had a fever

After the 4 July "not a show" we (me, Lydia, WH, WVO, and the Cresswells) met up with Astrid and wandered into a pub for a drink - shortly before closing time, but I was totally exhausted and Lydia wasn't feeling well, so we needed to get back to the hotel soon anyway. It was great to finally meet someone I've known only online for, gosh, about 4 years now, and who knew Jess before that. On the morning of the 5th, we overslept and missed breakfast at the hotel. Oh well. Our plan was to visit the National Museum, just across the road from the hotel, and we found a coffee shop (with chocolate croissants and diet Coke!) around the corner. We'd been in the museum only a little while when WVO caught up with us, so we toured together. He wanted to take the Jameson Whiskey Distillery tour, so we three walked across the river to the Smithfield area and embarked on the tour. As we were purchasing tickets, we saw that there was a nice discounted family rate, so we entertained the notion of claiming that we were Wim's lesbian mothers. Oh well, at least he got a student discount. The tour was pretty interesting and at the end we had samples of the whiskey. I got the one mixed with cranberry juice, and have to admit it was fairly tasty that way. After that, we strolled back to the Temple Bar area and had dinner (seafood pancakes) before making our way once more to the Olympia. It was another magical night of rocking music from an enthusiastic band for an equally enthusiastic audience.



Afterward, I was able to meet AH, a member of both Murmurs and the Moby board. She and her husband are a charming German couple. Since pubs were closing and I missed Astrid suggesting a club, we went to Eddie Rocket's for diner-style stuff, which was just as well. Lydia and WVO had a good opportunity to visit, and Astrid spoke German with AH & hubby. They're funny and cute and I was glad to meet in person.

So ended our second night in Dublin. Determined to get our hotel Irish breakfast on our last morning, we put in a wake-up call and arose at 8 a.m. on Friday. After enjoying our breakfast, we checked out and got Paddy to store our bags so we could do some shopping before our flight back to Gatwick. Despite repeated text-message efforts to find The Boys, we ended up shopping on our own and only seeing them for just long enough for goodbye hugs by the Molly Malone statue.

Don't even get me started on the Ryanair experience at Dublin airport. Feedlot without the feed. Mass confusion. Delayed flight, of course. Our "gate" was assigned to our Gatwick flight as well as a flight to Oslo, so the line was a huge mess.

Next entry - on to jolly old England.