Friday June 27, 2008 – Dublin, Ireland
Its around 6:15 pm here in Ireland, Charlie and I just got back to our hotel room from 10+ hours of walking all over Dublin. My feet are dead and I’m thankful that my pajamas are so very comfortable…and I’m also eyeing the raspberry cheesecake tarts we bought this afternoon. So up to now we’ve had so many experiences:
The night/morning that we left, Wednesday – we got NO sleep! We were up packing our backpacks and suitcase while trying to remember all the airline rules for weight limits and carry ons. I tried to relax a little bit, but the washer and dryer kept beeping at me. Around 3:20 in the morning my mom and Tim along with the two of us and our monstrous luggage all piled into the car to head to LAX. Tim got into a driving “zone” and had us there within 45 minutes – ridiculous! We only had to stand in line at the Delta check-in point for 15 or so minutes, and had no problems checking us in… our luggage on the other hand. One bag, the one that Charlie told me to put all the heavy stuff in so we’re not carrying it around on our back was over their weight limit. So, of course that meant that we had to take stuff out and put it into a backpack. One of my pet peeves is having everyone in the Delta line seeing my underwear fly about in my suitcase. Oh well, right? Once we got to our gate, Charlie tried to snooze and I went on a hunt for breakfast. I was amazed at how ridiculously overpriced the airport vendors are – I guess its only because they know that they’ll get the price they ask for, and I am now a part of the problem because I paid 6 bucks for a breakfast burrito. Dumb huh? We waited around for about 2 1/2 hours, snoozing every once in a while and getting up for walks around the terminal to stretch our legs. We boarded the plane on time and although I didn’t really sleep on the flight, I was too tired to remember much of it. I do remember that they now charge for snack food and drinks – so the one bag of complimentary peanuts was it for us. Also we had our own tvs, so we got to watch channels that we chose. Charlie watched tennis on ESPN and I watched the Food Network. There was also a variety of music albums we could listen to, so I found the Wicked soundtrack and enjoyed that for a while. Our layover was in New York, which made me quite happy. Its one city that I’ve always wanted to visit, so when we were landing in JFK I got to see the Empire State Building! Yay! We sat on the runway for over an hour due to a fire in the control tower – so they weren’t able to get planes in or out for WAY too long. Once we got in the airport we had to get to what felt like the far opposite side of the building for our next flight. On the way we found a bagel place and DUNKIN DONUTS!!!!!!!
The night/morning that we left, Wednesday – we got NO sleep! We were up packing our backpacks and suitcase while trying to remember all the airline rules for weight limits and carry ons. I tried to relax a little bit, but the washer and dryer kept beeping at me. Around 3:20 in the morning my mom and Tim along with the two of us and our monstrous luggage all piled into the car to head to LAX. Tim got into a driving “zone” and had us there within 45 minutes – ridiculous! We only had to stand in line at the Delta check-in point for 15 or so minutes, and had no problems checking us in… our luggage on the other hand. One bag, the one that Charlie told me to put all the heavy stuff in so we’re not carrying it around on our back was over their weight limit. So, of course that meant that we had to take stuff out and put it into a backpack. One of my pet peeves is having everyone in the Delta line seeing my underwear fly about in my suitcase. Oh well, right? Once we got to our gate, Charlie tried to snooze and I went on a hunt for breakfast. I was amazed at how ridiculously overpriced the airport vendors are – I guess its only because they know that they’ll get the price they ask for, and I am now a part of the problem because I paid 6 bucks for a breakfast burrito. Dumb huh? We waited around for about 2 1/2 hours, snoozing every once in a while and getting up for walks around the terminal to stretch our legs. We boarded the plane on time and although I didn’t really sleep on the flight, I was too tired to remember much of it. I do remember that they now charge for snack food and drinks – so the one bag of complimentary peanuts was it for us. Also we had our own tvs, so we got to watch channels that we chose. Charlie watched tennis on ESPN and I watched the Food Network. There was also a variety of music albums we could listen to, so I found the Wicked soundtrack and enjoyed that for a while. Our layover was in New York, which made me quite happy. Its one city that I’ve always wanted to visit, so when we were landing in JFK I got to see the Empire State Building! Yay! We sat on the runway for over an hour due to a fire in the control tower – so they weren’t able to get planes in or out for WAY too long. Once we got in the airport we had to get to what felt like the far opposite side of the building for our next flight. On the way we found a bagel place and DUNKIN DONUTS!!!!!!!
