"Well, hello, dear."

Here's some higlights so far about the trip and what we've been up to.  First, I had the worst flight over that I think I've ever had.  Just couldn't get to sleep and the lady across the row looked like Mrs. Doubtfire so that was a bit distracting.  Once we got in, it was straight to the bus then a sort of quick tour of Dublin.  It was 9 in the morning and we couldn't get in the hotel yet so we had to do something.  After that, it was to the Guinness Storehouse where I'm proud to say I had my first Guinness pint in Ireland.  And because a couple of people in the group didn't like or have never had it, I got 2.  Score. 

From there it was off to Trinity College and the Book of Kells.  First, Trinity College is pretty dang old...even for Irish standards and it was very pretty.  The Book of Kells was transcribed by some monks waaaaay back in about 800 AD and it's the gospels plus some very extraordinary illustrations (one of the oldest books in the world).  You can view two of the 4 books (they were split up some time ago) but you only get to see only 2 pages.  This has led the Dubliners to call it the Page of Kells.  Anyway, really neat old book.  Then we went through the Long Room of the library.  Of anything I wanted to take a picture of so far and couldn't, it was this room.  Maybe I'll find a picture online and post later.  One intersting thing about the Long Room was that George Lucas used it as his Jedi Archives in Attack of the Clones...albeit without the permission of the college.  In other words, he recreated it virtually. 

We had a group dinner last night which was incredible.  After that, we sort of broke into groups and did our own pub thing.  The best part about the pubs here is you really can't go wrong...especially on a Saturday night. 

Well, I've got to head to dinner.  Will probably get some fish and chips somewhere with a portion of the group.  I will say that today was a good day.  Not only was I rested but we went to the Rock of Cashel and the town of Kilkenny.  More on those later (and while I forgot my camera cable, I think I can borrow one from someone in the group so I hope to post pictures). 

Oh, and one glorious saying I heard today..."pint it up."  As in "you know, we should go pint it up sometime."  I will now adopt this as my own.  Cheers.  And a final thing, it was 75 and perfectly sunny all day.  Quite the rarity as I understand. 

Go far, go green.