journal 3

Journal 3

The adventures begin. When we arrived at the Dublin airport and were processed through immigration, we queued up for a taxi. We were directed to the taxi in the front of the line. With no expectations other than a taxi ride to town, we were more than pleasantly surprised, maybe more like astonished!

Let's start with the driver's name. It was Tom Ryan. Something about that name just tells me I had better be on my guard. He was full of life, had tons of jokes, and a huge flirt. He was tall and probably in his early to mid 60's (just my age)and not bad looking. I was sitting in the seat behind him, and whenever there was an opportunity for some double entendre, Tom grabbed the moment and reached back and grabbed my leg. Which only made us all laugh even more. I don't even remember what was said to make him do that, but it was hilarious, and we laughed all the way to the hotel.

He did give us his number, but for ride reasons, as far as I was concerned. So today when Georgann and I returned to the hotel (Sarah forged on for some additional sightseeing), there was a note under our door. I should mention that Tom did not know our names or our room number, but this being Dublin, anything is possible.

So this note was from our friendly taxi driver, Tom. Supposedly, he was checking in with us on the possibility of taking us back to the airport on Friday to pick up our rental car (we had discussed this previously). So I did call him back and told him 9am.

I should talk a little about the day today. We started out with an Irish breakfast as part of our hotel arrangements. Eggs, Irish bacon, black and white pudding (sausage to us) and brown bread. Of course, Irish breakfast tea, and juice. This was to become the staple breakfast for most of our trip. Slight changes in the north and Glasgow, but mostly the same.

Up the block from us was Dublin Castle, now political offices. We started there on the hop-on-hop-off and then caught the bus to the rest of the locations for the day. Christ Church Cathedral with incredible crypts and the tomb of Strongbow, St. Patrick's Cathedral and park, St. James Gate Guinness brewery, Kilmainham Goal, the Writers Museum, Jameson Whiskey, and too many more to talk about. It was a full day.

Hold the phone!!!!!!!! Mr. Ryan just called back and said he was nearby today and thought he could meet us and “chat us up” and maybe have some coffee! OMG..This is too funny. He did confirm that he will be picking us up at 9 tomorrow and we'll see what happens then.

Going out tonight to an Irish House Party. Who knows what will happen then!