June 14- Day One of Dublin

Despite a last minute adapter crisis, "Jam Factor 8" traffic on 95, and disorganized airline employees at the check-in counter, I made it to Dublin! My mother would like it to be known that she single-handedly got me to the airport against all odds--thanks Mom! Anyway, we arrived in Dublin early this morning, the plane passing through heavy cloud cover to reveal the green underneath. Our cab driver was quite talkative, discussing everything from World Cup to the BP oil spill to pointing out the sights of Dublin. All the street signs here are in English and Irish; it's pretty awesome.
It was a fairly short ride to our hotel, which is directly across the street from Christ Church. Our rooms weren't quite ready, so we stored our luggage and headed out to explore Dublin while our rooms were prepared. Ironically, our first stop was Starbucks--sometimes you just can't leave home! But the coffee was a much needed energy boost and gave us enough fuel to explore the city. We wandered through Grafton Street, which is a pedestrian shopping street with many stores and street musicians. It was great to get the fresh air, not too mention hear the beautiful Irish accents! We left Grafton to explore St. Steven's Green, a beautiful park in the middle of Dublin. The treetops are so thick and green here; it's amazing.
We finally got into our rooms, which are pretty large and have great views of the street below--Copper Alley, which is famous for once being the home of the Unicorn Tavern and a brothel. Cool. It was awesome to shower and freshen up after the long flight. We probably would have fallen asleep right then, but there were more urgent matters--namely, we were starving! So we headed out again, this time in search of food. We found a little Italian restaurant along the River Liffey after a bit of wandering. This particular place was having a lunch special--any pizza or pasta with a complimentary glass of wine for 12 euros. We weren't planning on having any wine, but our waiter didn't seem to understand that. So it was a dinner of magherita pizza and red wine--keep it classy, Dublin. It was kind of crazy that a waiter would just bring us wine without looking at ID or anything, but like Dorothy, we aren't in Kansas anymore!