I just arrived in Belfast and want to explore, so I’ll be a bit more concise with my story-telling today and then post a few pictures from day 2 in Dublin…

Yesterday I took what seemed like a very long walk to the Guinness Storehouse after Paul and I visited Steve McCurry’s exhibit.  This lead me past old cathedrals, Dublin’s first pub, and countless other little points of interest. I wanted to visit the Jameson Distillery as well, but I didn’t leave myself enough time and ended up at Dublinia to experience Viking and medieval Dublin.  It was a self-guided tour, which I enjoyed immensely because I learned a lot about my Viking ancestors.  Interestingly, there weren’t really full-time Vikings.  Mostly they were farmers who were just part-time sea terrorists looking for extra income.   Definitely worth the price of admission. 

I didn’t go out with Paul’s friends yesterday evening.  On my own instead, I visited Oliver St. John Gogarty for the second time and struck up a “conversation” with a man from Barcelona.  He didn’t speak English, so by conversation I mean pantomime, over exaggerated hand movements and pretty much just saying words neither of us understood LOUDER.   This was too exhausting for me despite his good looks, but he was really excited about having an amigo and decided to follow me around for a while.  Not really wanting a stalker that I couldn’t understand, I ducked back into the Clarence where I ended up meeting two older brothers named Liam and Colin in the hotel bar. 

Liam and Colin were your traditional Irish story-tellers who kept me entertained until well after midnight.  By the time they left, I’d struck up a conversation with the bar supervisor, who after closing it down, kept it open for the two of us so we could chat.  And chat we did!  Over Midleton Rare until 6 a.m.  He may have gotten into a weeee bit of trouble for that one, but he gave me his phone number.   Unfortunately, there really wasn’t time to connect after my three hours of sleep because I had to catch the train to Belfast.  But, who knows?  Maybe we’ll cross paths again.  I really don’t want to book a THIRD trip here.  I love it, but really.

That’s the reader’s digest version.  Enjoy the pics!