We arrived in Dublin yesterday morning at 7:30. After everyone found each other and our luggage, we took a bus through the city to the bus station where we picked up our Open Road passes. Afterwards we hopped on a taxi (my first taxi ride ever!) to our hotel, which was so very nice! Our room has a giant bed and two fold-out chairs, and it is NICE! We enjoyed the first drink of the trip in the bar of the hotel while waiting for our rooms to be ready. After settling in (aka 4 hour nap) we ventured out to find ourselves some dinner. It took about an hour and a half of walking to find a good (as in, CHEAP) place... and since it was sprinkling we ducked into a little local pub called Kyle's for a Heineken and some conversation. The takeaway food place took two hours to find, and the cause for our first trip inside joke: the onion rings were dubbed "onion bracelets" becaue they were so big. Today we got up fairly early and took the bus into the city, purchasing breakfast from the local grocery for 3 Euro. I walked through the Connolly Square with my croissant, apple, and little half pint of milk and let it soak in that I am, indeed, in IRELAND!!!! AH!!!! Today we have covered quite a bit of territory in the city - Natural History Museum, Remembrance Pool, St. Stephen's Green. We had lunch in a little food court in the city, and Shirlea and I bought some cheap day backpacks to use. In the afternoon Shirlea and I hopped on a wrong bus and had to pay for a taxi back to the hotel (after stubbornly wandering for almost two hours trying to figure it out ourselves). Karley and Josh found us back at the hotel a few hours later and then we ventured out for the evening. On Friday night, we walked around downtown Dublin, unable to decide which frickin' pub to go to. We passed through an alleyway where some local guys were drumming - people were just dancing in the alley, the acoustics were great... and the drummer was HOT! Belle, if you're reading this --- the epitmony of hot modern Irish guy. We wound up at the less-touristy-but-still-packed Farrington's pub and ran back to the bus stop just in time to catch the last bus back to our hotel. The next morning we discovered a rather large phone bill because apparently our phone cards aren't any good here! Josh suffered the worst of it since he yacked with his significant other for 42 Euro's worth of time... and thus is forever named "42" by us girls.