Day 2 of Dublin. I have fallen in love with this city. I never want to leave! I feel so at home here. It's such a comfortable city to be in. And I feel very safe walking anywhere in the city, even at night. Everything is so close that you can walk just about anywhere in the city that you want. And believe me, I have! It's almost 10:00pm here and I have been walking around the city all day. Ok, so I'll start where I left off yesterday. After I updated the site, I went to the Guinness Brewery. It was visually stunning, but the information was not that interesting. They talked about how beer is made, why Guinness is so special, and how Arthur Guinness is the genius behind it all. My favorite part was the complimentary pint in the Gravity Bar. It's this bar at the top of the brewery that has windows all around it giving you a 360 degree view of the city. They provided a pamphlet explaining where to find various monuments and the significance of them. Although the museum was less than thrilling, I'm glad I went. It's the Dublin thing to do, after all. After that I went on a traditional Irish music pub crawl. It was very fun. There were two musicians and we went to three different pubs. They explained Irish music and what some of the instruments are that are most commonly used. The guys leading it were a lot of fun. They were very funny. Conor and Dez. At the end of the night they explained that musicians in Dublin often get together and have sessions. This isn't for entertainment purposes for tourists, they do it because they love playing together and hearing each other's music. They invited us to one place that they were going to afterward. I met 2 Canadian guys on the pub crawl so I went to this place (Palace Bar) with them. They are from Newfoundland and said that a lot of people there have ancestors from Ireland. So there is a large Irish influence there. Their accents sounded similar. They said their music was very similar too. I am going back to Palace Bar tonight to hang out with those guys and the musicians from the pub crawl. One of them is playing tonight. He is very good. Yes, I had a few pints last night and didn't get home till about 12:30am. Pints are about 5 Euros, which is about $6. Very expensive, I know. I have been drinking Bulmer's, which is an Irish cider beer. This morning I woke up and went a few doors down to get my free breakfast provided by the hostel. It wasn't much, just cereal, toast, warm water, and some warm yellow watery drink. It's probably supposed to be some sort of juice. Hey, it's free food so I'm not complaining. After breakfast I took a train to Howth, which is a little town about 15 min North of Dublin. I had a little trouble finding out where the train platform was, but a guy that worked there helped me out. Howth is a very cute fishing village on the coast. It reminded me of a mix of Duluth and Stillwater, but much much smaller. It had a lighthouse that you could walk out to, like Duluth. And it had the rocky shores like you see in Canal Park. I walked out to the lighthouse and spent an hour there writing in my journal. It was a very nice spot to sit and relax. Howth is a very quiet town; "sleepy" if you will. Dublin is very busy with a lot of people everywhere walking very quickly to their destinations. The storefronts reminded me of Stillwater a little. There was a main street lined with shops. There was an island just off the coast of Howth that looks a lot like the picture that is on here. That picture is from the Dingle Peninsula, which is on the West coast of Ireland. But Howth looked a lot like that. It was very hilly. Dublin isn't. Howth was a nice little town. I enjoyed it. I took a train back a few hours later and passed by the guy that helped me find the platform on the way to Howth. He said to me, "Are you still lost?" I laughed and said, "No, I'm back!" I thought that was funny. I was very tired from walking around Howth, so I went back to the hostel to take a nap. I took about an hour nap and then I was ready to explore Dublin some more. This time, my destinations were Trinity College, Grafton Street, and St Stephens Green. Trinity College was neat. Very old buildings. This is where they have The Book of Kells, which is a very old book written in Gaelic. It normally costs about $10, but since they were just closing they let me in for free. I wasn't planning on seeing for that price. I just happened to wander into the area that they had it in and got lucky to be able to see it for free. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten to. Next to the book is "The Long Room." It is a huge room with tons of very old books. The shelves go all the way up to the ceiling, so ladders had to be used to reach them. All of that is roped off now so you can just look at the books. You couldn't take pictures in there so I bought a postcard. It was pretty neat. I would have had to spend money to see that too. Next was Grafton Street. I love Grafton Street. It is a pedestrian-only shopping area. It's wonderful. There were tons of people there. There were some street performers too. I got pictures and videos of some of them. At the end of Grafton Street is St Stephens Green. This is the name of a shopping center and a nearby park. The shopping center was incredible. I've never seen such a luxurious mall. I had a bite to eat at this place called O'Briens. They have sandwiches and wraps made to order. I had a tomato tortilla with chicken, tomatos, and different peppers. They wrap it up, you pay for it, and then sit down. They put it in a thing that heats it up and then they bring it out to you. I think it may have been like a panini press. It had those kind of marks in it. Anyway, it was very good and I wish we had one at home! Next I went to St Stephens Green park across the street. It is completely fenced in with a large arch over the entrance. It was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York, but much smaller and much prettier. There was a huge pond with countless ducks swimming around. They had flowers planted and the place was filled with trees with little paths going through them. Beautiful place. I got lots of pictures of it, don't worry. I haven't figured out how to get my pictures on this site yet. I connected my camera to the computer but it didn't recognize it. After St Stephens Green I walked back through Grafton Street, going down any alleyways off the main street. My legs were so tired but I had to keep going! Then I came to this internet cafe and now I am about to leave to go to that Palace Bar again. I was supposed to be there about an hour ago. I might step into this wine bar I found first. Seemed like a cosy little place. Tomorrow I'm off to Amsterdam in the afternoon. I don't want to leave this place. I love it here so much! I'm sure Amsterdam will be great too though. I love traveling on my own. I have no restrictions. I'm free to do whatever I want, whenever I want. I'm sure I'll get a lot of free time on the Rick Steves tour too. I am looking forward to having a real hotel room! So I'm off to a pub or a wine bar or somewhere! Until next time! Monica