I’ve been in Dublin for well over 12 hours now, and here’s the thing I can’t get over: the cars.

Not the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road — that I can almost deal with. Nor are all those roundabouts really a problem — I mean, I’ve only almost gotten hit a couple of time due to the lack of stop signs. No, what really gets me is the cars themselves — the fact that the driver is on the right-hand side.

I was introduced to it as soon as we landed in Dublin. Keith’s parents were there to meet us, we headed out to the car, his dad opened the car door for me in the back. Half asleep, I slid into the right-hand side of the backseat. It wasn’t until Keith’s dad, keys in hand, slid in front of me and started the engine that I noticed the steering wheel was right ahead of me.

Look! It's an Esso!

Weird.

This Esso, pictured at right, was the first thing we saw after leaving the airport — and

to think, I thought they were Canadian!

We left Canada around 9 p.m. Monday night, and arrived in Dublin Tuesday morning just before 8 a.m. On very little sleep, we were shuttled home, where we both napped for a few hours.

After I got up, we took a walk to the Sq. — the biggest shopping centre in Dublin (according to Keith, anyway). Then we played some Wii bowling (oh, how life is so different over here compared to back home), before heading out for a birthday dinner for Keith’s mom at a steakhouse.

Gemma and I with our "Irish" cocktails. My teeth still hurt.

Dinner marked the first time of me trying a drink that was “uniquely” Irish. I wanted a cosmopolitan, but passed the cocktail menu over to Keith’s sister, Gemma, to pick me something Irish. She picked the Blazzini, which was extremely sweet, pink and contained Jack Daniels (who knew there was such a combination?). I know, it’s not the most Irish of drinks, but a girl has to ease into the Irish beer, right?

I ordered an “American” steak, which I asked to be cooked medium rare, but it came back medium well (and that’s being very generous). Apparently, had I ordered my steak rare, it may have come back cooked medium. Ah well, you live and learn.

We closed out the day with some birthday cake and trivia. I look forward to waking up Wednesday morning when I will see this from my window:

You can view more of my holiday photos on Flickr, or follow along on Twitter as I tweet my trip adventures (with the hashtag #SarahInIreland).