The next morning would kick off what became - quite possibly - the worst sleep over a sustained period in our entire lives. 2:30 a.m. and I was as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I ever am at my most alert. As if that wasn't unfortunate enough, the same thing happened to Alan and would continue for each of us nearly every night of the trip. It's REALLY hard to find something to do at that hour and then not crash come 11 a.m. We did a lot of reading and took a lot of hot baths in hopes of lulling ourselves to sleep, all in vain.
Rather than sit in the hotel any longer we left our room at 7:30 a.m. that first day only to find that Dublin, apparently, doesn't wake up until 8:29:59. The bellman at the hotel laughed when we asked where we could get breakfast, telling us that nothing would be open until 9 a.m. We settled for lattes and croissants at Costa, which I've learned is a European version of something like Seattle's Best - not quite as well-known or respected as Starbucks, but certainly not an independent coffee house or mom & pop shop.
After fueling up on caffine we took the opportunity to just wander around the streets of Dublin, where we learned that Dubliners are the fastest walkers we have ever seen anywhere - don't get in the way of a Dublinite and his/her destination because you will get bodychecked (as my right shoulder learned more than it wanted to).
After our walk we went back to the hotel for a morning nap (making us either infants or elderly) before jumping on the hop on/hop off bus to tour Dublin. Our favorite stop on that journey was most certainly the Guinness Storehouse. The information was really well presented, engaging and easy to understand, whether you had only a passing or in depth interest in beer making. As you'll see below, the weather also changed dramatically from morning to afternoon - it went from bright, sunny & slightly chilly to gray, cold and wet by 4 p.m.
We made our way back to the hotel where we had some Irish coffee in the beautiful bar before going back to the room for what would be for me a nap and some reading time. Dinner that night was at Yagawama or whatever the noodle bar is called and frankly, we were not impressed. Like The Hangover, I don't understand how it became such a phenomenon. Am I missing something? Before heading back to the hotel to sleep for a couple of hours, we strolled down Grafton Street, all decorated for holiday shopping.
Isn't it lovely? Warms my cold black heart. Why can't we have pedestrian shopping streets like this that aren't part of manufactured outdoor malls?