Megan's Kitchen
Craig readies himself.
Megan alerts everyone that she's about to go "take care of business" upstairs.
On our way to the Dublin Area Rapid Transit station.
The esteemed DART station of Ballsbridge. Looking North.
Ballsbridge station looking south.
Brother and Sister.
Megan admitted after this picture that she was in fact, stoned.
A helpful mirror.
Craig was intimidating this Irishman. It worked.
Dublin City Centre.
This statue has big boobs, as you will see later in the album.
This is what the center of Dublin looks like.
More Dublin.
A church in Dublin on our way to the Guinness factory.
Outside the Guiness factory before the high-rollers cruised past the line.
Craig is clearly "the raw ingredient(s)."
Water is used in the production of Guinness, as this helpful waterfall illustrates.
Craig and Guinness Water.
Nathan is the Roar of Raw Heat. That or it's somewhere to the right of the frame.
Guinness factory model.
In the marketing section of the tour.
At the best part: The Sky Bar! (with a Guinness for everyone.)
Sky bar.
Craig get his Guinness and was pleased with the quality of the pour.
More Sky bar.
Craig contemplates his lot in life.
And decides that it's a very good lot.
The Sky Bar came complete with mirror-topped tables!
Dublin from Sky Bar.
Nathan enjoys his Guinness from a chair that Craig stole from some hapless Asians.
Craig spent 45 minutes trying to cram something in to the trash can. The poeple in the carraige got upset and told the driver to leave.
And on the way back from the Guinness factory, our love affair with Urban Apache Pizza began.
URBAN APACHE. "Enjoy Life's Journey but Leave No Tracks."
Street Performer in Dublin.
Sailboats on the train towards Bray.
Nice view of the coast from the train!
This was our destination. We would climb to the top of this mountain after our lunch.
Here we are at said lunch.
Nathan's Smithwicks.
Craig's Guinness.
The urinal we used after lunch.
The Brey beach, pre-climb.
On our way up the mountain.
We took a non-standard path, though, straight up the hillside.
Not quite to the top yet, but Craig is feeling good about our progress.
Finally at the top!
View of Bray from the mountain.
More mountain Bray goodness.
... and more.
Resting for a bit at the top. Craig thought I was trying to take a covert picture of the girl seen here.
Craig on top of the mountain.
I climbed a tree on the way down the mountain.
Craig feared we may need to call the fire department to get me down.
This is where we played games after the mountain. There were kids games on one side and a casino on the other.
I cleaned up on tickets at Skee-Ball. Or "Ice Ball" as the Irish call it.
Can Alley was the highlight of the whole trip for me.
To our delight, we found another Urban Apache Pizza. Craig got in the spirit and tomahawk chopped the restaurant with his water bottle.
Megan drowns her sorrows at a pub.
And then realizes that things aren't all that bad!
The Temple Bar is the bar seen here and is also the name of the entire region of bars all around it. The Temple Bar Area, as we called it.
I think we may have been going to get kebabs at this point.
This is on the train up to Belfast.
Club is an excellent carbonated orange drink that I highly recommend.
Obviously, however, my conversation was insufficient to keep Craig entertained.
Again. Only not on a train this time. We were now in Belfast, where we stopped at a hotel restaurant to get our bearings and form a plan of attack.
This is a very old pub in Belfast with lots of intricate glass-work.
Same bar.
... And fabulous Queen's college of Belfast!
When Craig looks at Queen's, he sees possibility.
Craig teaches his imaginary students.
At one of the pubs near Queens, as recommended by a Starbucks employee. They had a completely mystifying gambling game inside that just took my money.
But we still had a good time.
Welcome to Belfast, lads!
In the train bathroom on the way back from Belfast. Some unintelligble dude immediately started giving us beers when we sat down on the train.
This was the train toilet.
And this is my delightful sandwich that I ate on the way Galway the next day. "Not Just For Christmas" apparently.
This is me enjoying my Not Just For Christmas sandwich.
I busted out my Newport glasses that Amy got me.
And we fought over who got to wear them.
Craig at the Italian eatery in Galway.
We moved to an outside table, though.
Initially excited about his pizza, it would end up becoming a source of dissapointment for young Craig.
Close up of the disappointment.
A walk to the college in Galway.
We found this nice statue on the college campus. It was strangely uncomfortable for 5 minutes after walking away from it.
