A. was telling me that she couldn't plan our outings in Dublin until after we had passed through the "Great Trial" (otherwise known as the 7 hour plane ride with a teething one year old). It wasn't all that bad. I didn't get a lick of sleep, and A. didn't get much at all either. We took a 3 hour nap once we got to our apartment. I feel pretty good considering that's all the sleep I've had in 48 hours.
Our taxi ride from the airport was, as A. described it, "like something out of an Irish theme park." The elderly driver described the history of everything that we passed ("Dublin's walls were built in 40 A.D", "This graveyard has those towers because they had to keep the medical school students from snatching bodies", etc). He stressed that we should make sure we look to our left when we cross the street, since he lost his brother to a pedestrian accident in Spain because he looked the wrong way. (I've already caught myself doing this once or twice.) We told him that we had read up on Irish history, so he recommended that we visit the Famine Museum near our apartment and see Michael Collins. He didn't seem to think that The Wind That Shakes The Barley counted much for "Irish history."
We walked around Dublin this afternoon, more to get our bearings than to see anything specific. The side streets are very small, as I suppose is true for most European cities. I expected at least one or two skyscrapers, but I saw absolutely none. I wonder if it's from a lack of suitable bedrock, for zoning, or some other reason.
I'm highly annoyed that the US dollar has been dropping against the euro as of late, since that means the trip will cost more. Still, it's worth every penny. I'd much rather spend our money on traveling than cable television, sports paraphernalia, or pretty much anything else save food.
I can't wait to continue exploring Dublin. I'm going to Open Coffee Dublin on Thursday (OC is a discussion group for web-based startups, I am attempting to start one in Nashville).