Day 18 - Dublin

-- The Dublin skyline is hilarious ... in that there is no skyline. We went up to the top of the Guinness brewery (great tour, by the way) and looked out over Dublin ... and there is nothing! Just miles and miles of cute little houses and green trees.

-- We're apparently dragging this cold and rainy weather around with us, because it's the same here as it is in Paris. I don't really care all that much, just so long as the trend of good beer keeps up, too. (Sapporo to Tsingtao to Singha to various Belgian beers to Guinness and Irish Ales ... it's a distinctly upward curve)

-- They have these huge Irish gift shops here, but unlike the truly crappy Paris tourist shops or the nonexistant Thai/Hong Kong gift shops, these things are FANTASTIC. First, they carry every kind of clothing you could possibly want, all in cute shades of green and emblazoned with "IRELAND." We bought a ton of crap, including a spiffy "Ireland" jacket for me (on account of the fact that neither Sue nor I brought a jacket on this trip -- it is August, after all). Even besides the gift shops, the shopping has been great here, too (I found a Liverpool jersey that fit perfectly and Sue has finally found a country where women's clothes fit people taller than 5'2"). Go Dublin.

-- Our favorite game on this trip has been "Do They Tip Here?" Our tentative answers: No in Japan, Yes in Hong Kong, No in Thailand, Only A Little in Paris, and We Think So in Ireland. Good times.

Last Day in Dublin,
A&S