Dublin, Ireland

Other than the diverted trip to Manchester, everything went smooth on both flights. I couldn't sleep on them though.

I got to Dublin. It was cold and windy.

Halfway through my bus ride to Rory's house (my first couch surfing host) I looked up and realized we are driving on the wrong side of the road. Of course I know this is normal in the UK, but to have forgotten and look up while in motion!? Later I was walking down the street and saw a woman sitting at the light sitting on the other side of the car. There was a similar shock here.

I had arrived around 8.00 at Rory's place. This was too early to go up and say hello so I dropped my bags with the consiarge. I went out and soon realized that everything is closed until at least 10. 00 on Saturday morning so I had breakfast instead (Crepe and a Bagle). After I ate it started to rain. At this very moment I ran into a 51 year old lady from Sacramento California with more travel motivation than even me! She was probably the most open person I will meet on this trip (Myself and any guests are welcome at her home in Sacramento whenever we like). Her kids were still asleep and It was still a bit early to call up to Rory so I explored Dublin on foot with her for about 3 hours. We saw Trinity College and the Book of Kells there. We also walked through Temple Bar and saw many ancient churches and one BIG castle.

After this I came back to meet up with Rory, and here I sit about 6 hours later. Little did I know that I would not be Rory's only CS guest. It is like a hostel here! There will be 10 CS'ers staying here tonight! I have been sitting here BS'ing with them all since I got here. Great guys (and one girl). Two from America, one from Australia, 4 Italians, and 2 from Luxembourg.. and me of course.

We will be going out later to a CS event Rory had planned ages ago. There should be between 60-100 people there from what I hear. Free food and cheap drinks at the bar.

Time to sign out for now and go take a shower.

The Couchsurfing event was a success. I knew there could be this many CS'ers in Dublin, but not this much particpation! I was impressed to say the least.

Earlier in the night i had won a 5 euro bet with the Italin CS'ers. When they had red eyes and tears from the Red Pepper Sauce at Rory's for dinner I couln't hould back a laugh. One of them bet me that I could not eat a folded over Red Pepper Sauce sandwich in under 5 minutes (if at all). I accepted and finished in 2-3 minutes including the extra piiece of bread they allowed me to scoop up the extra thathad dripped out. Anyway, I used this 5 euro to buy my first pint of guiness in Dublin. It was as bad as it is in the states unfortunately and it was so thinck I could only finish half.

Something I noticed at the pub was that everyone dances in Dublin. No one is ashamed or worried that others will judge them. This was amazing to me. A CS guy I had met earlier that night made me overcome my hesitation to dance. ONce I dide, I had a blast. A funny thing occured at this point. I jokingly started dancing with this lady who appeared to be in her mid to late 30s becasue her moves were veryt elaborate and funny. ... she stood out haha. Anyway, somehow she started asking me about politics (drunkinly before I could get away). I could tell she wanted Obama to win the US election (even though she was not from the US) so when she asked who I planned to vote for I decided to oblige her. After the words came out of my mouth and before I had time to react the lady grabbed my face and kissed me right on the mouth. So gross lol

Thats it for Dublin. It was amazing. I feel like I have been here a whole week already. Also, I dont know how any other CS experiense will live up to this one. I guess I will have to wait and see.