Flew on Aer Lingus out of O’Hare to Dublin.  It was a 6 – 1/2 hour flight and it was 5:00am when we landed, a little ahead of schedule.  Still dark outside and rain pouring down and windy.  The plan to take the city bus failed when the 6:20am bus did not show up.  Ended up taking a taxi to our hotel and it was best thing we did, having a driver who gave us a full history lesson on Ireland, helped us pronounce some Irish words and shared all kinds of great pointers on traveling around Ireland.

When we got to our hotel, Emma was tired and choose to stay and take a nap while Jessica and I headed out taking a walk through St. Stephen’s Green. 

On our ‘must see’ list was to take a tour of Kilmainham Gaol built in 1796.  We had an execellent tour guide and after hearing the taxi driver talk about the history of Ireland and now walking around the Gaol and seeing where some of the tragic events occured it meant alot.

Jessica and I learned that the Dublin city buses run on a different time clock – what is 5 minutes for the next bus converts to maybe 10 to 15 minutes our time.  We became very experienced standing and waiting for the bus.  The three of us had a wonderful lunch at Vat House Pub in the Temple Bar area.  Emma had the Irish Stew and Jessica and I had the Fish & Chips.

 
Chatted with our server in the Pub and this is where we heard the phrase, “It’s a wet day.”  We observed that we were the only ones wearing raincoats and all the local Irish people are walking around in the rain with no raincoats.  She explained this to us….  it’s about fashion was her first response.   It rains 3/4 of the time and you are going to get wet and you pick clothes that work well when wet and wearing a raincoat every day hides your style.