Day 3!

We slept until 10 this morning - 11 hours! After a nice buffet breakfast in the hotel - where Bek saved me from eating black pudding... who eats that for breakfast?! we explored the city. As a side note - the hotel is quite nice, Cassidys Dublin, simple but cosy. The room is small (with tiny shower) with a double bed and a single, and no tissues. We also have a lovely view of the city out the window.

The city is rather dirty, mostly from the melted snow turning to mud, but it is very multicultural and somewhat pretty at night with all the lights. We had our first Irish pub meal today - I had a coddle (stew) and a Guinness!! Well, Bek drank half. It was revolting!! I don't know how anyone drinks that stuff. The strawberry and lime cider was much nicer. Joshua was a great tour guide (hi Joshua if you're reading) and took us (the long way) around the city. We saw the Liffey river, which was lovely, complete with backwards-swimming giant mutant scary seagulls, and met some really lovely locals. Complete with alcohol, cigarettes, and helpful advice. Like head to the hills.

We also visited the Guinness factory, which was really well set out, and surprisingly interesting in places. We learned all about our new favourite drink, but unfortunately passed on the free pint by mutual agreement. We had been walking for a long time after this, and it was dark outside and a long way from the hotel. It made it hard to pass on the horse drawn cart outside the factory, but 40euros is rather steep for a 10 minute ride. We ended up at Joshua's hostel, where we managed front row seats to The Aves, a travelling band, and got to go backstage to see them with autographs too!

The Irish winter finally paid us a visit tonight - it was freezing when we were walking back to the hotel! Tomorrow's plans are to do a walking tour and see the whiskey distillery - didn't have enough alcohol today.

Love,

Bek and Belle.

Today's embarrassing moment: At dinner I (Annabelle) managed to find myself sharing the ladies room with a gent. Very strange, and I'm still not sure why. Luckily, I managed to avoid pointing out his obvious unsuitability for the room, just in case he was actually a she. Still awkward.