That was way to exciting for poor Katie, who hasn’t had her favorite doughnuts in AGES! Charlie struck up a conversation at the gate with an older Irish lady who has been living in Florida for quite some time and is not thinking of going back to Ireland. After eating, calling our parents and relaxing for a little bit we got onto the plane and I zonked out! There was a group of high school kids from Ohio on the plane and they were sitting all around us – quite loud. I woke up with about 5 hours left on the flight, and enjoyed talking with Charlie, playing cards, reading my book and then watching the sun come up.
I fell in love with Ireland from the sky – through the many layers of fluffy and some rain clouds I could see the rolling GREEN hills as we descended. I’d almost forgotten how brown California really is, and how much I need some greenery in my life. We landed without a hitch, went through customs in about 5 minutes (beats LAX) and got our luggage to then head out the door! The nice gentleman helped us find a taxi bus for two right away and we were off. Our driver was extremely nice and helpful, he gave us helpful hints as to where to go for the best deals, sites, and food/ drink (haha, he’s Irish) as well as where not to go and what to look out for (pickpocketers). When we got to the hotel, around 9 am they told us that we couldn’t check in until 2:30 in the afternoon (boo!) but we were able to put all of our luggage into this ginormous Safe room in the basement. Honestly we were quite bummed, having not showered in way too long, sitting on airplanes and in airports, walking all over the place and not sleeping, all we wanted was to take a shower and lay down for a few hours. Haha But that’s not what was in the cards for us. We took clean clothes out of the luggage, freshened up in the lobby bathroom and headed out to walk around. We ended up finding a Dublin tour bus that you could hop-off at any of their 22 stops around the city, look around the area and hop back on when another bus from the same company comes along by just showing them the original ticket. It was pouring down rain and around 58 degrees, plus windy. I realized with great disappointment how Californianized I’ve become, a.k.a tolerant of good weather.
After the first half hour, having past Trinity College, the GPO, and Dublin Castle I zonked out on the bus and don’t really remember much. Thank God I had Charlie sitting next to me, he just bundled me up in his arms so I wouldn’t fall over in my seat while I snoozed away the city sites. After getting off at the original starting point we decided to explore a bit down a little side street and luckily found a Hard Rock Café. As dumb as it sounds, a veggie burger and fries hits the spot! (especially after the day we were having) It felt good to just sit down and enjoy a nice fresh meal… because lets face it – airplane food is the pits. We made it back to the hotel right at 2:30, got our extremely small hotel room, showered (which I don’t remember at all) and fell asleep by 4 pm.
I slept for a good 13 hours, no joke. By 5:30 am, Charlie was awake too, and we were contemplating whether or not we wanted to brave the ice-cold tile in the bathroom to shower and start the day or just roll over again and sleep for another 13 hours, for about another 30 minutes. I found out that I’m more willing to get my toes cold than he is. Breakfast here in the hotel is amazing!!!! WE had fresh triscut type cereal with fresh fruit and milk, fresh squeezed orange juice, homemade whole grain honey bread with Raspberry Jam (yes NOT strawberry, raspberry!) and sunny-side up eggs and toast. I had never tried my eggs like that, and I actually really enjoyed them.
