In Bordeaux!

Wow we woke up this morning with Martins (not sure about all punctuation keys on this keyboard) family to an Obama win. They say about 80% of people over here were for him and Martins mom this morning was no different, perhaps the most excited of everyone in the room. Martins Grandma and Josh were in the minotiry of people here hoping for a McCain win. Almost hard to here though because the French press are saying how the US is the most powerful, important and leading country in the world. Exciting but scary with the expectations the world has!

Anyway, we arrived in Ireland bringing an Artic front and record winds/ freezing temperatures with us. Plus, our full day in Waterford was on Monday Oct 27th which was a national bank holiday. Therefore everthing was closed... lots of time just walking around the city. They had kept some of the old walls the Vikings put up which were just cool to see...
By 3 pm we found a pub that was warm and spent the rest of the day talking to Irish people, trying some Cider (comes on tap and served cold! but sweet n good) and eventually buying time until 9;30 when live traditional Irish men came on for some live music. We were the only Americans in the pub, and a elementary school principal who we began talking to during the music said she pinned us as ¨Yankees¨as soon as she overheard us talking. Everyone was so nice there though and had a sense of humor which made just chatting with anyone and everyone more fun.
We did notice everything was SO expensive there, and the principal told us the minimum wage was 11 Euro an hour! Tuesday morning we caught a bus to Dublin. Next time we return to Ireland we would take the risk of driving on the left to rent a car. The majority of Ireland you cannot reach by any other way. A lady on the ferry over said the infrastructure is 20 years behind other EU Countries.

Once in Dublin we found our hostel and room, sharing a bunk room with 8 other guys for the first night (a few girls came the other nights). Quickly online Josh found a small town 30 minutes away by train on the coast called Howth. It is a beautiful fishing town where we actually talked a few minutes to prawn fishermen and Josh got to see the differences in the fishing boats. We found the cliff hike and through wind, hail, rain and sun we saw amazing views for probably 2 hours. Back to Dublin and met up with Emilie and Thomas, staying at a nice hotel around the corner from us, for the rest of Ireland!

More to come later, just has a criossant breakfast and going to see somewhere amazing with Martins mom! Oh since Martin cant drive over here yet, you need to be 18, Josh drove us around in their family car to a soccer game they played in and into town! A little stressful but funny from the backseat.