Day 3 Mon. Oct. 26

59 F, some sun, then drizzle
Irish Bank Holiday

Got up early and tried taking a shower. (Turned on the power and water and got a few drips). Went downstairs for our Full English Breakfast. Len says this was his fave full breakfast of all those we had. He got his fried bread and hash browns and was delighted. Bacon in the UK is more like Canadian bacon. Little fat, lots of meat! and not crunchy. Then off towards the ferry, dragging our bags behind us. Got right onto the 08:55. They had good coffee and we could check our luggage! Whee! So we'd accidentally packed our reading material, of course. (D'oh!)

Great sunny weather and an easy crossing, docked on time 90mins. later in Dun Laoghaire. Called Roisin from the port and got some recommendations of places to stay. Went to the TIC (Travellers Info Center) and ended up having to book a room elsewhere, but in the same area.

Caught the DART to the Landsdown Station and a good long hike to the Waterloo Lodge Guesthouse Dropped our luggage off and went out to explore. Ended up on Grafton Street. Time to go Shopping!! Hit the Irish Tourist place and bought some 'Official Irish' ticky tacky junk.

Unfortunately the bags marked us as tourists, so we were hit up for spare change about 10 times until we finally bought something in an unmarked bag and transfered at all. ( I also found handing out U.S. change usually slowed it down on the repeat biz)

Found a phone to let Roisin know we'd settled, and that perhaps tomorrow would work better for everyone. Spent the afternoon trying to avoid getting tangled up in the Dublin Marathon Race.

Ate dinner at an "authentic" Irish place down in Temple Bar (called Gallaghers Boxty House ) filled with Americans . Particularly those that were loud, obnoxious, and from New Jersey. (Why is it that every loud complaining voice we heard this trip always seemed to have an American accent(and frequently from New York or New Jersey?)

Had the Irish stew and McGowans Coddle and some "dippities". Checked out Cyberia, but they were pretty backed up. The Italian/Mexican place claimed to have web access, but as we found out later, had removed it. Made it back "home" just as the rain started coming down steadily.

Side notes: Light switches in Great Britain are all rocker switches, and they're backwards of ours. You push down to turn them on. Ireland was no exception to the Burger King fanaticism, they also had them every 25 feet. Saw some familiar places, but with small alterations in the names: T.K. Maxx instead of T.J. Maxx, and Eddie Rockets instead of Johnny Rockets.

Day 2      Day 4