We arrived on schedule to a cloudy, but without rain, Dublin. My roommate, Sharron met us at the airport exit, and after getting some cash, we are heading onto the tour bus around 9.30. We learned that queen Elizabeth is schedule to arrive to Dublin on Tuesday, and then visit Ireland for four days. This was first royal visit in something like 100 years, so it was a big deal. Some streets were going to be blocked off and protests were also planned. All that meant that moving around the city for our tour scheduled for Tuesday was going to be difficult. And since we have a concert to perform at 1.30 PM, being on time was going to be important. So right when we loaded all our luggage on the bus and met the tour guides, we were informed that there will be a change in schedule; we would switch our plans and do the tour of Glendalough today, and tour the city tomorrow, when it’s easier for us to make it to St. Patrick’s cathedral on time.
On the way from the airport we passed through the city, so the river Liffey, heard about several Dublin icons and drove out of the city through upscale Gregorian neighborhood, where homes are $5+ millions. The downtown area was full of pedestrians, but clean, and architecture was different and interesting. 
The country side was as green as they say Ireland is. Little villages, pastures sectioned off by limestone walls, sheep and black-and-white cows, horses, and many yellow flower bushes (gorse). 
It seemed we were among the first tourists to arrive to Glendalough today, which was nice. Glendalough is a glacial valley located in County Wicklow, renowned for its early Medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St Kevin, a hermit monk, and destroyed in 1398 by English troops. The weather was quite windy and a bit colder than we’d like, but it wasn’t raining. After a tour of the site and lots of picture taking, we were happy to warm up, rest, and eat a good lunch at the couple of joined restaurants on site. Out tour-guide Jon Sebol and driver Rory were very knowledgeable and explained us all the sites along the way. Jon’s paternal grandmother happened to be from little town Brno in Czeck Republic, so we spent some time chatting about that part of the world. He recommended one of those restaurants in particular, so we walked in there to have lunch, and he ended up treating me lunch!
We left the park at 2 PM, and on the ride I felt the wave of tiredness hit me hard that I had to take a short nap. (as much as I could with our second tour guide Michael next to me and constantly, loudly, making jokes and comments along the way). We finally arrived at the hotel and settled in our rooms around 4. Taking a nap at that time would be a terrible idea, and would throw me off the jet leg schedule completely. So I took a refreshing shower and Sharron and I then went walking down town (which is where our hotel is) for about an hour, seeing some pedestrian and shopping areas. Our dinner at the hotel, Admiral Plaza, was at 6, and it was a really great tasty meal. And staff was very good. >
The evening was still young, and soon after we realized it was not going to get dark that soon. Since Ireland is so far up north, even in May the sun is still up until almost 9.30. So few of us went on another walking tour. Even though Dublin has about 2-2.5 million people, this center doesn’t seem that big, and is very excisable for walking. The tour guide Michael went we 8 or so of us, and we just walked places eventually go inside. We learned that at Arlington Hotel pub there is free Irish music and dance every evening 9 and 10, so we knew we wanted to come back there. We crossed the Ha penny bridge (half penny was toll on it long time ago) and walked around Temple Bar area for a little. We stopped outside one pub, that seemed pretty full, to listen to an Irish song. Then the band started asking where people are from, and when someone from our group shouted Texas (I also shouted Bosnia!) they played one country song. Another pub looked promising, but it was crowded for our big group, and the three songs they played while we were there were not Irish, so we decided to just go back to that Arlington hotel. The dancers were amazing, and the musicians before them too, but by 10.30 we were beat. The waiter was kind enough to let me take the Guinness glass as a souvenir with me! Even though we were tired, and at times dragging, it still such a great day!
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