Wednesday, March 8
Flew into Dublin, arrived around 7:30 p.m. Took the Airlink bus to O'Connell St (5 euros), and walked to our hotel, Cassidy's Hotel. This is in central Dublin, across the street from the Gate theater at the top of O'Connell Street. The hotel lobby was really nice (much nicer than we needed,) with a bar, restaurant, nice fancy reception area, and elevator. The upstairs was a bit more tired, as was the room, but it was clean, and acceptable. We groaned to think of how much extra we were paying for the room service when we noticed the menu!! But I had gotten nervous about finding a place for our first couple nights because the first several places I checked had no availability, and pretty much nobody had rooms available in central Dublin for the weekend, so I freaked and got the first thing I could find for the first couple nights.
The area was safe and very lively, so it was a fairly easy place to catch busses, get food, find a bar, etc. Not really *far* from major attractions, but a bit of a hike. I would choose to stay on the south side of the river by St. Stephens Green next time, I think. I thought it was odd that with mixed reviews on Tripadvisor, the overriding comment was "great location!" and I thought that the location was its major downside! *shrug* Different strokes......
Anyway, after we checked in, we started walking to an area around the 4 Courts towards a couple of music pubs that had been recommended to us. The first, M. Hughes, was really quiet (hey, it was Wednesday night,) and had zero craic (that means "good conversation and atmosphere, fun time" in Irish). So we headed over to Cobblestones, which had some fantastic music but unfortunately a TINY listening area with no room even to stand, let alone to stand, so we ended up hanging otu chatting with some Dublin guys on the back patio. We had a really nice time, shut the place down around 12:15. Then on our way back to the hotel we stopped at a bar by the hotel called Frazers, had a nice time chatting with an Aussie who now lives in Dublin, and an Irish girl who lived more than half of her life in Boston. Turned in very late, probably close to 2:30 a.m. Collapsed into bed for a good nights sleep. Happy Birthday Mike!
Thursday, March 9
Got up pretty late (hey, we were on holiday, er, vacation) but managed to throw some clothes on in time for breakfast (which ended at 11) which was very good because they replaced the traditional black and white pudding normally in an Irish breakfast with hash browns, and I certainly wasn't complaining. They had these yummy little sausage links, which I totally loved, because unfortunately one of the things I hate about Belgian food is that their sausage is all nasty and boudin-y. They also had scrambled eggs, baked beans, tomatoes, "bacon", as well as cereal, yogurt, fruit, etc. And they brought us some white toast and coffee/tea. Not bad. I was just happy to be in a place where they eat a real breakfast instead of a croissant with some coffee. One of the major non-negotiables in my food plan is having a very high protein breakfast and it's often a challenge when travelling in Italy, France, etc. Germany and Ireland so far are the best.
Anyway, we left our hotel and jumped on a Hop on/Hop off bus which drove us over to the area around Trinity College, St. Stevens Green, and the shopping areas. We were really enjoying ourselves, sitting up on the top of the bus but underneath the little "awning" in the front, when a big group of people got on and sat right behind us and were talking and laughing and I couldn't hear the commentary. I felt like a big nerd for being upset about it, but Mike suggested we get off and wait for another bus, so we did. We had noticed a Starbucks on the street so we went there and had our fix of cafe mochas and frappuccinos...
Walked backwards to St. Steven's Green and walked around for a while. The flowers were just starting to bloom and it was such a peaceful place to be right in the middle of the city. We went in because we were trying to find the "garden for the blind" that we had heard mentioned on the bus tour. We both giggled a little bit at the idea but we were intrigued. It was actually kind of neat, a little island that you walked around and it had plants that had interesting textures, and when some of them are blooming they have interesting scents as well.
Anyway, we then waited for the hop on bus for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time for a bus that was supposed to come every 10 minutes, finally got on it and headed further west. We passed some important castles and stuff, but my memory of that stuff is so bad. We got off at the Guinness Storehouse, one of the only "must sees" on Mike's list.
It was interesting enough; a quick lunch of sandwiches and chips was retardedly expensive but c'est la vie. Basically you pay however much (too much) and go around this kinda multimedia "experience" to learn about the Guinness company, how beer in general is made, what makes Guinness special, etc. Some of their attempts at "cool innovative interactive technology" were painfully lame (the "send a video postcard" thing took a picture that looked like it was taken with a 1991 web cam) but certain parts I thought were cool, including
- The "tasting lab" where you got to taste regular Irish Guinness and a couple of different types of Guinness that are the predominant type sold in other places in the world. One of them is more bitter, more the "original" recipe, and one of them is actually *carbonated* so it tastes like Guinness flavored soda.
- The exhibit of advertising memorabilia which also included an extensive collection of TV ads and some background information on the artist who drew all of the animal ads in the past. (John Gilroy) Had some original sketches, etc.
- The kind of cute paperweight thingy they give you as your "admission ticket" as well as your "free parting gift" which consists of a piece of plexiglass/plastic with about 1 mL of Guinness in it in a little air bubble.
- The "Gravity Bar" at the top with a complete view over Dublin with markings on the map of what exactly you're seeing on the skyline (monuments, buildings, etc). It was way too crowded though. But you do get a pint with your admission to the um, museum?
