here in ireland...oh dear!

Our airplane selfie. The plane ride was...horrid. Yeah, horrid. We wanted to sleep, and the cabin crew wanted to serve food...all food and beverages were for purchase, not even water was free on this flight. We had brought our own, so we were fine, just wanted to sleep. Well. Wrinkling and crinkling of wrappers and papers. The guy across the aisle from me alternated snoring, then waking up and unscrewing his soda pop bottle, which hissed loudly. The lady in the row behind us sniffed. Rhythmically. Sniffed. The guy behind me stretched his legs out of under my seat, slamming his footsies into the back of my legs, waking me up with the jolts. The overhead screens flickered, and people walked down the aisle, bumping into the seats. So it wasn't a night for sleep. But it was still fun. We laughed our heads off about how Mali would have been with the sniffing. She detests sniffing.

Morning came, and we were in Dublin. We walked a few miles through the airport to immigration, where we were greeted with: Mirielle, is it true you had issues and were denied entry to the U.K. a few years back? Oh, the fun and games of standing there after taking 999 naps on the plane all night, wanting coffee and having to use the bathroom...this Irish dude was serious. He wasn't going to just let us into his country if we were going to try to find jobs and stay! No sir. He needed proof of Mirielle's employment, and lots of other details. When he finally stamped those passports and we were on our way to the luggage carels, we thought our trials were over. uh-hum.

The rental car. Can you say Driving on the WRONG side of the road? Well, we didn't even get to that point yet when our gps/wi-fi device wouldn't work. Mare had to go back in and get the correct password. Then...we drove away in that spiffy little rental car, her driving correctly on the wrong side of the road, but there was a beeping! Incessant beeping! We were buckled, it was in drive, the lights were on...but it wouldn't stop. We turned around and drove right back to that rental place got out of the car...the tire was smoking! The guy thought we were rather funny, he took the car for a spin, and declared, "Thar's obsolutely nothing wrong with this carr." But, he got us a different on anyway. We drove away in that, and it was also beeping like mad...ooops, emergency brake. ha.

Anyway.


We tried some fish and chips, and yeah, chips are just french fries.

We shared one, and it was still too much food.

We just couldn't go to Starbucks in Ireland! But...at least it is in a castle ruins, or church ruins...


Then we went for coffee...


Then we walked around Howth...




We went to a store, Lidl, to get some bread...we chose pumpkin seed bread, and some yummy Irish butter...and some raspberry jam, and real Irish cream for the coffee.




This is our front window view from our little apartment...the Irish Sea!

After we settled in a bit, brewed some coffee, and unpacked, we headed to the village on foot, in search of a pub. We went to an old one, highly reccommended...I walked in first, and it was totally.full.of.men. Nary a lady in sight. I turned right back around, smacking pretty much into Mirielle...so we tried the little place across the street. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I walked into that place and explained that we were from out of town, and wanted to go to a pub, but the place across the street was full of men! They offered the meal menu, but I said we only wanted a beer. Mirielle had a glass of wine, I had one beer on tap. It was good...but with the jet lag, and not much to eat...oh dear me. It was more than enough. We walked back here, and had toast...the pumpkin seed bread...mmm.


It's not very late, but we are tired and trying to figure out the bus schedule...we are hitting the Guinness Storehouse tomorrow and don't want to drive in the Dublin traffic....