First Day

Overall, the flight and the travel experience abroad was fantastic.  We arrived around 4:50AM in Dublin from Boston, ahead of schedule, after a quick 5.5 hour flight over filled with Channing Tatum movies and Sex and the City episodes.  A drink, a meal, and a light nap, and we were landing on a cloudy but very green island.  All 3 of our humongous bags arrived, thank God, and our cab driver assigned to pick us up couldn't have been nicer.  He took us the long way in, past Drew's office, over the River Liffey, through several different neighborhoods, past some stadiums, and we finally arrived at our temporary corporate housing by 5:45AM.  It's in a really pretty apartment building close to two nice hotels in a neighborhood called Ballsbridge - and the apartment itself is pretty nice.  Big(ger) bedroom, nice living room with couch and tv and table and chairs and free Wi-fi, and a small kitchen and bathroom.  Perfect for what we need!  I actually probably wouldn't mind renting this very apartment.


Though I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to nap when you get to another country abroad to "get on their schedule", I somehow convinced Drew that nothing was open and we wouldn't have anything to do until 9 or 10 anyway.  So we napped for awhile!  I needed that bad.  Drew was up in no time ready to explore and it took extra time to get me out of bed, in the shower, and moving.  So sue me.  


The weather was humid and warmer for Dublin standards, and we stopped across the street from our place at a shop called Insomnia Coffee for Drew.  We walked in the rain to Grafton Street, a well-known super crowded touristy area, and checked out the mobile phone situation and what we wanted and needed.  We'll probably come back tomorrow to figure that out.  We then stopped for a soup and sandwich at Fallon and Byrne, a large food market and restaurant, kind of like Eatzi's.  Delish and my soon to be happy place.  My feet were getting blisters (surprise!) so we stopped by a local grocery store to check out the scene, bought some band-aids, and went home to blog/nap.  Drew researched more apartments as per usual.


To find apartments here in Dublin, we/Drew has been looking at a huge online database called Daft.ie.  You can save apartments you like, email the owners, call them, etc., and set up appointments to go view them.  Drew had scheduled two viewings on our first day, so we headed out to see them.  The first one was on a crowded street on Lower Camden (I'll provide a map later) that was a DUMP.  Dingy carpets and wooden doors that wouldn't close and gross furniture and a disgusting view of a courtyard with a creepster smoking outside looking up at us.  Sick.  No thanks.  We hauled ass to across town to see the other apartment, waited outside for 30 minutes until we thought the landlord was there, walked up the stairs, and she opened the door to tell us the couple currently inside viewing the apartment had just decided to take it.  Awesome.  So far, not so good.  We were slightly annoyed and frustrated so we went to a nearby pub, Slattery's, with our new friend Tracy (working with Drew at PWC from Florida).  We got our first Guinness and Drew got lessons on drinking Irish whiskey!  He also told us how they do things at pubs: you seat yourselves, you pay after each drink (or round), where to get the best fish and chips in the neighborhood, and gave excellent beer and whiskey recommendations.  


One funny side note: we walked into the pub, not knowing whether we seat ourselves, whether we go to the bar and order, not knowing anything.  We awkwardly stood in the middle of the bar when our friendly bartender walked up and said "Hi folks!  Tursty?"  Now with a strong Irish accent, they don't pronounce the "th" sound.  Thanks becomes tanks, thousand becomes tousand, etc.  Due to the fact that we stood out like a sore thumb and had no idea what we were doing, Drew assumed the guy said "Hi folks!  Touristy?"  so he naturally replied "well actually, yes, we just moved here from Texas!"  The guy was so nice and inquisitive about our move that it wasn't until later that we realized he was probably asking us if we were THIRSTY and didn't give a shit where we were from.  Thirsty?  Yeah!  We're from Texas!  Dumbasses.  Guess feeling stupid is just something we'll have to get used to.

Drew's first Guinness!

We took his recommendation and got some fish and chips to SPLIT (who are we?) and walked home at 10PM with the sun still shining.  It was an overwhelming but really great first day.  We think we're gonna like it here.