After a very long travel day I finally arrive in Dublin, Ireland. However, my day has just begun, seeing it's only 9:30 in the morning! When the finally dust settles I will have been awake for almost 40 hours before my head hits the pillow. One of the main barriers to sleeping on the plane is I'm just too tall, my legs don't fit/fold comfortably under the seat in front of me, so the best I can do is periodically enter into a state of mild semi-consciousness, which doesn't even count as a cat nap. It's more like a gnat nap, utterly useless.
From the airport I drive a rented car southward to areas unknown. Not unknown to my Garmin GPS though, my electronic training wheels that will prevent me from tipping over into the realms of lostness. Having never driven on the left side of the road and never shifting the transmission with my left hand, one tends to think driving in such an alien environment would be a challenge. Regardless, I enter the stream of traffic with a little trepidation. Fortunately, I decide quickly to just play "follow the leader". I don't have to be anywhere at any particular time, so I just wonder around following the car in front of me for a while. This proves to be the ingredient for success! Soon enough I'm able to ween myself from the mental teat of the car I've been following, I'm ready to venture out on my own, I'm a big boy now!
So southward I trek with my new found courage. I have to admit, I was lazy before leaving home, not really taking the time to learn how to use my GPS unit, so in addition to getting used to driving on the left and on the narrow roadways, I'm fiddling around (and cursing a bit) with the GPS. In the end I get things figured out and I can concentrate 100% on staying in my incredibly narrow lane. It's rather insane how little clearance I have. Not wanting to get too close to the oncoming traffic, I tend to edge the car over to the left too far, only to be reminded just how close I am by brushing up aside a curb or sometimes actually going over it a bit. Poor, poor rental car. I feel for ya ya little blue guy...
I mill around a bit, not really having an agenda. I have lunch in some little pub, then head back north to Dublin to wander around in the city for a while. Here's a picture of St Patrick's Cathedral. Built way back in 1191, the present structure dates from 1220 onward. I have a 6:00pm appointment near city center with Jodie, a gal who's advertising a room for rent. I've already placed a deposit on the room, I just need to see it in person before actually sealing the deal. All goes well and I decide to take the rental, it's for two months, for July and August.
On the road again, I head southwest to Rathcoole to meet Michele, a fellow couch surfer who has generously offered me a couch for two evenings. Actually it's a bed, but saying it's a couch sounds more cool maybe? Anyway, upon arrival, I meet two surfers who've already arrived. We all decide to walk to a nearby pub for food and spirits. Rathcoole is a small village, however, it has 4 pubs. Michele takes us to the best of the lot. Interesting place, I order a BLT and Guinness!
When we get back from dinner 5 more couch surfers show up, OMG, we have a full house. Good thing Michele has 5 bedrooms.
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