We headed out after that and were on our way down towards Trinity College, we got there and realized to our chagrin that the tours didn’t start until an hour and a half later, so we kinda looked around a little bit and then decided to walk around the surrounding neighborhoods, Dawson and Kildare Streets are right around the corner from there. Even though we didn’t really “do” anything, we got to see the city and almost blend in with the locals, all of us walking down the narrow cobblestone streets with our umbrellas out. We found the tourist center, which is actually an old church that has been renovated. There we were able to book our tour for tomorrow down to Cork, Blarney and Queenstown. It was only a 10-minute walk back to Trinity College, and we got there right in time for the tour. The school is very very beautiful, and I’m convinced that if La Sierra University looked like that, I would be MUCH more motivated to be studious.
The Book of Kells is there in their library, which was beautiful to see. Their library has what the call “The Long Room,” and I could definitely spend hours in there. Sadly they have all the books roped off, its gorgeous in there though. Tall ceilings, with enough room for two stories of books to line the walls, each row has a gold letter “A,” “B,” etc. Stunning! At the end of each row there is a marble bust of some great scholar or contributor to the knowledge of today, Newton, Socrates, Shakespeare, Locke, etc. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures
After that we walked down to Dublin castle, and because we’re cheap we decided to not pay for the tour but rather take random pictures from the outside and in the garden.
We found a Starbucks to get a warm drink and sit for a while to rest my poor poor feet. Then we headed down to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in which I probably could’ve spent a few hours – just looking at all the stained glass and carvings.
The next trek we took was down to the Guinness storehouse for the tour of the 7-story building. I wasn’t that impressed with the factory as a whole, perhaps because by this point in the afternoon I was starving and didn’t feel like climbing up 7-story’s worth of steps with no food at the end? Haha The first couple of floors were the more interesting ones, they had a huge pile of barley that you could smell and play with, then they had these glass containers for the hops… reminded me of seaweed, then a jar in a locked refrigerator that you could see that is where the original yeast is kept and finally a huge waterfall to all symbolize the ingredients in their beer. After we left there I was officially done walking around and the 25-minute walk back to the main part of the city took forever, although I have to say that their pedestrian cross walk signs are the most amazing things ever!
We found an Italian place to eat dinner. I was so excited just because they had pizza and garlic bread! After that we walked around the corner to the Queen of Tarts bakery and bought three tarts… delicious!
Now we’re here, in our shoebox hotel room and are definitely ready to sleep.
I fell in love with Ireland from the sky – through the many layers of fluffy and some rain clouds I could see the rolling GREEN hills as we descended. I’d almost forgotten how brown California really is, and how much I need some greenery in my life. We landed without a hitch, went through customs in about 5 minutes (beats LAX) and got our luggage to then head out the door! The nice gentleman helped us find a taxi bus for two right away and we were off. Our driver was extremely nice and helpful, he gave us helpful hints as to where to go for the best deals, sites, and food/ drink (haha, he’s Irish) as well as where not to go and what to look out for (pickpocketers). When we got to the hotel, around 9 am they told us that we couldn’t check in until 2:30 in the afternoon (boo!) but we were able to put all of our luggage into this ginormous Safe room in the basement. Honestly we were quite bummed, having not showered in way too long, sitting on airplanes and in airports, walking all over the place and not sleeping, all we wanted was to take a shower and lay down for a few hours. Haha But that’s not what was in the cards for us. We took clean clothes out of the luggage, freshened up in the lobby bathroom and headed out to walk around. We ended up finding a Dublin tour bus that you could hop-off at any of their 22 stops around the city, look around the area and hop back on when another bus from the same company comes along by just showing them the original ticket. It was pouring down rain and around 58 degrees, plus windy. I realized with great disappointment how Californianized I’ve become, a.k.a tolerant of good weather.
