Mulchman's Blog

Day 15 was our last full day in Ireland. It started out with breakfast and then we headed into Malahide to catch the train to Dublin.

Once in Dublin we split up – Amber and I went to the Kilmainham Gaol (jail) and Kathy and Carol went to the National Museum. Amber and I got on the HOHO (hop on hop off) bus to get to the jail and once there quickly got to take a tour of the jail.

After that we took the bus again to the Temple Bar area where we got lunch and beer. We then started walking toward Grafton street and randomly ran into Kathy and Carol. We all then did a little more shopping before heading back to the train and taking it back to Malahide. Once back in Malahide we drove back to the B&B and started getting ready for the return trip tomorrow.

We all packed a bit, had random food we had been carrying around for days for dinner, then went to bed.

Ireland Guinness pint count: 29

Day 14 started like the rest with breakfast and us getting in the car and driving somewhere. We were headed back to the Republic of Ireland to return to the first B&B we stayed at and were very eager to get back to something familiar. Along the way all we had planned was stopping a Newgrange – a 5000 year old (older than the pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in Britain) burial site/passage tomb/passage grave. I wasn’t quite sure what it was or what to expect.

The drive out of Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland was easy and went by fairly quickly – I was eager to get back to the high speeds (as they’re kilometers per hour) in the Republic and the awesome move-left-into-the-shoulder passing mechanism that I’ve come to love so much.

Newgrange is accessible by bus only so you have to go to the visitor center and get a specific tour time to access the site. Luckily, our tour time was about 15 minutes from when we arrived so we didn’t have to wait long. The bus ride to the site is quick and once there you have a guided tour of the site with a few minutes at the end to wander by yourself before having to catch the bus back. The entire trip is about an hour.

At the site they tell you a bit of history about the structure and what they think it was used for – it’s 5000 years old so no one really knows for sure what it is or how/when it was used – and then you get to go inside. It’s quite cramped and the 25 or so of us in the tour group barely fit. The passageway into the single dome shaped tomb area is quite small forcing just about everyone to duck and/or squeeze in between the rocks when passing through. Once inside they explain that only on certain days near the winter solstice does sunlight ever make it into the tomb. It is thought that on these days the ashes of those placed inside the tomb would go to the next dimension/world/whatever. The whole thing was quite incredible and somber.

After Newgrange we got lunch and headed to Malahide where the B&B was. Once there we got the same rooms we used before and had some tea and scones – the scones were awesome! A little bit later Amber and I went into town and I had a couple of beers and then we picked up pizza and brought it back for us all to eat. After that it was bed.

Ireland Guinness pint count: 28

Day 3 started out much like day 2 with us all getting up around the same time and eating together. We wanted to get out early – right after breakfast – but we didn’t actually leave the B&B until 9:30-ish AM.

We drove to Malahide once again and caught the train to Dublin (which was a little more regular now that it was a weekday). Once in Dublin we got on the HOHO (since our tickets still worked from the day before as they’re good for 24 hours) and got off at the Guinness Storehouse.

We did a self guided tour at the Guinness Storehouse where you see how they make Guinness and ultimately end up in the Gravity Bar which is 7 stories above the place and gives you a 360 degree view of Dublin while you drink a complimentary pint of Guinness. They don’t actually make Guinness anymore in the building that you tour but they do have bits and pieces of machinery that used to be used for making Guinness that you can see and touch. There are also many movies playing on various TV’s that talk about the different brewing processes involved with making Guinness but the main attraction is the Gravity Bar and the free pint that your admission ticket grants you.

Up in the Gravity bar three of us got pints – Amber, Carol, and myself – while Kathy got a diet Coke. Amber drank hers down until just under the “Guinness” letters on the glass before calling it quits whereas Carol didn’t drink much at all. I drank mine just fine and then finished Amber’s. I also had a half-pint glass in the tasting room along the tour so that brought my Ireland Guinness pint total up to 6! I hate to say it but the pints previously consumed on the days before actually tasted better than those consumed @ Guinness(?!). Anyway, on our way out we stopped by the gift shop and spent way too much money.

Boarding the HOHO once again we took it to the end of the route (where you’re forced to get off) and walked down to the General Post Office to mail some post cards. The General Post Office has historical significance as it’s where some fighting took place during one of the revolutions/uprisings – I don’t actually remember which/what as there have been many in Ireland’s past. After the post office we headed toward Grafton St. which is a big shopping area but on our way there we stopped in a Bank of Ireland branch to exchange some dollars for euros. Most places seem to only take cash.

