Dublin.. Brilliant!

I'm coming to you live from Dublin... Today has been a battle between jet lag and myself, but I somehow managed to walk around this beautiful city for four and five hours, and I've got another day here!

Things started out somewhat precariously-- I couldn't dial my friends Haggs with my cell phone (I was missing one measley zero at the start!) so I ended up wandering the city and asking people if they knew of his college (which many did not). Eventually the help of a friendly cabbie and a receptionist and I found my way. It was pretty stressful though, it was definitely the most lost I've been so far... however, it's pretty liberating to get that lost and then to somehow get out of it. I'd recommend it to you at some point if it didn't involve actually the risk of not finding your way.

Anyways, some quick impressions of Dublin.

• I really like it here. If I wasn't studying in Copenhagen, I think I would want to be here, it has felt the most comfortable to me.
• Dublin is very much the "Boston" to London's "New York". There's a lot more going on in London, but this is a little smaller, and has a little more character to it because of it.
• At the same time, Dublin is developing like crazy. This school is down in the financial district and there is construction of beautiful glass office buildings everywhere. I can sense a little apprehension on the part of some of the Irish that maybe don't want their city to grow like this, but they are plowing forward into the 21st century.
• I've only been here a day, but I can vouch for the fact that the Irish are the friendliest people in Europe... they just seem much more happier to help you here.
• I'm doing much better with the jet lag than I did when I first got to Denmark. A couple factors have contributed to this... I actually slept on the flight last night, I took a great nap this morning at Haggs' apartment, and I'm not sure my body ever really acclimated to East Coast time.
• My favorite spot in Dublin so far? St. Patrick's Cathedral. It wasn't quite as majestic as Notre Dame in Paris (but what else is?)... but it had a nice mix of history and reverence.
  
• I also spent some time in St. Stephen's Green, which is a beautiful park- and I witnessed some sort of bizarre photo shoot of an Asian Wedding Party... This is my life.

Ofcourse I took a ton of pictures, but I can't load them through Haggs computer so you'll have to wait until next week.
Just some loose ends, but did you know Vermont is considering seceding from the Union?
Also, I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with all the pictures I've been taking. Some are quite masterful, anyways, I'll keep you posted, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in comments.
Finally, "Exploring the Old World" received its second honor... being named "DIS - Blog of the month" by their monthly newsletter which is mailed to 2200 students and other esteemed recipients. It was for this entry.

Alright, well I'm off to have some more Irish adventures, I think tomorrow will include a visit to the Guinness brewery, and then tomorrow night its off to Italy.