After the first half hour, having past Trinity College, the GPO, and Dublin Castle I zonked out on the bus and don’t really remember much. Thank God I had Charlie sitting next to me, he just bundled me up in his arms so I wouldn’t fall over in my seat while I snoozed away the city sites. After getting off at the original starting point we decided to explore a bit down a little side street and luckily found a Hard Rock Café. As dumb as it sounds, a veggie burger and fries hits the spot! (especially after the day we were having) It felt good to just sit down and enjoy a nice fresh meal… because lets face it – airplane food is the pits. We made it back to the hotel right at 2:30, got our extremely small hotel room, showered (which I don’t remember at all) and fell asleep by 4 pm.
I slept for a good 13 hours, no joke. By 5:30 am, Charlie was awake too, and we were contemplating whether or not we wanted to brave the ice-cold tile in the bathroom to shower and start the day or just roll over again and sleep for another 13 hours, for about another 30 minutes. I found out that I’m more willing to get my toes cold than he is. Breakfast here in the hotel is amazing!!!! WE had fresh triscut type cereal with fresh fruit and milk, fresh squeezed orange juice, homemade whole grain honey bread with Raspberry Jam (yes NOT strawberry, raspberry!) and sunny-side up eggs and toast. I had never tried my eggs like that, and I actually really enjoyed them.
We headed out after that and were on our way down towards Trinity College, we got there and realized to our chagrin that the tours didn’t start until an hour and a half later, so we kinda looked around a little bit and then decided to walk around the surrounding neighborhoods, Dawson and Kildare Streets are right around the corner from there. Even though we didn’t really “do” anything, we got to see the city and almost blend in with the locals, all of us walking down the narrow cobblestone streets with our umbrellas out. We found the tourist center, which is actually an old church that has been renovated. There we were able to book our tour for tomorrow down to Cork, Blarney and Queenstown. It was only a 10-minute walk back to Trinity College, and we got there right in time for the tour. The school is very very beautiful, and I’m convinced that if La Sierra University looked like that, I would be MUCH more motivated to be studious.
The Book of Kells is there in their library, which was beautiful to see. Their library has what the call “The Long Room,” and I could definitely spend hours in there. Sadly they have all the books roped off, its gorgeous in there though. Tall ceilings, with enough room for two stories of books to line the walls, each row has a gold letter “A,” “B,” etc. Stunning! At the end of each row there is a marble bust of some great scholar or contributor to the knowledge of today, Newton, Socrates, Shakespeare, Locke, etc. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures
After that we walked down to Dublin castle, and because we’re cheap we decided to not pay for the tour but rather take random pictures from the outside and in the garden.
We found a Starbucks to get a warm drink and sit for a while to rest my poor poor feet. Then we headed down to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in which I probably could’ve spent a few hours – just looking at all the stained glass and carvings.
The next trek we took was down to the Guinness storehouse for the tour of the 7-story building. I wasn’t that impressed with the factory as a whole, perhaps because by this point in the afternoon I was starving and didn’t feel like climbing up 7-story’s worth of steps with no food at the end? Haha The first couple of floors were the more interesting ones, they had a huge pile of barley that you could smell and play with, then they had these glass containers for the hops… reminded me of seaweed, then a jar in a locked refrigerator that you could see that is where the original yeast is kept and finally a huge waterfall to all symbolize the ingredients in their beer. After we left there I was officially done walking around and the 25-minute walk back to the main part of the city took forever, although I have to say that their pedestrian cross walk signs are the most amazing things ever!
We found an Italian place to eat dinner. I was so excited just because they had pizza and garlic bread! After that we walked around the corner to the Queen of Tarts bakery and bought three tarts… delicious!
Now we’re here, in our shoebox hotel room and are definitely ready to sleep.
1 comment:
Are you guys just taking pics with a point & shoot til you find a battery? Oi vey, that is so something I would do (forget the battery). You are so great at remembering and describing everything you've seen! I am sooo fricken jealous, I want to do it all again! Agh!
Dude, we ate at a little Italian place when we got there too!!! I wonder if it's the same one? haha.
& I was disappointed with Guiness as well, but hey, you get to say you did it!
<33 be safe & you're in my prayers!
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