6/4/05 Well the plane set down in Dublin Ireland just before noon and I couldn’t get away from my little leprechaun horse riding friend quick enough. Walking off the plane I had the biggest perma-grin on my face, my adventure was finally beginning. Once through customs and I collected my baggage I figured I better start trying to find a place to stay tonight. I was a little worried because I knew it was a 3 day holiday and every hostel/hotel was going to be booked. Starting to feel a little stress creep up I decided I had better sit down and grab some food and deal with this on a full stomach. After grabbing some food I called the shipping company to check on my bike and to no surprise it wouldn’t be released till Tuesday when customs reopens from the holiday. Next order business find a place to rest my weary bones, luckily we live in the age of the internet so an internet café was right there in the airport. After surfing the net every hostel and hotel under 100euros a night was fully booked but not to be discouraged I wrote down 15 phone numbers and headed to the pay phones. After 15 phone calls and no luck I still had the biggest smile on my face and was not discouraged, time to call some of the places a second time and ask them for suggestions. One of the hostels recommended a place just a little out of town that might have availability. So with a number and some high hopes I dialed the phone and was in luck. The girl on the other end couldn’t speak much English so all I had was half an address and kind of a name but I had a reservation. As usual luck worked out in my favor and I got the best cab driver in all of Ireland and he understood where I needed to go and even gave me some great stories along the way. I showed up to the hostel and was quite impressed, it was in a very nice neighborhood and was extremely nice for only 20 Euros a night, again luck was on my side. After I got my luggage stowed in the room I headed down to the local neighborhood bars to catch the Ireland vs. Israel World Cup Match. After watching an exciting first half and meeting several friendly locals I figured I had better catch up on some sleep before heading out on the town. After a solid 90 minutes of sleep I dug into my luggage to find my “goin out clothes” and was ready to get my dance on in Dublin. Luckily the bus to downtown (an area called Temple Bar) only takes about 15 minutes from my hostel. Dublin has a great night scene with several different types of bars all within short walking distance to each other. Every type of bar was open from pubs to discos, I ended up going to more of a high end club called Q’s where I stayed till almost 3:00. Today’s Specs Weather: Cloudy 60F Distance: Dublin   6/5/05 Today I rolled out of bed about 2:00, damn jet lag and oh my head hurts damn jet lag. After gathering my thoughts I headed into town to see some sights. Dublin is a very beautiful town like much of Europe narrow streets an old brick buildings. I found a great park downtown where I spent an hour walking around enjoying the afternoon. Today I am really missing my bike and wish I could be on it riding through the country instead of in the city. I took some great photos today of old people just doing there daily routine, I couldn’t help but think of all the great stories these people had or maybe they didn’t, maybe they just wasted their lives. I also came upon a group of great street musicians who were playing classical music with about 75 onlookers gathered around. There was one particular child who was stealing the show from the musicians, you could see the love of live and just pure enjoyment for the moment. It would have been neat to be the musicians and see the joy you are bringing this child, I enjoyed it and I was just watching. Well enough with those happy feelings Josh tell us of a good Irish brawl. Oh you want a brawl well that is what you shall get, don’t worry I was not in it. Being Sunday most of the shops shut down early and their wasn’t too much to see. So I hopped on the bus back to the hostel. Today was a big Irish rules football match so there were several drunk people on the upper deck of the double deck bus. About halfway back to the hostel these two groups of guys started yelling at each other about 6 rows behind me. At first it sound like they were joking but all of sudden it broke out into one of the most marvelous fista-cuffs I have ever seen. At one point one of the Irish fellows broke a steel pipe off the bus seat and proceeded to hit one of his fellow combatants with it. After about 4 minutes of this the bus driver finally pulled over and let the guys off the bus where the fight continued on the street. Note: the bus driver is in a plexiglass cage so I am guessing this happens quite often. At one point the steel pipe was taken away from the guy swinging it and used on him, mental note if a guy is strong enough to take your weapon of choice from you it might be a good time to run away. Once back at the hostel I had some wine with salami and cheese while talking to several other travelers from Syria, Poland, and a group of girls from the US who are here with their church. Today’s Specs Weather: Cloudy 60F Distance: Dublin