[private joker]

Initial brag: a good friend of mine just scored a gig being Frank Black's tour manager overseas. (He did the job in the States and they liked him enough to keep him on)! The international tour kicks off in Dublin Feb. 9 and continues in Glasgow Feb. 10 and then Manchester/London/etc.

I've been invited to go to the shows, and since I've never been to Ireland or Scotland (I have been to England) I think I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to not only visit Dublin and Glasgow but also hang out with Frank Black and potentially Bono, who evidently has drinks with Frank after the show every time Black plays Dublin.

That said, I need to plan the trip (with 1 friend) and figure out how to do it efficiently, with as much fun/ideas as possible but also not too expensive (we're not broke, but we're not ballas either).

[Note: I can't actually travel with the band; we're just friends of the tour manager so we can only join up at the show itself and at the pubs afterwards; we have to take care of transportation ourselves.]

1) What's the best way to get from place to place? I'm thinking flying round trip from Los Angeles to Dublin, and in the middle having a round trip from Dublin to Glasgow for the second show, so we can hang in Glasgow too, but come back to Dublin to catch the flight back to L.A. Is this OK? Or should we just like take a ferry from Dublin to Glasgow and ferry back? Are there ferries? Are they cost-effective?

2) The second show is a Sunday (Feb 10) in Glasgow. Should we hang out and see the city Monday/Monday night as well? Is there stuff to do there on a Monday in February? Or will it be so freezing cold that everyone's shacked up inside. In which case we should head back to Dublin or even go to London and fly back to L.A. from there.

3) I'd love some ideas of what to do in Dublin when we get there. We might arrive Fri. morning Feb 8, the day before the first show, so we'll have 36 hours on our own. Any recommendations? And what about lodging -- B&Bs? Hostels? Hotels?

4) Same goes for Glasgow -- recommendations, lodging, sights, etc.

5) Weather -- I've heard Dublin doesn't get that ridiculous in the winter for some reason. True? I'm a pussy when it comes to cold weather so I'm afraid. Glasgow... aiya. It sounds like I'm going to turn into a block of ice. Is it really unbearable?

Thanks for any advice, etc...