Guidebooks lie!

So, three months of planning (or at least two) doesn't exactly come to naught, but is seriously hampered by changes on the ground. Of course, anyone with experience will tell you that no plan survives first contact with reality. Leaving JFK at basically midnight meant we didn't arrive here until 11 or 12 today. The only things that survived from the original plan for today were checking in at the hotel and the first event of the Writer's Festival. We didn't make the Codex Leicester because that's when we finally got to the hotel to drop off our bags - by the way, I don't know if anyone told you, but it rains in Ireland. Often. We were soaking wet, lost (street signs would really help the tourists!), and tired by the time we found the hotel and heading right out on that rather ambitious itinerary was not going to happen. Instead, we got cleaned up, went downstairs to the pub for a celebratory moment and then headed out to find something to eat at the best fish 'n chips place in Dublin - which has moved. We ended up eating decent fish in a restaurant close to the Project Arts Center where most of the festival events will occur. Tomorrow, there is very little in the festival that we think will advance our understanding (depressing stuff about war or cancelled events), so we're going to truncate the itinerary from today and tomorrow and go full-blown tourist.

As far the festival, after one event, this science teacher feels much smarter after hanging for just an hour with all this erudite literature types. More later, including video once we find a working hotspot where we can work in piece. All this posting comes from the Chat'R'Net cafe down in Temple Bar (3 Euro an hour - not too bad!)