Euro Trip Day 2: Where we got to Dublin, got lost, and went to church

I probably should mention that I’ll be posting most of these daily picture posts from my cameraphone. Of course I have my regular camera… it’s just that it’s infinitely more convenient to post from my phone than having to dig out my laptop, hook up my camera, copy over all the pictures, find which one I want to post, convert it from RAW to jpg, upload it… See the problem here? :-) So I will get my regular camera pictures posted periodically… but with my phone, I take a picture and click on “share”, write up a post in the email field, and then it’ll automatically send whenever my phone finds wifi. It couldn’t be easier. :-)

Anyway, our flight from Philly to Dublin actually got in almost an hour early this morning due to some gnarly tailwinds (which also gave us some crazy turbulence… but I’m weird enough to enjoy that!) We got to the airport and proceeded to wait long enough for our bags that I was starting to panic that they’d never made it out of Philadelphia. They were the last ones off the conveyor belt… better late than never!

Then it was time to figure out how to find a bus to our hotel. Bus maps are oddly hard to come by, and after a couple of false starts, we got headed toward city center, where we’d catch another bus to closer to the hotel. Again, this proved easier said than done, and we may have gotten lost, or at least misdirected, at least once. Maybe twice. We were off the plane at about 8, had our luggage and were through customs by around 9, and finally got to the hotel at… 11:30. Ugh. Did I mention it was raining the entire time we wandered around lost exploring? It is Ireland, after all, and I suppose to get the full experience one needs to wander in the rain lugging a large backpack. At least that’s what John and I kept trying to convince ourselves.

We got to the hotel damp, bedraggled, and exhausted, only to discover that check-in was at 1, not 12. Thankfully, they let us leave our bags there, so we did, I grabbed my camera bag, and we headed down the street to check out a church we’d passed on the way in. We got there about ten minutes after mass had begun, so we snuck down a side aisle and grabbed a seat. The church, St. Peter’s (Catholic, of course — did this really need to be specified?), is built in the nineteenth century Gothic revival style. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and it was a total treat to catch a service there! Sometime while we were there, John suggested that we try to catch a church service in every country we’re in — I think that’s a great idea. :-)

After the service ended, we wandered around the church a bit before heading back to our hotel. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we hung out and dozed in some comfy chairs. I have to say, for €29/night, this is a REALLY nice place. We even get our own bathroom!! So we’re going to enjoy it while we can, since I know we’ve got plenty of hostels in our future over the next two months. Not that I’m complaining — honest. :-)

Ok, time for a bit of a nap… neither of us slept much on the plane, and jet lag is kicking in.

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