Today will be a long day of hurry up and wait. We left our hotel in Dublin at 6:55AM and we won't arrive in our hotel in Paris until about 6PM... TOMORROW!

Early to the station to catch the first train south.

Such is the perils of choosing to travel the route of a 5th Century Saint. The worse part about it all is that after talking to a lot of experts, including John Campbell from Downpatrick, there is really NO conclusive evidence of Patrick actually going to France, and there isn't even a hint of a clue as to where Patrick received any formal church training. I had assumed he went to Rome... guess I was wrong. Oh well, we got a nice holiday itinerary out of it.

What has become a common sight on this trip.

The train ride thru the Irish countryside and along the coast is beautiful, we have our little set of facing seats again and COWS... I just saw cows out the window.

Hey Yvonne... I found a Pepsi machine at the Pearse Station in Dublin!

I wanted to make a comment about "Where the Streets Have no Name". I've mentioned before that the streets in Dublin change names every block, it's so hard to find things when you are lost, you really gain good map reading skills. The other day the tune of "Steets" was running thru my head when we were walking around Dublin and it kind of made me wonder if there was some juxtaposition between a paradise where the streets have NO names and a city where the streets have entirely TOO MANY names. Just a funny thought.

1990?... been awhile since this place was BEST at anything. We've always said that if were gonna die on any part of this trip this would be the leg. On a ferry sinking in the English Channel.

At the Europort we met a couple of American backpakers. Lauren and Ashley, they were from Napa so we immediately felt we had something in common, turns out we really didn't. They weren't sure where they were going, we could tell you what seat we would be sitting in three weeks from today. They were staying in 25 Euro hotels and actually priding themselves in NOT doing laundry, (go figure) while we were staying in Bed and Breakfast places, some of which we CHOSE because they had laundry facilities. At any rate, it was fun to hear some stories from that side of travel.

Lauren and Ashley, CLEARLY not excited about having thier photo taken.

"The kids", as we started refering to them as, are definately doing Europe on a budget, they each have $2000 US to travel for I think was about a month and interestingly enough they are on about the same path as we are. However, they want to finish in Amsterdam before they head back to Dublin, I think, to fly home.

Lauren caught of guard and just ONE of the TWO copies of "The Ultimate Hitch Hiker's Guide" tome that the girls were lugging around the continent.

They did say that they have no interest in stoping in France they were just "booking thru", as they put it, to get to Greece as fast as they could. They did express some interest in going to the island of Lesbos (wink wink), but honestly I don't think they'll get out of Athens.

Beth trying to explain some details to Lauren.

Lauren was 19 and Ashley was 18 and we spent a few hours with them waiting for the boat to board, However, they pretty much vanished when the bar opened, they were pretty psyched about the drinking age in Ireland which I assume is only 18.

Basically Beth and I became the guardians of their bags and stuff. They REALLY have to get a lot more careful with their stuff if they are gonna survive this trip, we warned them that everyone they meet will NOT be as trustworthy as Beth and I are. Ashley dropped by to check on us, and she told us that the bar tender had told her that last week there had been a strike in France and that the passengers on the ferry had to wait for 10 hours before they could leave the boat. They had run out of food and it was apparently a real crazy scene.

Ashley, caught unaware, she didn't catch that I was taking her photo...

It's really easy to grow attached to someone on the road, I was amazed at how much I started to worry about these kids, thinking that they REALLY didn't have their act together and frankly, if Ashley were MY daughter, I don't know that I would let her do what she is doing. Ashley reminds me a lot of Andrea Korsak, a kid that was in the Youth group that I use to work with back in the 80's at PCC.

Our last moments on Irish soil on the first leg of the "tour".

So this was the end of our first stay in Dublin, it was fun to be leaving and really kind of neat to think that we would have a few more days here at the end of the trip.

The first and LAST view we would have of the outside of the boat.

Room 804 and the small packet is Beth's Dramamine

Of course the room is über tiny and Beth was a real Saint about the whole thing. She knew I really wanted to go to France the way Patrick would have and that is why we were taking the ferry. It was going to take us longer and cost more, but I really just had this thing that I wanted to do. Beth on the other had was really concerned about the spending 14 hours on the boat and sleeping on the boat. Ah, the wonders of modern medicine!

804 is HERE.

Food is HERE. Beth is actually bracing herself against the wall. She was starting to have a problem with the motion at this point.

Beth went to bed early and I enjoyed the cruise and stayed up late and read. I met an irish guy that evening, that claimed he knew Bono, he said that he had installed a sound system in Bono's first night club years ago. I had the book that I had been reading and shared a few things with him. He was beside himself with amazement that I would care what Bono thought about anything. He kept telling me, "You know where be grew up don't ya? You know he grew up in Ballymun ("I see seven towers but I only see, one way out"). He's just a guy who grew up in a working class neighborhood."

This guy just didn't understand why the world would care about what Paul Hewson had to say. But it dawned on me, yea, he GREW UP in a working class neighborhood but U2 was the first and only job Bono has ever had, it's not like he was ever a janitor or a butcher or a shop keeper. For his entire life he has been a writer. Bono has been blessed with an amazing ability to put words together and make peoples imaginations run wild. Or more importantly make them change their lives.

I don't want to come across as a stupid fanatic of anything that Bono says or does or touches. I really don't think I am like that at all. I don't care what he had for breakfast like Steve Miller said. What I care about is that I for one have had my eyes opened to some huge issues in the world that have been brought to MY attention by the lyrics of songs that U2 have written over the years.

I don't know maybe I am just a stupid star struck fan but I don't think so.