Ireland, Day One--Trinity College, and the Fingletons

We are in IRELAND!!  I can hardly believe it.  I've been planning for this trip for so long, and we've been trying to return to Europe for so many years, that it feels surreal to be here again.

The flights over were completely uneventful, exactly how I like it.  The luggage was the proper weight, it arrived in Dublin along with our flight, the food wasn't too bad, and we arrived safely and on time.  Our flight was only five hours long, barely enough time to actually get some sleep, so as soon as we arrived at our hotel (at 6 a.m. Ireland time), we went to bed.

I had set the alarm to go off just three hours later so that we could attend church (because we ALWAYS attend church when traveling), but when it went off, it took me a moment to figure out exactly where I was, and the rest of my family members didn't even MOVE, so I made the executive decision to allow us all to continue sleeping :-)  Everyone seemed rather grateful six hours later.

We got up, showered, and headed into Dublin.  The Morans were expected for another three hours, so we had some time.  I thought a tour of Trinity College with a sidetrip to see The Book of Kells would make for a good adventure.

Just driving there was an adventure in and of itself:

• A GPS whose power cord didn't plug into the GPS.  We wondered if it would die at any moment, and we would be left, driving in circles throughout Dublin for the entire week.
• A GPS display that is always a few seconds behind "real time".  I don't know how many times it had to recalculate because we had just passed the needed turn.
• Construction.  Need I say more?
• Driving on the left side of the road--I'm not sure if it's more disconcerting for the driver, or the passenger....
• Driving a manual transmission car on the left side of the road.  I have no doubt that there are regions of the right side of John's brain that have never been used until now.  Yes, the stick shift is on the left, and used with the left hand.
• One way streets.  Always a modern inconvenience, seeing as the streets were originally measured for horses, but only allow one car, going one direction now.
• Trying to park in the parking structure.  I'm not sure who measures out the parking spots in European parking garages, but here in Ireland, I think they must be leprechauns...measuring the places for the leprechaun-sized vehicles :-)  John didn't care--he was forced to pay for full-coverage car insurance, and he wasn't afraid to use it!

Our first sighting.  It's always fun to see how many times we can find our name!

We finally arrived, walked to the College, and had a grand time (FYI the Irish use "grand" like we Americans use "good" i.e. "I'm good" or "It's good."  I'm determined to use this term regularly in my own conversation, because, well, it's grand!)

The tours were already done for the day, but it didn't matter.  We'd been there before, but the girls didn't remember any of it.  We headed in to the see The Book of Kells and "The Long Room".  I let Glo take my camera, and she got some really lovely shots.

Elder Fingleton told us that the Star Wars' Jedi Archives was based off of this library.
 He said that Trinity College considered suing George Lucas because of it.
In all honesty, who WOULDN'T want to copy this room?

TOTAL creeper picture for Markie boy.  We saw this jacket, and knowing how the English/Irish are the BOSSES at rowing, we thought Mark would appreciate it.  You see Glo's hair, because I was pretending to take a picture of her :-)

The famous Dublin doors.  If I lived here, I'm not sure I could actually DECIDE on a color--they are all so fantastic.

Afterwards, we had the same adventure, driving back to the hotel.  We no sooner stepped into the lobby, and there were the Morans!  Man, we love the Morans.

They dropped off their luggage, and we were off for dinner at the Fingletons'.  Jared had originally thought "Fingleton's" was an establishment, or pub of some kind.  He was surprised to find out that it was people we actually know!

Elder Fingleton served in Bitburg when we were first there.  He and the other elders were instrumental in helping us learn the language at first.  More than that though, they were just good moral support for us, because it was incredibly difficult making the transition to German life.

Seriously, Elder Fingleton hasn't changed a bit.  He looks like he could have just walked off his mission (I can't say that for John or me....)  And his wife and daughter?  Well, they are just lovely (another well-used Irish term).  It was a delight to spend time with them, although I'm not sure that I can ever move past calling him "Elder" :-)

Tracey, Hannah, Me, Glo, John and Elder Fingleton (with Isabelle in the foreground)

In addition, they fed dinner to the masses.  No joke, we were a LOT of people for them to entertain, and I hadn't wanted to impose on them.  However, John had convinced me to ask them to feed us an authentic Irish meal (made by authentic Irish people).  Lucky for us, they agreed, because the food was out of this WORLD!  I know it might seem ridiculous, but I had to take a picture of it--I wanted to remember how good it was!  Wait..... how GRAND it was!

Again, I am reminded how blessed we are to have such good friends around the world.  I'm not sure that we knew Elder Fingleton for more than a few months, but we have stayed in contact through the years.  What a blessing to know that we can just show up, expecting to be fed, and he and his family are gracious enough to receive us.  I think this is what family is like, and I'm thankful that our friends ARE our family.

The seven of us headed back to the hotel, and through bleary eyes, John won his first game of Siedler von Catan in a very long time (he'll bring honor to us all, right Cheese?)

The day went by much too quickly.