All stories have a beginning… There are just so many that occurred in Ireland that I struggle as to where to even begin. I guess I’ll start with signs from the Universe… Yes, I’m a big believer! The day before our flight, we were running around getting all our last minute trip essentials. While we were out, we decided to grab a pint to launch our trip, and headed over to the Press Room in Santa Barbara. It’s a small pub where you can find expats from the UK & Ireland enjoying a pint over a football game. It seemed appropriate.

Pint to launch the trip!

Sitting at the bar, we struck up a conversation with the only other person there besides the bartender… As luck would have it, he was from Galway, Ireland! We were pretty excited since that was the only other city besides Dublin that we had planned to stay in. He gave us a list of his favorite pubs, restaurants, names of people to ask for, and things to do while we were there! And just for good measure, we grabbed a photo of him to show his friends!

Galway Guy!

Once we got back home, we scheduled our taxi for our 4:00am pickup, finished packing, and attempted to sleep…

Imagine our surprise when this taxi arrived…

It’s a Lucky Cab… Shamrock and all!

This was not who we had scheduled with! We scheduled with Rose Taxi! We giggled and got in! It seemed right! All was good with the Universe!

Fast forward to our Dublin arrival… How many hours had we been traveling? It seemed like forever… We were lucky enough to arrive an hour earlier than expected! Yay tail winds! We found a bus for 6 Euro that dropped us a couple blocks from our hotel. Our hotel’s entry door was sandwiched between a pizza place and another business. We walked by it several times, wondering if we had been duped!

Where’s our hotel???

After thumping our luggage up a very steep, narrow staircase we were more than ready for a nap! We were hoping for an early check in, but that was not to be had! Instead we were greeted, and I use that word lightly, by a very unfriendly woman that wouldn’t even make eye contact with us! (SHE WAS NOT IRISH!) She pointed to an area, which was not secure whatsoever, where we could leave our luggage, and told us to come back at 2:00pm. I will elaborate in a later post with a scathing review on this hotel, which I wouldn’t recommend to a cockroach… But, I digress…

We had several hours to kill before we could check in, so we set off to find breakfast. We had our first proper Irish breakfast with tea at the Queen of Tarts. It’s small, quaint, cozy and full of delightful treats! Good luck getting a seat! This place packs!

1st Tea in Dublin!

After breakfast we wandered around the Temple Bar area in Dublin, which was where we were staying… We still had lot’s of time to kill before check in and seriously needed to sit. We had now been up for 24 hours! We stumbled upon Peadar Kearney’s Pub and had to go in… How could you go wrong when the Chef’s Special was Guinness! Our first pint in Ireland was before noon… But, hey that’s 4:00am according to our time zone…

1st pint in Dublin!

The people and bartender were extremely friendly here! The pub is just outside of the Temple Bar area, and the prices are easier on the wallet too! They host live music during the week… Check it out!

Coming next… Temple Bar & TRADFEST.