At the King's Head pub. I guess it's called that because the guy who started it was exiled from England after beheading the king.
Craig enjoying the King's Head.
Watching the match at the King's Head.
A different pub in Galway. This one had Irish music and girls that did a Riverdance dance.
Nathan cheersing the camera.
It's difficult to see, but this is what my hand looked like after Craig licked the stamp on his hand and tried to transfer it to my hand. It was our ploy to get in to a club when I didn't have my I.D. It was the only club in all of Ireland that was carding people. The bouncer knew immediately what we were trying to do and told me to wait in the queue like everyone else.
This was where we went instead of the club we couldn't get in to.
Obviously, the grass seemed greener in the club that was not to be.
However, the after 3:00am party with all of the done-up high school kids who had just finished their exams was in full effect afterwards.
High school kids socializing.
More high school kids socializing.
They also set a trash can on fire, but no one seemed to care. Note the girl sitting right next to it calmly eating her sandwich.
Close Up, burning trash.
The fire department came within minutes. And everyone either yelled or cheered at/for them.
This was our mighty Healy tour bus that would take us around the Western Irish countryside.
And this is some of the Western Irish countryside.
Craig at a burial site.
Nathan at the burial site.
The burial site without Nathan or Craig, for clarity.
Lots of limestone everywhere. Trees were a rarity out here.
Craig at the tour lunch.
Cows.
More cows heading to the stunning Cliffs of Moor!
The Cliffs of Moor were quite breathtaking.
Zoomed in on the cliffs.
And they even had a castle!
There's the same castle, as we started working our way along the cliffs.
We got to the end of the area with the fence that stops you from falling to your doom and were warned about the bull by this sign. We boldly went on.
At this point, if you fell down the edge, you'd fall to your doom.
Nathan by the Doom Edge.
Craig was bolder than me and actually looked over the Doom Edge. My goal was to take his picture....
...But some cavalier fellow decided that I was going to have to wait to take my picture.
It all worked out in the end.
Craig's excitement about Ireland began to build from this point in the trip onwards.
Cliffs with flowers.
This was as far out as we got. There were a lot less people all the way out here.
And it was quite a view!
Picturesque Irish Countryside.
... And more.
Our second to last stop on our tour bus tour.
I liked this place a lot.
I decided from the moment I saw her that this fellow tour-goer looks exactly like the main dude from Prison Break! Check out the next picture!
The scowl! It's uncanny!
Limestone abounds.
This was at our last stop by a castle.
And this is the castle. Cool, eh?
Craig likes castles.
Welcome to The Rock.
Nathan also likes castles.
Hi, Craig!
After the hostel debacle of night one in Galway, it wasn't even a question that I was getting my very own hotel room for night two in Galway. Craig went back to Dublin.
And I even had a shower that didn't require you to hold the button down to get water!
This was the view of Galway from a pier by the ocean after a night out at the pubs.
Back in Dublin, I was reunited with the love of my life and the love of his life.
Craig is skeptical.
Craig in Dublin on Saturday. Post-Snakes on a Plane.
The lads at a pub.
Craig by a bus.
Craig enjoying Fitzgeralds.
Craig enjoying the Temple Bar Area.
At another pub.
Finally, my dream came to life when I got my opportunity to eat at URBAN APACHE PIZZA!!!!!! My only regret is that I didn't go with the "Wigwammer." "Hot Apache" reminds me of a Hot Carl.
Man, this would not fly in The States.
Try to find something that goes together better than Pizza, Bagels, and Juice. You can't.
At another temple-bar place. We were trying to avoid a beligerant bachelorette party of old cougars.
It went well.
Craig enjoying the statue.
At dinner with Nate and Megan. They had fantastic Irish food here, but I was full of Apache.
... And had a good time anyway!
Waiting for the love of my life to get done at the ATM.
His fuzzy hair is delightful!
We were on a pointing kick at this point. This was right before I met my 7th or 8th Polish girl of the trip.
So suave. So charming.
Goings-on in the street on our way to Howl At The Moon.
Howl at the Moon on our last night in Dublin! We wished we had found this place earlier. It was an awesome club.
Waiting in the queue to get in.
Rocky on the ropes.
TKO.
Revolutionaries and Indians, dude. They'll sell pizza.
My Djeep lighter that served me so well.
... Right before I packed it up and hopped a flight home!
