The truth behind my Ireland trip (Day 1)
Well now that you've been through my April Fools version of my Ireland trip, here is the truth:I took the 214 bus to Liverpool Street Station, took the Stanstead Express to Stanstead & stood around the airport with hundreds of other passengers waiting for our flights to be announced. Finally the RyanAir flight FR288 was called so we stood in the queue, got our tickets & stood in the longer queue for security check point. I had only brought my EMS 2500 pack with 2 changes of clothes, towel & toiletries, so I was bringing it along as a carry on.
Seeing that it's an international flight & you have to be there 2 hours early to check in & pass through the check point, I had lots of time to peruse through the shops & read my latest book, Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, at the gate. Flight was scheduled for 17.15 (5.15pm) and round about 16.50 (4.50pm) they announced a gate change, so the mass of us walked a few more gates down the corridor & started yet another queue. Once we were all boarded, the plane took off on time, flew for about 1 hour, landed safely in Dublin. The flight was rather uneventful - cloudy the whole way so you couldn't see anything cool.
My fourth queue for the day was through passport security in Dublin. Luckily I breezed right through it, just getting a quick stamp to added to my passport pages. Only 6 blank pages left, before I have to ask for addition pages to be sewn in (not sure that will happen before it expires, but ever hopeful!)
Outside to yet another queue at the taxi stand. Jumped into my taxi & had a nice chat with the driver on our way to my hostel, Oliver St. John Gogarty on Angelsea Street in Temple Bar, Dublin 2. Checked into my room & who do I meet first? Another American who's looking into going to get his MBA at University College Dublin. His name is Jon & he's from Iowa. After about an hour long chat we headed off to pub, Jon needed a pint of Guinness & I needed some dinner. Around 11.30pm we headed home, got our room key & walked in to find another boarder in the room for the night (we were told it was just the two of us for the night). We felt horrible turning the lights on & walking in, so we decided to head over to the hostel's pub which has authentic Irish music playing on the second floor. We met a few people from France who were studying in Dublin, listened to the music & around 2.15am headed back to our room, this time we did it quietly!!
Woke up about 8am, hopped in the shower, went to grab b'fast with Jon & then off to find my Wild Wicklow tour group. Our driver Kevin was fantastic! The trips starts out with a short tour of Dublin, down O'Connell Street & by the millennium spire, then over to a few hotels to pick up more passengers & then off on a coastal drive past DunLaoghaire Harbour, Dalkey and Killiney, home of some of the rich and famous. From there we drove to Avoca Handweavers, where we stopped for about 1/2 hour to get coffee and do a bit of craft shopping. They also have beautiful gardens with trees, shrubs & assorted other plants from around the world. (I took my flower photo here in the parking lot).
Next stop is in Glendalough. Kevin gets out and acts as your personal guide through the enchanting 6th century monastic settlement. After he's shown you the "wishing stone" and St Kevin's kitchen, and the 6th century cathedral. He shows you the path that guides you on a gentle walk (hillside & waterfall photos taken here) to the magnificent Upper Lake.
From there we head for lunch at Lynams Pub where we had a traditional pub lunch.
Following lunch we proceed to Sally Gap where we saw mountain lakes, wild heather (all the brown low patches in my photos) and barren boglands. This was the location for Braveheart & where the Guinness family has their massive plot of land (this is where the only photo that I'm actually in was taken.)
We returned to Trinity College at half 5. I headed back to the hostel. When I arrived I found out that I was switching rooms, so I moved my stuff from room 7 to room 23. Was writing out some postcards when I heard a knock at the door. It was 2 other American's who were spending the night. They were 18 & 20 purely in Dublin for the pub scenes!! I knew that Jon was switched to this room as well so I waited a bit for him, hoping he'd want to grab some dinner seeing as the "kids" were enjoying their pre-gaming in the room & I was looking forward to something more than a liquid dinner! Around half 6, Jon knocked on the door :) After a quick round of introductions, we headed off to find a place for dinner & the "kids" headed straight to the pub, hoping to still make happy hour.
After dinner we were both rather knackered & headed back to the hostel. On arrival into the room we found Karl (yet another American) who had shared rooms with Jon the night before I arrived. Karl is 25 and just finishing up his 6 week backpacking trip over Europe. We stayed up for a bit chatting & due in part to the fact that both boys had to get up very early to catch flights to England we were all in bed asleep by midnight.
posted by Sara @ 10:11 pm
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