Yeah I know that the title didn't follow the rules completely, but I hope you got the point anyway. I'll try to keep up on here, with my doings in Ireland, altho I suspect getting to an internet connection daily will be hard. I'll just do it as frequently as I can. Oh, and this also warranted a new category, methought.
First off, let me just say, that the trip is for Ireland, 7 days. I was gonna go with Tessa, but when that fell through, I had to opt for the safe choice: mom. Going on a trip with mom has pros and cons, which will be illustrated shortly.
We went to the airport in good time, having heard about queues and lines and waiting like no tomorrow. However, having e-tickets and being able to check out own luggage meant we were through security and everything in 10min. So we had 3 hours in the airport doing whatever. Oh well.. Shopping is good for you, the signs all over the airport claimed, and when have they ever been wrong? Mom is well scared if flying, but I was more relaxed, and after having ate a bit of food in some quasi-italian restaurant, and bought candy and perfume and whatnot, we were off. The flight itself was problemfree, takeoff, hangtime, landing... smooth and as it should be.
In Dublin airport, where the temperature was easily 26-28 degrees, the first thing that struck me, was how everything was both in english and gaellic. It reminded me a lot of Canada, where everything is both in english and french. Anyway, mom went to take out some cash, and I went to the tourist information, to ask about transportation from the airport, as there didn't seem to be trains or tubes or anything running. The guy there told me there was a taxi-strike at the moment (I guess it was money saved, but still kind of inconvenient), so we would have to take either the express bus @ 5 euro a piece, or the normal bus for 1 euro 40. We chose the express bus. Took as 10min of waiting around, before we had to wait another 15 in the bus. It was damn hot, to say the least. But the drive in was well pleasing. Cool airflow in the bus, and lots of interesting stuff to look at.
We got off a O'Connell street, knowing, from our little book of Ireland, that the Wilmington Quay wouldn't be far off. The book claimed a hotel with fair prices was situated on that particular street. Off we went, and after 20min of slightly baffled walking around, we found the place. Fair prices, however, must have been a totally different conecpt at the time of writing that book. It was expenssive as hell. However, a small walk down the street found us a nightclub/hotel that only cost 110 euro per night. I booked us a twin room on the third floor. Being a nightclub, we were warned that there'd be noise at night. But that never bothered me. So we went up, took a little time resting (watching Simpsons), before we headed out into Dublin. It was 9pm at this time, so there were plenty of people about. Lots of people standing outside bars, smoking. Well amusing. The area we ended up living in, happened to be the lating quarter, basically. Plenty of pubs, clubs, shops and what have we. We walked around for an hour and a half, just taking in everything. So far I've found Dublin to be a cool place. A lot of life. Slightly dirty, perhaps, but I usually don't really mind... it's a big city.
After having dined on a very cozy italian restaurant (with a rather sweet waitress I might add), we went back to the hotel. Mom was pretty busted after an entire day of activity, so we settled down, watching Man on Fire on the TV. Mom quickly fell asleep, so when the movie was done (yeah, it was pretty decent actually), I went downstairs to the club, and had a pint. I managed to half-way strike up a conversation with a little group of people. They were cool enough as such. Never figured out where they were from, but about 30min later (they had to go to bed), I thought wtf, and went to bed myself. Thus ended day 1.
Today, after taking a shower, we went to the breakfast room, where the manager type guy instantly reminded me of Basil Fawlty. He wasn't rude or anything (that I heard of), but his manners just... the room was filled with stress and quick semi-uncontrolled manners. He was well amusing. Later on today, we'll take a train to Cork and rent a car. We'll be back in Dublin later this week, before we go home. There's def more to do here, and I think I'll be back later in my life. It's worth it.
That's all for now. See you next time :)
