The Emerald Isle

Hello all,
Yesterday, I flew from Malaga into Dublin, arriving at 2:30 in the afternoon. The first thing I noticed was how cloudy and chilly it was. The weather was actually perfect in southern Spain, and I realized that i had experienced practically 6 uninterrupted months of warm weather. The next thing I noticed was how friendly my cab driver was, which was much more heartening. I got to the hotel, and made my way up to my Mom's room, it was so great to see her. She was suffering from a good deal of jet lag, and I was pretty beat, so we both grabbed a nap and met in the lobby at 5. We had a bit of tea and the ventured out into the night, which was drizzly and cold. After walking for a while, we came across a really cooh little bookstore. The owner was very friendly, and we were able to stock up on some books for the rest of our trip. From there, we went to a the Central Hotel, home to a lovely bar called the library. There are, in fact, books all around, and it is very quiet. We each had a pint, I of Guinness, and it was so tremendously good. Spanish and Moroccan beer have no business being mentioned in the same breath as a fresh pint of Guinness. We had dinner at a really nice restaurant that is located above an organic supermarket. I had steak, mom had salmon, and both were delicious.
Today, we did a lot of walking around and sightseeing. We saw Trinity College first, where we visited the Library in which the Book of Kells is displayed. Afterwards, we went to the National Archaelogical Museum, which was fascinating. It had some really cool old artifacts, but I enjoyed reading the information about the different periods, when they started using different materials and so forth. I thought it was amazing that they didn't start farming until almost four thousand years fate the North Africans and West Asians, because the idea had to migrate all that distance. We got s great pub lunch at a beautiful pub called the Stag's Head, which was located in a little alley. Continuing up the big street of which the ally ran, we came to Dublin Castle. It looked to be very cool, but it was by tour only, and there wasn't another tour for a half hour, so we decided to save it for another day. We ended our sightseeing for the day at the Christ Church Cathedral, which is the highest Anglican church in Ireland. It was quite beautiful, much smaller than the other European cathedrals I've seen.
Now I am back in the hotel lobby waiting for my mom to come down for our tea appointment. But, it is getting a little late, so we might just shove off for dinner. The hotel is really nice, and with my own room, it's the most privacy I've had in 6 weeks. It's certainly different from the staying at hostels, where one can walk downstairs into a party pretty much any time of day. Here's mom, gonna run
Luke