Guinness...the Water of LIFE

Hello all from windy Dublin!

Since i last wrote, we finished up our stay in Edinburough in fine fashion. After i last wrote, i met up with the group and took a 20 minute buss ride to a small town of Rosslyn which has Rosslyn's Chapel. For you Davinci Code fans, the Chapel is a place that Langdon goes to for something and finds some other stuff out...as you can tell, remember the book! The Chapel i VERY old and small but very impressive. they are trying really hard to preserve it, so unfortunately, there is a roof over the top of it so it does not take on any more water. Either way, it was still really cool to be there and hear about how it came to be, how it was nearly destroyed and then how it was trnsformed into what it is today.

Post Chapel, we bussed back into town, and made our way to a pub for the US v Italy game. We landed at a cool bar with 2 for 1 dinner and drinks so needless to say, we made ourselves comfortable! the unfortunate thing was that there was a 18 year old bday party already reserved for there so we were only able to eat dinner and could not watch the game there. well, lucky for us as i am sure you were all concerned, there was anoother pub a stones throw away! this one was much better. The place was called The Balck Swan and was run by a really nice husband and wife. they were playing the game and being the only americans in the bar, we got quite a ribbing! drink after drink, we made many a friend and by closing, they damn near had to physically remove us from the bar. we met some really cool people in the pub and heard many a funny stories from them! Regardless of the outcome of the game (1-1 tie), there was goodtimes had by all!

Waking up was a chore and the head was...shall i say FUZZY! we made it to the Edinburough castle and toured around the awesome grounds up on the hill in the early afternoon and then made it to the bus station in time to get a ride to the airport. All worked out very nicely this time on Ryan Air (they TOTALLY redeemed themselves this time)...coure getting there 3 hours early certainly helped our cause! an hour later, we arrived in Dublin in the early evening and boarded a bus to the city centre, checked into our hotel, grabed some dinner and a pint of guiness and went back to the room for an early bedtime (still suffering from the Black Swan).

Yesterday we cruised around downtown and then made our way to the Guinness brewery! WOW, that place is heaven on earth...damn near close to Lucerne! they have a great self-guided tour which takes you through the history of Arthur Guinness' dream until today! They even let you have a taste...or two if you pretend that you have not had one already! at the end of the tour, you head up to the Gravity Bar for a free pint and an an awesome 360 degree view of the city! let me tell you, that was a site to see...guinness...just like i like my...er...uhh...beer...tall, dark and...umm...BEER!

Last night, we took it easy, grabbing some pints at a local bar with a couple of locals playing traditional irish tunes...which included us singing along! as you ll may know, i can definately pull off an irish accent after a few and add in some tunes and fo-get-about-it! by 9ish, we were done, grabbed some take away dinner and headed back to the room.

today i am explororing solo style while also trying not to blow away (the kids went to the zoo and in my world, you seen one monkey, you seen 'em all!)! this afternoon, i am meeting josh at the Jamison distillery for some wiskey good times!

Hope all is well back home. We have today left in Dublin and then tomorrow head to London. will write more from London and see you all shortly (unless i hear back from guiness regarding my application)! WOW...TIMES FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN!

DH