Anyway, we stayed there for a couple of hours, just in time to miss the last Hop on Hop off bus of the day which was around 5. We headed to the bus stop to get back to our hotel in time to get our jackets and directions to the meeting place for our ghost tour that we'd reserved for that evening at 7.
A note about buses in Dublin. They are everywhere. And they are big. Seriously, at any point if you look down one a street you will see 1-2 bright yellow double decker buses every 40 feet or so. In addition, you have an almost equal number of Hop On/Hop off buses that are either Yellow, Red, or green/cream colore. It's almost comical. So, when we look at the schedule and see that a bus that goes to the street where our hotel is arrives every 10 minutes or so, we're happy to experience Dublin Public Transort up close and personal for a mere 90 cents or something. So we wait. And we wait. And about 3 buses pass us that are either not in service or are on a different route. And we wait. It is now about 6 o clock on a friday evening, traffic is not super great, and we're thinking we'd probably BE at our hotel if we'd just kept walking instead of stopping at the bus stop, but it was cold. And well we've waited so long, ok lets wait a little more. Finally we realize the futility of this exercise and we hail a taxi.
Taxi drivers in Ireland like to talk. At least, if they're Irish (more on that later). The cab driver starts chatting us up, and we tell him we need to get to our hotel and then back to the place where we think the tour starts by 7 and he tells us that we're SOL. Oh well, nevermind, we'll keep thinking positively. We get out near our hotel (rather than wait in traffic another 10 minutes to go the next half block), gladly pay the 7 euros or whatever, and run to the hotel. Luckily we needed our jackets because I was COMPLETELY wrong about where I thought the tour took place, but unfortunately the place where it DID start was about halfway between the Guinness storehouse and our hotel. Ok so we don't always have the most foresight. So, I call the contact number for the tour, tell him we'll be late, and he tells us where we can meet up with the group. We get another cab (this one has an equally chatty driver) and zip back to Dublin Castle to do this walking ghost tour that I've read such fabulous things about. We actually make it there only about 5 minutes late, but there's nobody there. So we are racing around the perimeter of this castle trying to find the street the contact guy told us to meet them on. We find it, behind the castle, but there's nobody there either. I think "ok if they're walking even faster than WE are, maybe this isn't the tour we wanna be on!" and I call the number again. He directs me to the guard shack at the castle and tells me to ask those guys where the group is, because they're probably not out of the castle grounds yet. So, we do that, find the group hanging out on the side of a hill, and everyone looks at us really strange. It's also a really big group (almost 30 people) which surprised me because it seemed like kind of a small outfit when I made the reservation. But we just ignore the stares and try to enjoy the storytelling. It soon becomes obvious that everyone on this tour besides Mike and me knows each other. The tour was cute enough, lasted about an hour and a half, took us into some dark alleyways and consisted of one guy who was the leader/storyteller and was supposed to be blind, and another guy who would show up in silly costumes acting out the part of someone in a story the blind guy had just told. It was ridiculously fake but it was supposed to be, and particularly after a spooky story about a legend of a monster haunting this one particular area who ripped people to pieces, when this guy comes running out in a furry suit with a pig head saying "Roar, Grrrr", I almost fell down laughing it was so silly. Ok so maybe you had to be there. It was certainly not a 5 star activity (which I think was also made worse by the fact that it was a HUGE group, and that they all had fun joking and laughing and telling inside jokes etc and then there was us...) BUT it was only 10 euros and I thought it was not a bad deal. Many many people recommended that we take this Ghost Bus tour instead, but 1. I had already reserved this other tour, and 2. the Ghost Bus is like 25 euros. But if you have the choice I can at least say that the bouncer and the cab driver independently told us that we should do the Ghost Bus.
The tour is called the Zozimus Experience, and again, you might want to give it a chance if you're in the area, particularly if the Ghost Bus is too rich for your blood or if you prefer walking to buses.
Strange, my most vivid memories of Ireland (and certainly the biggest laughs) are from things I never even saw, but people seemed to be so into! I guess ordinarily I think that people who actually live in places like Dublin just roll their eyes at stuff like the Guinness factory, etc, but it seemed like everyone we met was like "Oh hey, you're in Dublin? You should really check out the Ghost Bus tour!" It reminded me of when Katie and I were in Dingle, and *everyone* kept saying "Well, there's this Dolphin.....have you seen Fungie the Dolphin?.....you're going to Dingle, make sure and see the dolphin......You were in Dingle? Did you see Fungie the Dolphin.....? For the record, no i did not see Fungie the Dolphin, nor did I take the Ghost Bus tour, and I still loved both of my trips to Ireland. Go figure :) I did see an otter in Dingle and I figure next time we go I'll see a new statue of Bert the Otter......
Anyway, after the ghost tour we had fish and chips at this Dublin institution, Leo Burdock, which is actually just a take-out place but there was a really nice guy there who let us stand at the counter and eat our fish and chips and he showed us how to use the vinegar (the trick is, you break up the crust on the fish, and sort of use your fork to cut little slits in the meat and kinda half way through it, then put the vinegar in the little holes so that it soaks into the meat.) They have a silly-long list of celebrities who had eaten there; somehow I doubt we will make it onto the list.
Walked back towards our hotel, stopped in the same pub as the night before, where they were having karaoke but we were tired and they didn't have the songs I usually like to sing, so we headed back to the hotel and to bed around 12.
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