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I woke up at 4 AM. Trista and I had shared the nottom of a bunk bed. There was just not enough room for the two of us. The hostel was clean and we had our own bathroom but it was not going to work. It didn’t really matter-we only had a reservation for the one night. They did not have any larger spaces available for the three of us so we had to go in search of another hotel. We found a hotel around the corner that had a room for one night so we took it. It was very expensive but we had not been able to find anything else in Dublin.

It is packed with people here. The taxi drivers said it is always very very busy here. We went to Grafton Street. It is a major shopping area with no cars or busses allowed, only pedestrians. It was so crowded we were constantly being pushed and shoved. We were told it is one of the ten most expensive shopping areas in the world. I believed it.

We ate lunch at Captain America’s Cookhouse and Bar. It was very good food but expensive. Of course we had been trying to eat cheap to save money but this was high just like most things wer had seen in Dublin so far. Trista had noted that while living and traveling in Europe for the last few months that they did not have ranch dressing. It is such a common thing at home and she had missed it. Although Captain America’s advertised American food they did not have it either. Most people use a dressing called salad cream which seems to be mayonnaise based. Trista liked it but not as much as ranch. Looking around the restuarant one of the things I again noticed was people never use their fingers to eat. The french fries were not so different to watch eaten with a fork but it was interesting to watch people try to cut and eat thick hamburgers. We just picked ours up with our hands as we usually do. I am sure people had fun watching us uncouth Americans also.

At the end of Grafton Street is the Stephen Green mall. We spent several hours there and found it to be a beautiful shopping area. There were three stories of shops and restuarants. I think we looked in most of them; the girls love to shop. We didn’t buy much though because once again everything was so expensive.Everything in Europe seems to close early so we took a taxi back to the hotel.