Dublin, Day 1

While domestic flights will provide you a small glimpse into what makes human beings both delightful and horrific (sweat pants, 20 carryons, various kinds of drunken businessmen), the international flight is better. Peyton and I often lament about Americans, but we really shine when crammed into an Air Bus 330 and then forced to breath each others' air for eight or more hours. However, it turns out that the cure of exhaustion and jet lag to to be met at the house by an adorable Irish child. To ratchet up the cuteness a notch, add an American flag. 

After a giant Irish brunch, Peyton, Eleanor (friend of 20 years and local Irish host extraordinaire), and I headed out to Dalkey--an adorable seaside town about 12 miles south of Dublin. Eleanor lured me in by announcing that there was a 10th Century cemetery at Dalkey Castle--that's all I needed to hear. 

  Once we arrived at Dalkey Castle, Eleanor bought us tickets for the medieval tour. Moments later, we were on the street on a literary tour of Dalkey. None of us thought it was strange--even when a huffing Dalkey Castle employee ran up to our tour and asked if there were three people who were supposed to be on another tour, we figured that wasn't us. Eleanor later confessed that she thought to herself, "What fecking eejit would get on the wrong tour?" These fecking eejits would.

 At this point in the tour we were learning about Maeve Binchy--I still thought at some point we would get to the medieval cemetery.

 The tour wrapped up with a visit to the Maeve Binchy memorial garden in the Dalkey Library. I focused on the bees.

 After the literary tour, and still looking to tour the cemetery, we headed back to the castle. On the way, we saw this Banksy-like bit of graffiti.

 And, we stopped at a church and saw a giant barrel of holy water.

 And, then we asked if we could just walk around the cemetery. This is the ruins St. Begnet's Church and a sampling of headstones.

 I noticed that some of the headstones had a strange script on them--Eleanor informed me that this is Ogham. The site of St. Begnet's Church has been a church and graveyard since the 6th or 7th Century. There are as many as 2000 graves on site--so many, in fact, that the ground has been raised and the doors in the church ruins have shrunk.

 I was overwhelmed by the beauty of so many wildflowers, ferns, and lichen growing in the walls of the ruins.

 After we gave ourselves a tour of the cemetery, we figured we would also give ourselves a tour of the top of the castle. We had noticed other folks on the top as we strolled back to the castle from our literary tour. As we entered the stairwell, we were informed that we couldn't just take ourselves up there, we had to go on a tour. Eleanor informed the guy that she thought she had paid for a tour that included the roof of the castle. "Oooh, you're the people who missed your tour," was his reply. Yes, we were those people, but we didn't realize it until that moment. This is how we managed to get two tours for the price of one. So, we headed back out to the graveyard and had a guided tour and then a trip up the stairs to the top floors and roof of Dalkey Castle. This is a photo of the stairs going up, but the photo doesn't include the murder hole through which "hot urine" would be poured on people trying to invade the castle.

Here, Peyton learned about blood letting and the history of the barber pole--I cruelly volunteered him for the demonstration.

The view from the roof was gorgeous--here are the ruins of St. Begnet's from above.

 This photo of Eleanor cracked me up--I'm still laughing now. Her husband, Dermot, informed that that the photo isn't really funny because it's her regular face.

 After our second tour, we had a Guinness in the courtyard of The Queen.

 On our way home, we drove by the shore and stopped for a quick look around.

 Per usual, I ran off to grab a few photos--this is Peyton and Eleanor watching me.

 And, then I noticed young Irish men disrobing.

I heard a woman mutter, "Well, that's a spectacle," as she walked by. And, then I was busted. Notice the blond guy mugging for the camera. 

 On our way home, we stopped for gas and we found the coal depot. We're still trying to wrap our brain around the fact that some folks are burning coal for heat! What was cool though, is that the coal was all "guaranteed Irish" and stamped.

After spending time in the garden drinking local beer and pear cider, we had a delicious rogan josh for dinner and were then sent to bed. All in all, we had such a wonderful day.