We walked down Grafton St. for a bit before going down an alley and stopping at a pub for lunch. I had two more pints with lunch bringing the total up to 8.

After lunch we walked around a bit more near St. Stevens Green going in and out of random shops until finding an Irish Whiskey shop where I bought a bottle for myself. After that was more shopping and looking at things like crystal, sweaters, and jewelry. After we were all shopped out we checked the time and noticed that a train would be heading back to Malahide quite soon so we walked briskly to the train station and only had to wait a few minutes before it showed up.

Back in Malahide we went to a different grocery store and got more bread and items for dinner back at the B&B. We then ate and caught up on paying each other back for any money owed and then slowly headed to bed.

Back in the room I edited and posted the day 2 blog and then wrote some notes for day 3’s blog before calling it a night.S

It’s now 4:37 AM on day 4 as I finish writing day 3’s entry – I woke up at 3:30-ish AM and was wide awake so since I was awake I decided to be pro-active and productive. Lets see if I can go back to sleep now… we’re starting our clockwise driving adventure around Ireland today.

I woke up at 5:30 AM Sunday morning – day 2 – and was wide awake. Day 1 was technically two days due to arriving ‘next day’ from the flights and time change. (FYI: Ireland and the UK are GMT.) Anyway, in the process of getting the netbook situated on my lap in bed Amber woke up and said I was crazy and then went back to bed. I then wrote the contents of the day 1 blog post and then laid back in bed until about 8-ish AM.

Once Amber and I were showered, and since it was now the time range for breakfast, we went to the dining room area for breakfast. On the way we knocked on Carol & Kathy’s door and told them we were headed for breakfast and saw that they weren’t quite ready to join us. They were both up but still showering (- not together, of course).

There were already two other guys eating at a smaller table so Amber and I sat at the bigger four person table and dove into the juice/water/milk and cut up fruit that was already available. I also had some tea and Olive took our hot breakfast requests. For our days at this B&B we had a choice of: 1) traditional Irish breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, etc); 2) eggs and bacon; 3)  smoked salmon and eggs; & 4) oatmeal porridge with brown sugar or maple syrup. I got the smoked salmon and eggs and Amber got the oatmeal porridge. We also got lots of toast and a few slices of Olive’s special Brown Bread (it’s pretty good). About the time our food arrived Kathy and Carol showed up but only Kathy wanted one of the hot breakfast items and that was eggs and bacon (I got her bacon).

After breakfast we drove into Malahide and parked along the street as it was free to park where we parked due to it being Sunday. We walked around the town a bit and went in a few shops basically killing time until the train to Dublin was supposed to leave. It wasn’t too early in the morning but not many places were open. When the time came (11-ish AM) we boarded the train – called DART – and took it to Tara St. in Dublin.

Once in Dublin it was our quest to first find a certain brand of HOHO (hop on hop off) bus and then ride it once around its full loop taking in all the sites and figuring out just what we wanted to actually hop off for and see in more detail. We did a full loop (minus jumping off to potentially find a place for lunch but eventually jumped back on to finish the loop). Then we got lunch.

We ate at some Eddie Rockets place which kind of felt like a similar named place in the states. It wasn’t anything special. We then went to a pub and I got my third pint of Guinness in Ireland. It was equally as good as the previous two and even Amber joined in on sipping it! She even said it tasted kind of good until it got down to just the liquid black goodness (meaing there was no more head). Feeling VERY refreshed we jumped back on the HOHO bus to one of the first stops: Trinity College and the Book of Kells.

It’s nine euro to see the book and only one more euro for a small guided tour of the college so we opted for the tour and walked around the college a bit. The tour dumps you off at the entrance to the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells contains the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – illustrated and in some form of Latin. Only two of the gospels are at the college and the other two are somewhere else. The DVDs and TV shows we watched prior to coming to Ireland made the Book of Kells into this awesome must-see tourist attraction but when we got there we weren’t really that impressed. Or, at least I wasn’t. The best part of was the library that came after the Book of Kells where two hundred thousand of the colleges books are kept. It’s an awesome site to behold. The college also contains a copy of every book every written in the British Isles from around 1861 and on. Not all the books are physically kept at the college, but still, that’s quite an awesome concept to think about. The tour guide said they have to add an extra half mile of shelving each year for all the new books.

After Trinity College and the Book of Kells we meant to head off toward Grafton street but were disoriented and ended up going into the Temple Bar area where I made everyone stop once again for another pint of Guinness! This fourth pint of Guinness was just as good as the three before it and Amber drank some more of it making me very happy.

After that we walked down the road next to the river Liffey – the river that divides the north part of Dublin from the South part of Dublin – and crossed the Ha’penny Bridge. Apparently way back in the day it used to cost half of a penny to cross per each pair of feet that walked across so ‘gentlemen’ would carry their ladies across to save money. Whatever.

On our way back to the train station we saw a tourist gift shop chain called Carroll’s and stopped in then it was back on the train to Malahide where we stopped at a grocery store and bought some cheese, bread, chips, and chocolate and then we drove back to the B&B.

We ate ‘dinner’ in the dining room and discovered the wireless’s WEP key so we could now get the netbook online and not have to use that weird UK/Ireland keyboard on the public computer. Shortly after that we all went to bed (separately, of course).

NOTE: We did some other various things throughout the day; this post (and future posts!) isn’t completely thorough.

We arrived at SeaTac earlier than we had planned due to getting a call from British Airways a couple of hours before the flight. In that phone call the lady on the other end was saying that the flight was overbooked by 4 people and since our party was 4 people they were asking if we could take a different flight. We hung up saying we couldn’t switch due to our connecting flight in London to Ireland being so close time-wise to this new flight but as the thought of getting upgraded to business class for free on another flight marinited in our minds we started to think that maybe we could make some other kind of switch work out. But, BA wasn’t answering the number they called from and the 800 number couldn’t connect us to SeaTac. So off we went a bit early in hopes of switching.

We arrived at SeaTac without incident & with no traffic (Friday slightly before rush-hour) and the BA switching deal was no longer available – oh well! We waited for the flight, ate some burger king, and read some British newspapers that had arrived from the plane we would soon be boarding.

The scheduled boarding time came and we eventually got on the plane. We paid for slightly better economy seats – ones touted as having power and more legroom – but they were actually quite cramped and I could never get the power outlet to work. They were probably slightly more comfortable than regular economy in that my knees didn’t touch the back of the seat in front of me but that’s probably about it.

The flight lasted forever as they always do when you’re cramped and uncomfortable. I’ve flown business class in the past (and on longer flights!) and those flights are a dream – they’re just un-Godly expensive and can only be done when I’m not the one actually paying for everything. Anyway, we got to London’s Heathrow airport on-time and quite anxious to start our next leg which at the time we didn’t know would be so tedious and time consuming!

Heathrow is huge! After walking quite a bit from terminmal 5 where we arrived on BA we finally found the area where we had to wait to catch a ‘transit’ (read: bus) to terminal 1. We waited and waited and finally the transit arrived. I’ve been on shuttles/trains/trams/busses at other airports and it’s usually a minute or two ride just getting you from one side of the airport to another but this transit ride to terminal 1 was literally 10 minutes long!

We got to terminal 1 – finally – and our epic march to the Aer Lingus terminal had now begun. First, we had to go through immigration. Since we were doing a non-BA connecting flight we had to officially enter British soil to continue to terminal 1. This process took forever as there was 1 guy processing the non-EU passports and there were already several people ahead of us in the ‘queue’ (read: line). We were already slightly confused – wondering if we were in the right place – because we had to fill out immigration cards and if you’re unfamiliar with these cards they ask where – and how long – you’ll be staying [in the country you've just arrived]. The problem we were having is that we weren’t staying in London so we were unsure what to put on the cards and there was no one around to help and time was quickly approaching for when we needed to board our flight to Ireland. We filled in nothing for the days and location boxes and waited in the queue. Finally we reached the man and he stamped our passports super quick – compared to the quickness of the others before us in the queue – and we were now on British soil and back on our way to terminal 1.

After going through immigration we continued to follow signs for terminal 1. We also needed to find an Aer Lingus desk as we weren’t able to print out our boarding passes at home the day before. We walked more and eventually had to go through security again – meaning pull out laptop, take off shoes, take out liquids bag, etc. – but once through security there were signs saying flight desks were near. We made it to the Aer Lingus desk eventually and got our boarding passes with ease – and also got exit row seats. Sweet! However, the guy indicated that the plane was at gate 80 and that it was about a 15 minute walk from our current location.

We started walking once again and finally made it to gate 80. Along the way we had to forfeit going into many good looking shops due to being so rushed for time. We had planned to get lunch before the flight as well but that also didn’t happen due to time constraints. When we arrived at gate 80 we ended up waiting about 10 minutes before the flight started boarding – which was awesome for me since I have no patience waiting for flights once a trip has begun.

We got on the plane – an A320 – and found our seats and immediately started talking about how these seats were so much more comfortable and how we had so much more leg room than the previous flight. The issue with this is that this flight from London to Ireland cost about 5 euros – ie. its SUPER CHEAP – and the flight we just came from where we paid extra for the better economy seats was SUPER EXPENSIVE. Ugh. Anyway, the flight boarded and we finally got clearance to push back and started to taxi and then finally we were up in the air on our way to Ireland!

The flight from London to Dublin was only an hour which was awesome and before we knew it we had landed at Dublin and were headed for immigration and customs! We all pulled out some eruos from an ATM on our way, too.

We were now through immigration and customs (sidenote: so easy going through these processes compared to Tokyo) and were headed to the Budget rental car station to get our car and get on our way to the B&B. There was a little bit of delay at Budget until they found an automatic with sufficient trunk space. We ended up getting some 4 door Skado (?) thing – think Toyota Camry-ish – and now had to walk out and pick it up. We got the car, put our stuff in it, and it was now time to head off to the B&B.

We do a couple of laps around the Budget parking lot before entering actual roads and WOW IT WAS WEIRD. (They drive on the left in Ireland). I kept wanting to look to the right for the rear view and, like when starting to drive originally, depth perception and the ‘feel’ of how wide the car was was totally off. Feeling kind of comfortable from the parking lot laps we got on the street entering traffic and head off for the B&B.

We had some google maps and a really awesome [allegedly] map book but we still got lost SEVERAL times trying to find the B&B. Weirdness of driving on the left side of the road aside, the road signs are weird and aren’t really matching up with the maps we printed and the map book. We drove on the M1 (like a main highway thing) for a bit before realizing we had gone too far north so we got turned around and on some route 132 road heading south and were doing quite well until a roundabout unexpectedly dumped us back on the M1 heading south toward the airport! The B&B was allegedly a few minutes from the airport so we were semi-ok with heading back towards the airport (due to how far north we had gone) but as we were coming south on the M1 we were getting closer and closer to the airport and the exit we decided to take was actually the airport exit. Doh!

We drove a bit following some signs for Malahide as the B&B was near Malahide. The signs were like ninjas, though, and didn’t pop out or make themselves visible until it was too late. One missed turn and a u-turn in a roundabout later and we were back on a road to Malahide. Going to Malahid would be too far as the B&B was somewhere on the way to Malahide but not in Malahide.

We drove for a few kilometers and finally saw a sign for a castle that we knew was a short walk from the B&B so we knew we were really close! We drove a little further and decided we needed to turn around so we did a u-turn at some building with a bunch of bikes in front of it and decided we would take the first road we encountered on our way back since we believed we were so close. We took the first road and it was indeed the road we needed. Another turn later and it was now time to find the B&B on the tiny road we were on. We ended up passing the B&B as we only saw the sign for it as we passed by so another u-turn later in someones driveway and a bit more driving we were finally at the B&B!

We were greeted by Olive, the owner lady, and she was super nice and inviting and showed us our rooms and offered to make us a tea or coffee. I accepted the tea offer and after we unpacked the car we talked with her briefly about what was around us and where to go for – and how to get to – dinner.

Olive drove us into Malahide herself and dropped us off near where we talked about eating dinner – Smyths. After finally finding the eating section (as the place had a small bar area and a larger bar area and behind that was an area for food) we sat down and ordered some food. I also got a Guinness. And then another.

The Guinness’s were awesome and the food was regular ‘pub grub’ as people and guidebooks call it. I got some sandwhich thing, Amber got fish and chips, Carol got some french fries covered in cheese and bacon pieces, and Kathy got a veggie burger. After eating, and because we were so tired, we jumped in a cab and went back to the B&B.

The cab driver was a douche, though, as he clearly missed turns on the GPS to run the meter up. It’s bad when we’ve only been there for an hour or so and were telling him he should have turned somewhere. It should have been a 7 euro trip but it turned into 14 euros. We’re not going to let that happen next time.

Back at the B&B I made some twitter and facebook posts on the public computer they have sitting out while Amber showered. Then, while I did my laundry in the sink and showered, she did the same (facebook, email). After that it was bed time eventhough it was only about 8:00 PM. I threw a melatonin into my nightly pill regiment and passed out. Amber was pretty much asleep by the time I got into bed.

Just like the Tokyo trips I’ve taken I woke up pretty early and very wide awake. It was about 5:30 AM when I started typing this all up and it’s now about 6:22 AM – still too early to do anything. I think I’ll try to get a little bit more sleep as breakfast doesn’t start until 8 AM. I wont’ be able to post this until later, too.