We're on day 2 of Dublin, and I figured I'd start posting things so I can not only remember them, but also all you can know what's all going on in our European trip. We started off towards O'Hare on Tuesday afternoon, only to be delayed 3 hours on the runway due to bad weather off of Lake Michigan. Instead of leaving at 5:05, we left a little before 8, which got us into Newark, NJ at 10:25... our flight to Dublin left at 9:55...

They unfortunately did not hold the plane (which, by the way, runs once every 24 hours...) and ended up stranding about 20 people at the Newark airport. We basically had given up all hope of getting to Dublin on Wednesday, until the customer service reps realizes that the 10PM flight to Shannon, Ireland had been delayed and had 8 open seats... thanfully, we got 2 of those. Their flight had been delayed 2 hours, so we finally left NJ at midnight, and arrived into Shannon at 11AM their time... or, 4AM Chicago time.

Since we got on the plane to Shannon instead of Dublin, Alison's bag (which was checked) did not travel with us to Shannon... it came in this morning, though.. so she was without her clothes/toiletries/etc. for an entire day. To get from Shannon to Dublin, we had to take a 5-hour bus ride, which was pretty... we got to see a lot of the countryside, and the millions of roundabouts they have over here! After the ride, we were dropped off probably about 5 blocks from our hostel, and we ended up circling around trying to read maps for awhile (big surprise there, huh?) finally we made it to Kinlay House around 530PM.

We set our stuff down, figured our way around Temple Bar, and grabbed some food and our first Irish pint! It was delightful.... later, we were told of a Hostel Bar Crawl that happens every night at 8PM, so we paid our fee, and after relaxing for a bit, met up with a bunch of strangers to drink. We only met 2 other Americans the entire night, most everyone else we met were from Australia, and Canada. Ended up playing beer pong against the Australians... who decided to start yelling that Chicago was going down... we won. Twice.

I really need to mention this Aussie we met, Jane. She was absolutely hilarious and outgoing... she ended up joining a Guinness pint drinking contest against 2 men... she won, by a lot. All in all, it was a successful bar crawl

Today, we finally got to do some Dublin sightseeing, since we lost most of a day with the flights being messed up... We started off with lunch at a small cafe, and headed straight to the Jameson Distillery... which is what everyone should do at 11AM. It was really interesting, and I learned the differences of Scotch, American whiskey, and Irish whiskey. We then walked around to where Little John once lived (Robin Hood, anyone?) taking pictures of government buildings, the outside of the Wax Museum, we also stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and a few other touristy spots before needing a break.

It's been quite interesting, and it's only been 2 days. Our plan was to go to Cork in the morning, but since we lost a day of sightseeing already, we're heading straight to Galway instead so we can take a Cliffs of Moher all day tour! I already am in love with Ireland, and can't wait to share some of these pictures! It's gorgeous here!

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