Luck o' de Irish

Dublin:

Today was our first full day here in Dublin. Last night we check in at Mount Eccles court, a hostel, and ate dinner. Dinner (from the supermarket) was followed by a trip to an internet cafe, followed by bed :) Ahhh it was nice to sleep finally!

We woke up this morning and checked out of Mount Eccles court and into Isaacs Hostel, a somewhat famous hostel in Dublin--famous for what? we haven't yet found out. Since we couldn't officially check in until after 3 p.m., we headed to the one and only sight on our list today: Malahide Castle and gardens.

Our train ride was packed with about 20 kids who looked to be between the ages of 5 and 8 years old. They were obviously going on a fieldtrip because of the shrill sound of their voices and the excitement that was felt in the train car when they would all (together and at once) decide that their seats were no longer comfortable and get up and stand. This was followed by the 4 or 5 assistants telling all of them to sit down and that they would be there soon, which in turn caused more excitement...you get the cycle. However, this endless cycle was interrupted once when one of the little girls locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't figure out how to push the automatic button to get herself out. From the screams coming from the bathroom and the giggles from the rest of the kids, I could tell it wasn't a serious situation--something that happens all the time in Ireland maybe?? Anyway, at one point during the train ride about 7 little Irish children with blonde and red hair and blue or green eyes were all yelling at different pitches and speeds, but all with the same adorable accent: "Jus' tell 'er to poosh the browen bootun...jus' tell 'er to poosh it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (The little girl eventually got out and skipped merrily back to her seat like nothing at all had happened. This was followed by a line of about 10 children forming at the door to the bathroom--I think to see if they too could lock themselves in the bathroom. The line was met by unhappy voices coming from the assistants.)

When we got off the train, we met a very nice man on the platform who just happened to have a key to a special gate that he let us through to the castle so we wouldn't have to walk around the entire town to take the 'real' entrance to the castle. After about a 10 minute walk through playgrounds, criquette and rugby fields, and partial woods, we came up a very humble castle fully clad with two towers and a gate (but no moat). We went on a tour and learned that the Talbot family, originating from France, occupied the castle for 800 years. The oldest member is still living and occupied the castle until 1975 (!!) when she donated it to Ireland and moved to Tasmania, Australia (who moves THERE!?!??!) Since I am sure you don't care about all the little details of the castle, I will just tell you that it was very cool .

We had a picnic in the grassy field right outside the castle and after lunch I took a very long nap on the grass. It, i remembered, was the first grass I have seen and been comfortable to sit on in about 8 weeks--no dog poop and cleanly cut!!

Toward the end of our all-day castle adventure, we found a quaint little silver store where an adorable old Irishman gave us a brief history lesson of Irish silver--very interesting. I really didn't care about the history lesson as much as I liked listening to him talk :)

It was Peter's birthday so we decided to splurge and take him to Hard Rock Cafe here in Dublin. We got to use silverware for the first time in 13 days...and we sat at a table and were served!!! It was wonderful--the food was okay, not the greatest, but it was lots better than tuna and bread ;)

At Todd's request we followed dinner with a short trip to an authentic Irish pub...