More of the park in Dublin. 

Streets of Dublin. 

River in Dublin. 

A Dublin Park. 

A Pharmacy. 

Crosswalk 

Room Service! 

Hello from Ireland!

Well, we made it. We're in Ireland. Pictures shall follow...

Anywho, Saturday night we decided to eat in and have room service instead of going to a restaurant. (We were tired!) It was pretty food. :P Then the next morning we headed off for the airport. Turns out the shuttle service wasn't running for ordinary people like us, so we had to take a taxi. Then the taxi driver's tire blew out at the airport. Poor guy. But we made it...

Flights were long, but fairly comfortable. It was strange flying from Philly to Dublin, 'cause we left at dusk, flew during the night and arrived at daybreak... less than six hours later. They played a movie on the plane, but the cheapskates were selling headphones for five bucks. Couldn't listen to the movie otherwise. That's okay, though. It was National Treasure. Bah. We read books instead...

Dublin was interesting. There was a really long line for the passport stamping, but they wound it through a bunch of doors and around corners so you were never quite sure how long it was. Clever, the Irish are. We walked through about five doors saying "Passport Office." The stamping guy called us "landlubbers." Heh.

The guy on the bus from the airport was kind of rude, but everyone else was nice, and we got help from a lady on the bus. The taxi driver was really nice, too, and helped us get directions to our B&B, without charge. They're are about five bus lines in Dublin, and a million and a half taxis. There seem to be rule about the taxis, 'cause if they're in a busy part of town they just line up at the taxi sign and you take the taxi at the front. We think they're city-owned. Bus Eirann, too.

We fell asleep when we got to the B&B, but walked around downtown that evening, taking lots of pictures and were so tired we slept all night anyway. Interesting thing about Ireland: all the shops close at 6:30, but the restaurants and pubs are open really, really late. Oh, and we did a video of the pedestrian light because it does weird noises. We think its for blind people. Not that the Dubliners care... they ignore the lights and cross when they want, pretty much.

Umm.. there's more stories, but anywho, we took a bus this afternoon to our new B&B which is really cheap and really nice. We think its cheap because its in the middle of nowhere. (The village of Kildorerry has three pubs but no restaurant.) The hosts are very, very nice. The room is big, its quiet, and the hostess is an exceptional cook. It was like having a gourmet meal. Yum. We'll give you pictures soon, but not yet. So patience. :P

Oh, and still getting used to the driving. In Dublin, they drive fast on narrow roads on the left. Kinda makes you nervous. Heh. Oh well.

Lovely cloudy weather, here. When we flew in at daybreak, the ocean was all clouds and we could tell when we got over Ireland because the clouds got fluffy. That's about it.

Anywho, picture time!

A list of crazy old people that nobody should listen to... a beginning

This is a partial list:

Pat Roberson - head of Christian Broadcasting Network (makers of 700 club), ex-presidential candidate, and while claiming to be in touch with God, is quite obviously out of touch with reality. Like many other evangelists and other crazy and/or slimy people, Roberson claims to know when God does and does not interfere in human, geological, meteorological, and cosmological events, and conveniently changes his logic to support his 'Christianist' ideology. He claimed that his prayers saved the CBN headquarters from a hurricane (forget all the other millions of prayers that probably occured at the same time), that all sorts of disasters would beset Orlando if rainbow flags were displayed in solidarity with Gay Pride marchers, but that God wouldn't ever cause (or stop) the earthquake that spawned tsunamis that killed hundreds of thousands in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. You get the picture. Yet somehow he gets serious airtime. Don't listen to him - he is old and senile and full of himself and excrement.

Bill O'Reilly - host of a show on Fox News Channel named after himself. The sentences he uses (at least in his 'memo' on the Fox News website) are typically about 5-10 words in length. This is probably done for effect, but the effect is that it makes him sound like an idiot. Many people watch him, but these are the sorts of people that enjoy being talked to as if they were kindergarteners. His logic, such as it is, lacks insight and nuance. He is obviously conservative, but refuses to admit it in so many words as it would undermine what credibility he has. It is surprising to me that someone with a good and apparently hard-earned education (including Pittsburgh and Harvard) could be responsible for such a trashy, trashy show. But, then again, he makes alot of money. Whatever his motives are, Bill O'Reilly should not be listened to, at least not unless it involves mockery or drinking, or both. He has quite possibly ruined the next generation of journalists. Good job, Bill.

More to come:

Zell Miller
Dr. James Dobson
Rudy Ruettiger
Michael Moore
"Dr." Kent Hovind

And that is just a few...