Last Sunday we left off basically when I was getting ready to get off the plane. We will continue from there. The first day in Ireland. It was my first time really going through Customs in over 20 years. Getting into Ireland was pretty simple. They asked why we were here. How long we would be here and then stamped our passports. It was the first time in my life I’ve had a passport stamped. I was hoping to get 2 stamps on this trip, but it wasn’t to be. 1 stamp at least shows that my passport has been used at least.
We didn’t do too much dramatic the first day. We walked a little bit around Dublin. In this kind of touristy area called Grafton Street. I mostly wanted to wander around this area because several scenes from one of my favorite movies of all-time, ONCE, were shot in this area. So we went to a few of those locations and grabbed supper. Walked around a little more. Then we called it a night. It had been a long day and we were leaving at 6 in the morning on a nearly 3 hour drive to Northern Ireland and would be staying in Belfast.
Here are pictures from Day 1:
I’m sure there were also Kansas State balloons, but probably not.
If you don’t know the story of ONCE, none of this will make sense, but if you haven’t watched ONCE, are you really my friend. This is a statue of Phil Lynott. He was the lead singer of Thin Lizzy (even if you don’t think you’ve heard Thin Lizzy, you have – “The Boys Are Back in Town” and “Jailbreak”). You would have to live in a pretty tiny cave if you haven’t heard those songs. It is at this statue where Guy finds his backup band to help him record his demo.
We stopped at a cheesemonger shop. We didn’t buy cheese. That was a mistake.
This little alley way is where Guy does most of his busking. This is also where he meets Girl.
This Coffee Shop is where Guy and Girl have lunch. I was very excited to be able to grab a bit to eat there.
This is where the music store used to be where Guy and Girl play the Academy Award winning song “Falling Slowly”. It is no longer a music store, but upstairs is music school that has a name that is similar to the name of the music store from the movie.
Sitting roughly wear Guy and Girl sit in the Coffee Shop.
I don’t remember exactly what these were, but they were both absolutely fantastic!
This was inside St. George’s Arcade. Which is more like a small mall. Guy and Girl walk through it in the movie.
I wanted to try an American fast food restaurant in Ireland to see the differences. Andy wasn’t into that, so our compromise was to go to an American themed restaurant called Captain America’s. It was a huge mistake. It was absolutely terrible. The only bad meal I had on the entire trip. Just terrible. I talked about it on my flight home with my single serving friend who was from Dublin, but now lives in New Jersey. If he would have been my single serving friend on the way there, he would have warned me not to eat there. Oh well. 1 bad meal in 6-7 days is actually a pretty good track record.
This tasted burnt, probably cause it was.
Cheeseburger and fries, doesn’t get more American than that!
Not great.
Andy’s meal.
I guess the effort to put the condiments on the burger were on par with many of the efforts of the people I worked with at the Evil Clown Empire.
It wasn’t good, but I was starving.
A triple chocolate cake. Easily the best part of the meal, but also not great.
A throwback to when the United States used to fight fascism.
After our “meal” we walked around St. Stephen’s on the Green. Also a site from Once.
In one of the opening scenes of the movie a friend and drug addict of Guy’s steals his busking money and runs away with it. Guy chases him across the street and through this arch.
It is here that Guy catches up with the thief and gives him some of his busking money.
This is it for cruddy cell phone pictures. We walked around this park and looked for another park with a waterfall, but by the time we found it, it was closed. So we called it a night.
Next Sunday’s food adventure will start Day 2 in Ireland. I might break that up into a couple posts cause I took a ton of cruddy cell phone pictures on that day.