First Day in Dublin!

It didn't take long for Ireland to live up to its reputation! I arrived around 9am, and made my way down to the Avalon House, an AMAZING hostel near the heart of the city. After storing my luggage, I walked until I found a church that was really more of a cathedral and attended Sunday mass, where an adorable old lady in a purple coat wished me the best of luck and said she would pray for me to not get caught up in street violence...comforting.

Since it had been four days since I slept in a proper bed, a nap was the next order of business. Then, in meandering the lounge, I met Brendan, another American, and Marcus the Finnish Musician. Marcus was performing at a bar in Temple that night, so our contingent quickly swelled to a fantastic groups of Americans, Italians, French, and Germans, and we proceeded to take over a large table, drink lots of FABULOUS Irish beer, and play Connect Four while listening to several live bands.
We came back around 2am, and Marcus, Brendan, Dez (an American film maker), Dario (Italian), Abdul (from Bangladesh), Jason (Baltimore) and David (French) chilled in the kitchen with a guitar, a bottle of Petron and another of Vodka, and sang for the rest of the night- both Dez and Marcus played songs they had written along with more popular songs, and the rest of us made up harmonies and other accompaniment- by far one of the most fantastic nights I've ever had...oooooh, and there are pictures coming :)