On Thursday I arrived in Dublin. It was raining and I spent over an hour on a bus in rush hour before I got to the hostel. The hostel is huge and I met two english girls who arrived that day (at midday) and started drinking (peaked at 2pm), they were in bed by 7pm. Everyone seems to drink a lot in Dublin. In my room the first night there were two american guys who live in Glasgow (named M.... and N...., I can't remember their actual names), the drunk english girls, an Australian and I. The american boys stayed and I got to know them quite well (except the whole name thing). The australian guy is called Russell. He is a bus driver for Busabout (like Kiwi Experience) in europe and he has been driving for 8 months. He is doing the tour I am. When the english girls left David moved in who is from Minnesota, USA. David has an MBA in marketing and works as a buyer for Target Corp (apparently an upmarket Walmart type chain). The reason David came to Dublin was to pout, he was meant to be getting married but it didn't work out. Russell, David and I went out last night to celebrate not being married. We had too much to drink. I started talking to a 70 year old irish lady we made some new friends and then went back to the dorm. I have seen a number of Irish pubs and Molly Malones and O'Neills (the blue pub) do resemble them.

I have seen some sights too. I have crossed the Liffey a number of times, saw O'Connell monument (the biggest spike in the world, I swear), Christchurch Cathedral, Dublinia (an exhibition on medieval Dublin), Dublin Castle, City Hall, St Patricks Cathedral (largest church in Ireland), the national museum of history and anthropology (cool viking and egyptian stuff), the general post office (it's a bigger deal than you think), Molly Malone, the two hags, St Stephens Green and walked around Trinity College. Dublin is cool and I still have heaps to see like the guiness brewery. I woke up this morning to church bells, it would have been better if they didn't ring for an hour but it was nice. I start my tour tomorrow and I head to Westport. I have 6 days down south and then 4 up north. I can't wait, Russell just did the 4 day one and he said it rocked even though everyone on the bus got a stomach bug.