"You're too fat to fight Ricky Hatton" - Irish Terry

Boston to Chicago. Chicago to Dublin. We collected Tom and the group was complete for the first time. I hardly slept at all on the flight, but did manage to read "Northline" by Willy Vlautin from cover to cover on the plane. Fantastic read...highly recommended. Tom was awake for a solid 14 minutes of the trip. Taylor was in and out.

Although we only had two days in Ireland, we packed a lot in. Great people, great city, and most importantly, great beer.

This is our hostel. Super centrally located, clean, and cheap. We are in a bunk room with 4 other people. The girl that sleeps below Tom sucks her thumb when she sleeps. Busted!



Anyone who knows me knows that I love fish and chips. My first order of business was to sniff out a legit chippie. This place did not disappoint.



Here's Tom caressing his purchase:



We tipped back quite a few beers on the first day. The pub where this picture was taken was perfect. We walked pretty far from the central area to try to find a "local" bar, and this place was spot on. Friendly barkeep, a few old drunks, and a cricket match on TV. To top it off, they were playing pro IRA music most of the time we were there. Woah!



The second bar of the day was closer in to the city center, but we found the deadest one we could. It was pretty mellow until pro boxer Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton walked in with his entourage, and half of Dublin followed him in. This is about when we met ol' Terry here. He asked me how much I weighed and promptly told me I was too fat to fight Ricky Hatton, or anyone else for that matter. He's been to the US once, to Miami, which he pronounce ME-ami. He wasn't too stoked on the US because the servers were rude to him and he had to tip for everything. Quite a character, Terry was.



We went sightseeing in between beers. Here is St. Patrick's Cathedral. Jonathan Swift is buried inside.



Here we mix sightseeing with beer tipping:



We woke up as early as the last nights beers would allow, and hopped a bus to a town called Wicklow, about an hour and a half south of Dublin. We didn't really know what goes on there, but we heard of a cheap bus, and decided to give it a go. Turns out it's a really nice little coastal town with medieval ruins and a cool little downtown district. We bought lunch and ate it in the middle of the ruins of a medieval monastery.

This photo was Tom's idea. The wheels are really turnin' in that huge cranium of his. Here we see a "new" church through the eyes of a medieval ruin.



This one here was my idea. Medieval stuntery at its best:



This is the most beautiful golf course I have ever seen. Made me want to play real bad. Hopefully I'll have a chance in Scotland.



Ruins of a medieval castle that was built on the ruins of a viking settlement. Pretty old.



Taylor tried to steal this canon. It didn't work out.




Over the pond: