Hello all, it has been quite a while since my last post, and much has happened in the time between commentaries.
First of all, our “no travel weekend” was a success, I finished my 500 word American Art paper, my 3000 word Religions in Antiquity paper, and did research for 2 out of my 3 Buyer Behavior workshops. Virtually all I have to do the rest of the semester is study for my finals. Talk about coasting through the next 6 weeks. After that was done, however, I still had 4 days until our next trip. It was quite boring, you don’t want to hear about it.
Moving the fun stuff on Wednesday Nov. 4 we started out on our next trip which would take us to Dublin, Ireland, home of everything Irish, including taxi driver’s who when they go out to drink, they “drink til they fall on the floor, get up, and do some more.” And yes, that is a direct quote from our taxi driver, a very nice fellow who was in fact NOT drunk while driving us around. Anyway, our trip started from the Hull train station, from which we rode the rails to Leeds, which was about a 45 minute ride. We then boarded the airbus to the Leeds Bradford International Airport. This is where the story gets a little sticky. Our departure time was 10 pm, we had been dropped off at the airport around 6. There were no check ins open so we went to information and asked what we should do. I presented my pre printed boarding pass and they said, “Well then your all checked in, just go through security.” Super. So we went, the man at the front of the security station scanned and looked over all of our boarding passes, and we began to march through the metal detectors. Emily, Cait and I all got thru fine, Mouse was a different story. We don’t really know what set off the metal detector, but regardless, it did. Of course, Mouse was mad, but it was a good thing that security made him present his boarding pass. You see, all Non- European Union residents must have a stamp on thier boarding passes from Ryanair before going thru security. Without this, you will be denied entry to the plane. This was a fact that I did know, and had actually said something to Cait about it by the info table. Yet, for some reason the person at the info table who looked at my boarding pass with my name and place of residence printed in size 152 bolded font at the top, and the person scanning at the beginning of security who looked at not only my boarding pass, but my PASSPORT, failed to note that we did not have said stamp. So, a nice gentleman from security escorted us back to the check in for Ryanair, which was still not open. I have to pause on that point for a moment. The security officer was IN FACT very nice about it. He was quick to apologize for 2 people completely missing this detail, and tried to square away our situation. So thanks to you, big, bald, angry security man, I toast my Guiness to you. He informed us that we still had about an hour before before check in would begin, so he recommended we go to one of the bars in the airport and have a drink. Well, we didn’t have a drink, but we did go sit and have a decent meal at one of the restaurant and all calmed down from the ordeal.
Right around 8 pm we went back down to the check in table and waited about 15 minutes as the first in line to meet with the person would would resolve the matter. Of course, when she arrived, we explained what had happened, and she couldn’t comprehend it so she had to call her manager. However, she did not call her manager right away. You see, by this time, a line of about 25 people had formed behind us, and she thought she would check in all of them while we waited for a half hour for her to make a phone call. My frustration was mounting. The main reason for all of this trouble was the numbskull who scanned our boarding passes. Since he had already scanned our papers into the system, we could not go back through with them, we needed new ones. I read on the Ryanair website that if you needed a pass reprinted, it would cost 40 pounds, or right around $70. By this point, had her manager made us pay to reprint a pass, I probably would have set her on fire. But, lucky for us and her, she was nice and printed our new passes for free, gave us the required stamp, and moved onto security, where Mouse promptly set off the metal detector again. And again, he wasn’t happy.
We had finally made it through security around 9:15, over 3 hours after we had arrived at the airport. Once our gate was announced we headed down to the correct terminal. Now, for those of you who have never heard of Ryanair, it is a discount airline which prides itself on the lowest fares around. Hence many of the problems we had prior to boarding, but I digress. After we had handed off our new boarding passes and shown our passports at the gate, we were permitted to board the plane. Thank God. Unlike all other flights I had been on, we had to walk outside to get on the plane, which was a 737. As we sat in the Pergatory that is an airplane awaiting departure, something unusual happened. As soon as the final person had gotten on and taken a seat, we began moving, a full 15 minutes before scheduled departure. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to be leaving early, but I consider airplane travel to be a very concisely scheduled operation and was a little weirded out we were heading out early. But, everything turned out fine, no in air collisions, no blocked landing areas. I expected the flight to be around an hour to an hour and a half with wait on the ground. Nope. From the time I sat down to the time I walked off the plane: 35 minutes. Wow. Passport control was a breeze and we went and waited for the taxi I had prebooked to arrive.
About 12:15 am on Nov 5, we got into a taxi with one Mr. Gerrard Kelly, the man who I quoted earlier in the passage. As with all of the cabbies we have had, he was very nice and told us about all of the things to go see and do in Dublin. He talked the entire 20 minute ride to the hostel, which was fine because we were tired.
Well there you have it, a 45 minute train ride, a 25 minute bus ride, a 35 minute plane ride, and a 20 minute taxi ride and we were in Dublin. Easy peasy. Its worth mentioning that we spent 2 hours and 5 minutes travelling and 6 and a half hours waiting to travel that first night.
The Four Courts Hostel was a very nice place, rated number 8 in the world by Hostelworld users, which I am. We checked in and went to our room, which we found to be great, especially since this was the first place we had our own private bathroom. The view from our room was pretty cool. It looked out over the River Liffey and the Four Courts building, which can both be seen on my shutterfly page.
We slept well that first night and awoke the next morning to dine in style on the free cereal and toast awaiting us in the kitchen. That first morning, the weather was nice, and we just did a lot of walking around. We saw the Christchruch Cathedral and countless bars and shops in the famous area known as Temple bar. After popping in and out of a few places, we decided to head down to the Guiness Storehouse, perhaps the highlight of our trip. It was easy to find, located about a mile from our hostel. I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting the tour was. It was self guided, and as you walked up the several stories built inside the world’s largest pint glass, you learned how Guiness was made, the history, and about the advertising of the company. All in all it was very informative and entertaining. At the top of the building is a place called the Gravity Bat where you can redeem your ticket for a free pint of Guiness. Not only did you get a free pint, the bar is circular and the walls are completely made up of windows, giving you a panoramic view of Dublin. Mouse and I went up to the bar and watched them pull our Guiness from the tap. It is a very cool thing to watch. First, they fill the pint glass up to the top and let it sit so it can “settle.” They put the glass on the bar so we could watch it, and it actually quite hypnotizing. Continuous waves of golden amber flowed from the top of the glass to the bottom, gradually stopping at a layer higher and higher from the bottom of the glass until all that is left is a dark red (so dark it looks black) liquid with hazelnut fudge colored foam on top. Once this process is done, the bartender tops it off and it is yours. I think the old lady who gave it to me thought I was good looking because she sketched a shamrock in the foam while whe was topping it off. We headed back to the table and waited for the last of the beer to settle and took our first drink. I’m not much of a beer fan, especially anything bitter, but I am pleased to say that I really enjoyed my first Guiness. It tasted almost like a cold espresso to me, which was good. I liked it so much that I got another with my meal the next day.
After polishing of the last of our pints, we went back down to the Temple Bar area and went in some shops, burning some time before we went for an early dinner. Around 4 o’clock, we ducked inside a restaraunt in Temple Bar called the Gallagher, and after looking at the menu decided to dine there. My meal was delicious, made up of two courses. The first was a potato and leak soup with sodabread, and the next was a grilled pork chop with a apple glaze on mashed potatoes. I know, I know, that isn’t overly adventurous but what can I say, it was cheap and calling my name.
The next morning we checked out of Four Courts and went on to our next hostel. Along the way, we stopped by St Patricks Cathedral and walked through the garden there. It was beautiful with green grass and a fountain in the middle. Needless to say we spent 20 minutes taking pictures. After that, we walked to Dublin Castle. Unfortunatley, upon arrival we found out that not only was it most modernized, it cost to get in. No thanks. The outside was ok to look at though. We then walked across O’Connell Bridge, which was neat because it is the same length and width (Gerry the cabbie told us that). Walking up O’Connel Street was interesting, there were a ton of restaraunts and shops to stop in. There was also an enormous metal spike called the Spire which juts into the sky in the middle of the street. Fortunately,at this time, it wasn’t raining so we stopped and took some pictures.
Our hostel was just off of O’Connel street, so we checked in, took a break from the rain, and sat and talked in the tv room. Once the heaviest rain had let up, we headed back out to do some shopping and exploring. We went one direction and didn’t really find what we were looking for, so we walked back to O’Connell street, taking about a 10 minute break to stand under an overhang to get out of the down pour which had started again. The rest of the afternoon consisted of walking in and out of stores and finding a place to eat that evening. During the time we spent walking, we found a restaraunt called The Celt, which had Irish Stew for cheap, so we went inside. After enjoying a Guiness, we ordered our meals. We all got Irish Stew, which is stew with lamb, carrots, onions, and celery in it. The broth had kind of a tomatoey taste to it, which I enjoyed. However, my meal did not stop there. Since the beginning of the trip, I had been looking for Crubeens, a traditional Irish delicacy. Crubeens are pig’s feet which are boiled in a broth containing similar ingredients as the stew, then grilled with a Celtic Glaze. I really had no idea what to expect when I ordered them. When my crubeens came out on the plate, I instantly regretted ordering the stew as well. On the plate was a pile of mashed potatoes, and one crubeen, probably the size of a 3 year olds head. So much food. I cut through the half inch of fat which surrounded the meat and took a healthy sized bite of meat with a little fat for flavor. The taste: ham. It simply tasted like ham, perhaps a little sweeter from the glaze. This was probably the tenderest ham I have ever eaten, and it was amazing. I really couldn’t tell it was a pig’s foot, but that’s probably a good thing. I did my best and finished most of my meal, which resulted in a wicked night for sleeping.
Again, we returned to the hostel relatively early to take advantage of the tv room and relax while watching some of our favorite American shows.
The next morning we got up at 3:55 am, yes that’s not a typo, five minutes to four in the morning to catch our flight. This time everything went much, much smoother.
Well, we are back in Hull now, just enjoying the good life of having absolutely nothing to do for school. Caitlin, Mouse, and I are taking off for Italy early Wednesday morning, which I am extremely excited about. I have some pretty cool things in mind for what to do while there, so be sure to check next week to see how everything went down.
Cheerio.
Wow, I completely forgot to mention the reasoning for my title. Besides the craziness encountered getting to Dublin, there was a postal workers strike going on which closed down one side of O’Connell street for about an hour while people marched down the road. It was pretty interesting.
Cheerio, again.
