a shower, we took the bus to the center to meet up with the girls at Parnnell Monument with its amazingly tall spire/lighting rod.  We stopped in the historic post office (number 2 on "sites to see in Dublin" after the Guinness factory) and then walked in the direction of Trinity college along the river, enjoying the morning.  In front of Trinity college, we were "kidnapped" by an old Irish man who had an array of hats and musical instruments.  He had us all stand in front of the statue and took our picture and then proceeded to teach us a traditional Irish dance.  It was pretty funny.

We were to meet up with Joe at 1 at the corner of Grafton street and Steven's Green.  Grafton street is the main shopping area and all of the stores were getting ready for the Christmas season.  After finding him, we went to the market to shop for our picnic.  With a few loaves of bread, cheese, and juice we wandered along the perfectly manicured paths in the emerald forest of Steven's Green.  We found two benches and enjoyed our picnic in the park.  

Acting as our unofficial tour guide, Joe showed us around Trinity College, Ireland's oldest University (1500's) and a real life Hogwarts, and then took us to the amazing National Gallery of Ireland where we admired some fantastic paintings.  Heading back in the direction of the Guinness Factory, Joe brought us to Ireland's Oldest pub (1198), "The Brazen Head."  We had some good pub grub and ended up staying there for about 4 hours.  The girls had checked out of their hostel and since we would have to be at the airport at 4 to catch our 6 o'clock flight we decided to stay up all night.  

For the third night in a row, we went back to Temple Bar and George's street although we did go so some new, really cool pubs.  Everything was packed, but we did find a couch to sit down in one of the pubs.

Our relaxed evening drastically changed as we found it extremely difficult to find a taxi to the airport.  We had underestimated Dublin nightlife and soon found us in a situation in which we needed to get to the airport but were not any able to do so as every cab was full and there were no more buses running.  It started to rain (the first time of the whole trip) and we were getting wet as we tried to hail a cab.  We found one but he only had room for four, so Blake and I told the girls to get in.  I then found myself running along the streets of Dublin trying to hail a cab.  After a frantic 15 minutes, we found a free taxi and took it to the airport.  Our last taxi conversation was about the difference between Irish and American sports.  Despite talking to the driver he still overcharged us.  A learning experience.  If you have a flight to catch, don't put yourself in a position in which something could go wrong with your schedule.