A lot of our fifth day of vacation was spent in travel. We arose early and I ate the usual egg, toast, and cereal, and then packed our things into the bus to head down the Scottish coast. I was unusually sleepy and actually did doze off a lot on this part of the trip, which is a shame, because the Scottish coast was beautiful. We saw some really pretty sights whenever we were awake, and finally we arrived to the harbor for our first ferry ride. I had never been on a ferry before, and expected a drab ship with seats and decks for the passengers. I also didn't really think about how big the ferry would be. It was huge. Our bus drove into one of the car decks, and we had to remember our deck and stairwell numbers as if we were at the Disneyland parking structure. When we surfaced out to the passenger area, we realized that this was a pretty awesome ferry. There were plenty of comfortable looking places to sit, an area specifically for people who wanted quiet, a separate lounge who wanted to ride luxuriously, a nail salon, two sections where one could watch movies, a fast food restaurant, a bar with a big monitor hooked up to a Wii, several coffee/snack shops, a gift shop, an arcade, an area for the kids to play, and an area for teens to get online and check their Facebook messages, as well as several internet stations. I toyed around with the idea of getting my nails done just to say that I did it, but really, I only get my nails done for things like.. my wedding. Here's a little interior shot:

We wanted to stretch our legs a bit, so we walked around the passenger area several times, then went to the small outside deck to take a few photos. It was foggy and raining, and we enjoyed it:

We settled in eventually at the movie area, where Ric listened to music and dozed while I watched Dan in Real Life. A couple of hours later, it was time for us to find our way back to the bus and we left the ferry and drove out into Northern Ireland. Our driver took us through some of the major sites of Belfast, including the usual courthouses, etc:

Then, Leena talked about the history of Ireland and about those who live in Northern Ireland who feel that all of Ireland should be independent from Britain. We drove into an area associated with those sentiments, where there were several wall murals, most of which had nothing to do with Ireland's issues:

There were a few, however, although we weren't well enough acquainted with the local history to understand what all of them were about. But when we left that area, it was pretty clearly documented:

We drove from there towards more of the downtown area, where we were let loose to roam the streets and find lunch for about an hour and a half. Ric and I kept looking and looking with no success, until we saw a sign outside a smoothie shop that said we could eat stew and bread for just a few dollars. It ended up being a great meal, and probably our cheapest on the trip. We had some extra time, so we walked along the major street, where one could see the Europa hotel and the opera house. And we made sure to make a stop in the Crown pub:

The pub was awesome, and very intricately decorated on all of the walls and ceilings. There were enclosed booths with doors for parties to sit down in privacy, which I thought was very cool. It was so busy, though, that Ric and I had to settle for a standing table, and each of us had a little bit of Guinness to celebrate that we had arrived in Ireland.

After we were finished with our quick stop in Belfast, we loaded up and drove towards Dublin. Our hotel was on the outskirts of Dublin, and we arrived there probably somewhere around 4ish. We were given an hour or so of rest, and in that time we immediately noticed a chance for free wireless and got hooked up online. I checked my email and was completely shocked to find out that one of the girls from my office gave birth seven weeks early to her baby girl on the day that we left on our trip (that morning I had told the baby not to go anywhere while I was gone!). Crazy! The family was on my mind from then on for the rest of the trip. Around 5:30, those of us who were game boarded the bus to head to Taylor's Three Rock, a thatch-roofed location where we were to enjoy a night of Irish cabaret. Honestly, I think this entertainment catered a little bit more to an older audience, but we had a nice time. There was an emcee full of corny Irish jokes about Paddy and his wife Molly, a bunch of river dance-esque dancing, music, and singing:

For dinner we both had some great Irish beef, mashed potatoes (my first Irish potatoes were straight out of a box! Booo!), and vegetables. Dessert was a yummy citrusy thing, accompanied with the best Irish coffee I've ever had. A fun time was had by all, and we returned to our hotel around 10:30. I showered and then spent most of the night catching up on the baby birth story, chatting online with Amy, and uploading photos, and probably went to bed around 1am or later.

MTV MUSIC - I Want My MTV

It's the rallying cry of a generation. I mean, how many times have you heard someone ask that question? The last time I was at my mom's house I was perusing our old VHS tapes and I came across an 8 hour tape of MTV videos my brother had recorded. Apparently there was some music video by Live that he really loved that he had seen once and then never saw again so he would just tape MTV at night in order to find it.

For the young folks, MTV used to play large blocks of music videos. In fact, in the late and wee hours, that is pretty much all they played. Crazy concept, huh? Well MTV apparently is finally listening to their original core audience and has launched a new site that features an insane amount of music videos, both new and old. You can even embed them:

Neat.