Dublin day 1

Well I made it to Dublin safe and sound. And what a fantastic city this is!!  Step 1?  get a ticket for one of those hop on/hop off bus tours.  I figured this would be a good way for me to see  the city, get a lay of the land, figure out what i want to do for touristy things AND the ticket is good for 48hrs so i can use it as a cabbie to get around town for the next 2days. 

Step 2?  Time for a bite and a pint, and check out some of the gazillion pubs. 

The amount and quality of pubs in this town is amazingly overwhelming. Where to begin? So many to choose from, and if u find one you love its so hard to leave and move on to the next. However, the aftermath of souvenir shopping in the middle of a pub crawl is insanely sobering.  I've always been a sucker for those cheesy suvinor shops. I know it's all junk but I love it. And yesterday I loved it a little too much. 

I guess the plus side of my ridiculous shopping spree resulted in the completion of my Christmas shopping/birthday shopping/random "i saw this and had to get it for you!" shopping.  The down side of this? Day one of a two weeks holiday and i've already spent a ridiculous amount buying random junk for random people. All of which seemed excellent-at the time, but in hindsight what the heck was I thinking?  

Well Today I'm off to hit up my top tourist destinations that I scooped out yesterday. Among others,  Guinness brewery, Jamison distillery and O'Ryans pub are all on that list.   I promise not to let any lowered inhibitions take over and I will steer clear of any Carroll's Irish Gift Shops.  But just remember,  if its 2016 and you receive yet another "Grow your Own leprechaun" for the 3rd year in a row, at least you know i was thinking of you and my intentions were fantastic!  Besides, one can never have too many leprechauns :).