So we left Newark airport Sunday evening May 10th, and got into Dublin early Monday morning after a fitful red-eye flight. We spent the day, surprisingly awake, in Dublin, walking around the city and seeing the sights. After successfully navigating the bus system into center-city, we found our hostel after some wandering, some staring at maps, almost knocking pedestrians over with backpacks, and pushing a nice old man down the street in his wheelchair (he asked us to!).
Quote : Old man: Wher’ya from? Us: America Him: Well… we all have problems.
We did some normal touristy things like looking at old castles and statues as we wandered. We tagged along with a big tour group through the Viking and Medieval section (Old Dublin??) and were entertainingly shown a viking’s hut/animal shelter by a charming red faced lad. Our guide was also quite adamant about the Irish government’s apparent disregard for tradition shown by their paving over of the best preserved Viking settlement in downtown Dublin. After breaking off from the tour, Becky pretended to be a knight, as shown below!!
We then went over to the Guinness Brewery for their self-guided tour, which 
was pretty cool. You get to taste the roasted barley, get talked at by the somewhat awkward master-brewer, and have a nice fresh pint in their 8th story 360 degree view “gravity bar”. Our lack of sleep combined with alcohol made us retreat to our hostel and surrounding streets for the evening. We ended up playing cards when we were suddenly and unexpectedly surrounded by German high-schoolers. They were starting to sing German folk songs and asked us to join in, so we did! In addition, we sang “Blowin in the Wind” with a slightly incorrect English translation, which was fun. And that was our first day in Ireland.
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