Dublin*

Greetings from Dublin!

We made it over here after an almost missed horrible horrible flight on Ryan Air. Ireland is an awesome country - everyone here is so smiley and happy all of the time and I'm pretty sure the fact that there is a pub on every block has something to do with it.

In the day and a half that we've been in Dublin we have done many things! Here is a brief overview:

- Guinness Brewery Tour - saw how they make the stout and learned that the main ingredients are as follows: barley, hops, water, yeast. I took good notes during the tour and am looking forward to attempting to brew my own when I get home. Afterwards, we enjoyed a fresh complementary beer at the 'Gravity Bar' at the top of the complex.

- Jameson Distillery Tour - Kenn was an official taste tester at the end of the tour, which was very interesting, especially because they gave you a few free cocktails at the end.

- Dublin Ghost Tour - Did this last night. They took us around to all sorts of creepy graveyards and we learned about the spooky side of Dublin. I'm not much of a believer in ghosts, but some of the pictures that showed up on peoples cameras were really freaky. Like half of the tour group, our camera didn't work.

- St. Patricks Cathedral - St. Patrick brought Christianity to modern day Ireland. We got to walk through the garden which was the site where St. Patrick would baptize people. The church was very pretty, and obviously very historic.

- Book of Kells - This Bible was scribed circa 800 BC. It was astonishing to see how intricate the inscriptions and drawings were given the age of this book. Also, got to check out the Long Hall in the Trinity College library which was completely breathtaking. I think that it would be breaktaking to those of you out there who aren't book nerds such as myself.

Anyway, we're off to find a pub and down a few more pints. Tomorrow its back to London and then home.