The Pre-Wedding, Post-Masters and Series 7 Test Escape to Ireland!

In October of 2011, we decided we were going to travel to Ireland in July of 2012.  We purchased the air fare to Dublin at a fine rate, marked our calendars and really didn't give the trip a second thought until  this past May, when we figured it might be wise to book accommodations. 

With hours upon hours spent on our studies and ironing out the details of the impending wedding of the century, this 10 day escape from our lives to the Emerald Isle couldn't have come at a better time.

We hope you enjoy our online "slide show", complete with descriptions of each of our wonderful 10 days.

Not-so-glad to be back,
Lindsay and Jeremy 

NOTE: Upon arrival back into the States, we were saddened to find that we had misplaced one of our digital camera's memory cards.  This memory card houses photos and videos of our first 6 days in Ireland.  Jeremy has contacted all of the hotels and the rental car place, hoping it may still turn up.  In the meantime, enjoy whatever pictures he was able to find off of the internet.

DAYS ONE AND TWO: DENVER, CHICAGO, DUBLIN - 28 and 29, JULY

"I need to know where he is right now, or I'm selling these seats!"

"I don't know where he is!"

"I need to know right now!"

Jeremy was stuck in security, due to a thimble sized container of explosive tuna fish salad he was attempting to smuggle on to their United connection to Chicago out of Denver.  Lindsay was doing her best to combat the ticket agents impatience (who, for the sake if this story, we'll name Nincompoop).  Lindsay had no idea where Jeremy was, because they had left their cell phones behind in the parking lot - ON PURPOSE!  Ah, yes!  10 days without cell phones and laptops would be a beautiful thing, even if the rest of the world wouldn't understand.

Finally, the TSA released Jeremy with his deadly tuna salad and he sprinted to the gate, just barely making the plane for Chicago.  A tad perturbed by Nincompoop but happy to be seated, we set sail east towards Dublin, dreaming of pots of gold, little people, and Bono.

The Aer Lingus flight proved much smoother and friendlier.  Jeremy lacks the ability to sleep sitting up, and leered jealously at sleeping toddlers. 

We arrived into Dublin at around 8:15am local time (1:15am Colorado time).  We hopped the city bus to the general area of our hotel, and thanks to copious maps, found it.  There was no early check-in available at the Grafton so we left our bags with them, walked to the arcade to purchase a couple of Americanos and made for Trinity College, home of the Book of Kells and the Long Hall.  We hopped on a campus tour from a Trinity junior before standing in line to catch a glimpse of the Book of Kells; the first four books of the New Testament, hand-scripted and illustrated around 800 AD (http://www.tcd.ie/Library/bookofkells/book-of-kells/ ).  It is thoroughly impressive to see the painstaking detail that went into this work.

Exhausted but impressed, we moved on to the Long Hall, which houses 200,000 of the library's oldest books in oak bookcases, sorted by size and color.  We purchased postcards for our families and, seeing that it was now around noon, decided to see if we could get into our room.  We did, and hit the sack.  What we were hoping would be a 1 hour nap ended up being a 4 hour nap (no cell phones, remember?).  We cleaned up, hit Bewley's Cafe for an Irish burger, and then off to The Temple Bar for traditional Irish music and pints of Guinness and Bulmers cider.  We filmed video of a fab trio who, upon realizing that nearly no one in the bar that night was from Dublin, played Irish folk versions of "Don't Stop Believing" and "Folsom Prison Blues".  By that time of the night, we were just drunk enough to thoroughly enjoy Journey.
 

We've had a wonderful first day in Dublin, Ireland.