Our Irish Honeymoon began on December 29, 2008. Kristy and I were already packed and ready to go in the morning, despite our plane not departing Chicago until 6:30 PM. After some final confirmations for our flight, hotel and rental car and a failed attempt at a haircut for me, we set off for Chicago. Kristy's sister Sarah had stayed with us the night before and drove down to Chicago with us and her and her boyfriend gave us a ride to O'Hare.
After arriving at O'Hare, we were glad to have checked into our flight online. We checked our bags and walked towards our gate. After less than an hour, we boarded the plane and watched in awe as each passenger had a personal screen and the ability to watch movies, television shows and play games on their own. We buckled in and readied ourselves for takeoff after having explored the electronic possibilities.
After leveling off, the flight Aer Lingus flight crew distributed our dinners. I had beef ravioli, and Kristy got a vegetarian dinner that had vegetables and tofu. We both thought the food was very good, especially considering that we had it on an airplane.
Kristy and I wanted to sleep as much as possible on the plane, but knew sleep was at least a few hours off. So, we watched Steve Carell in "Get Smart" simultaneously by pushing the play buttons at the exact same time. During the movie, we took Dramamine to help us sleep. However, it did not work as there was a crying baby that insisted on keeping us awake. I, however, true to form when medicated, got a bit antsy and agitated.
So, during the entire 8-hour flight, neither of us slept at all. To make matters worse, the time change meant that we landed in Dublin at 8:00 AM on December 30. Prior to landing, we saw our first Irish sunrise... sort off. We saw the sunrise slowly over the horizon. Then, however, as we landed we descended into pitch black darkness. There was such thick cloud cover over the entire island that, none of the light got to ground level.
We landed in Dublin without incident, got our bags and waited for our bus that went directly to our hotel in Tallaght, in southern Dublin. The bus ride allowed us to see some of Dublin and observe Irish drivers. Mostly though, it allowed us to rest a little.
After 45-minutes, we arrived at our hotel, the Glas Haus. It was before 11:00 AM, but we decided to see if we could check in or at least check in our luggage. Our room was ready and we were allowed to check in, which may not have been the best option, because of the bed in the room.
An embarrassing aside: in the room, our first problem was getting a light to turn on which was accomplished by putting a room key in a slot by the door that turned on the electricity for the room. Additionally, other lights were plugged into outlets that needed to be turned on individually. I have never felt that my education had failed me, until it took me more than 10-minutes to turn on the lights in a hotel room.
To return: Being able to check into the hotel room may not have been the best option because of the bed and our exhaustion. We decided to take a nap. However, there was no alarm clock and I discovered that my watch battery was dying. This meant that we had no way of determining a time to get up. We fell asleep and awoke many hours later, at around 2:00 PM. After this we headed into the city.
30.12.08
Day 1: An Evening in Dublin
When we finally managed to wake up enough to stumble out into Ireland, the sun was already setting. We took the tram to the City Centre and rode until the end of the line. Upon departing the train, we discovered that we had gone a bit too far (the first of several navigational errors on my part) and had to backtrack to be in the main part of the city. We found our way to the River Liffey and quickly found Cassidy's Bar on Westmoreland Street to grab our first bite of Irish fare and a historical start to our trip.
Irish History Tidbit: Cassidy's Bar was established in 1856 and was once the home of The Freeman's Journal, the oldest national newspaper in Ireland which harbored some of the leaders of the 1916 rising.
For our first Irish meal we stuck with what the Irish know best: stew and fish & chips. For beverages, I ordered a delicious pint of Bulmer's cider while Chad stuck to the more traditional Coke which arrived in a glass 10 oz bottle. Both our plates arrived piping hot and while I dove into my fish & chips, Chad attempted to test a small portion of his stew. Unfortunately even the test was too much for Chad's tongue and he immediately drank his entire glass bottle of Coke. But the damage was done- I had nearly finished my fish & chips before Chad was able to eat any of his stew.
We finished the rest of our meals (delicately on Chad's part) and beverages and then decided to head out into the city once more. We walked toward Grafton street, the shopping district, which was still beautifully decorated for the holiday season. On the way we stopped at Trinity College and went to see if the Book of Kells would be open the next day. Little did we know that most of Ireland goes on a Christmas schedule until after New Year's Eve, including the Book of Kells. After walking to St. Stephen's Green and back down Grafton Street, we headed down O'Connell. Once we felt we had seen enough for the evening, we took the train back to Tallacht.
Our trip to the supermarket was exciting since it was Chad's first time ever seeing a European grocery store. It was significantly smaller than most US grocery stores, which means that they don't have nearly as much selection. We spotted a 24 pack of Budweiser on sale for 39.99 euro which is a whopping $55 after the exchange rate. After looking through all the shelves, we picked out some essentials for the next few days, including digestivo cookies, Kinder chocolate, 2L of water, a huge wafer cookie, 4 cans of Strongbow Cider, and cheddar & onion chips.
We headed back to the hotel with our haul and settled in for the evening. Ireland has about seven channels, including a few from BBC. We enjoyed watching the end of year recap shows and especially laughed at one segment which featured an Irish man mocking an American CNN reporter by showing clip after clip of him running with his camera crew from "danger".
We hit the hay fairly early since we were still exhausted from not sleeping on the plane. We fell fast asleep within seconds excited to wake up early and begin our first full day in Dublin.
Irish History Tidbit: Cassidy's Bar was established in 1856 and was once the home of The Freeman's Journal, the oldest national newspaper in Ireland which harbored some of the leaders of the 1916 rising.
For our first Irish meal we stuck with what the Irish know best: stew and fish & chips. For beverages, I ordered a delicious pint of Bulmer's cider while Chad stuck to the more traditional Coke which arrived in a glass 10 oz bottle. Both our plates arrived piping hot and while I dove into my fish & chips, Chad attempted to test a small portion of his stew. Unfortunately even the test was too much for Chad's tongue and he immediately drank his entire glass bottle of Coke. But the damage was done- I had nearly finished my fish & chips before Chad was able to eat any of his stew.
We finished the rest of our meals (delicately on Chad's part) and beverages and then decided to head out into the city once more. We walked toward Grafton street, the shopping district, which was still beautifully decorated for the holiday season. On the way we stopped at Trinity College and went to see if the Book of Kells would be open the next day. Little did we know that most of Ireland goes on a Christmas schedule until after New Year's Eve, including the Book of Kells. After walking to St. Stephen's Green and back down Grafton Street, we headed down O'Connell. Once we felt we had seen enough for the evening, we took the train back to Tallacht.
Our trip to the supermarket was exciting since it was Chad's first time ever seeing a European grocery store. It was significantly smaller than most US grocery stores, which means that they don't have nearly as much selection. We spotted a 24 pack of Budweiser on sale for 39.99 euro which is a whopping $55 after the exchange rate. After looking through all the shelves, we picked out some essentials for the next few days, including digestivo cookies, Kinder chocolate, 2L of water, a huge wafer cookie, 4 cans of Strongbow Cider, and cheddar & onion chips.
We headed back to the hotel with our haul and settled in for the evening. Ireland has about seven channels, including a few from BBC. We enjoyed watching the end of year recap shows and especially laughed at one segment which featured an Irish man mocking an American CNN reporter by showing clip after clip of him running with his camera crew from "danger".
We hit the hay fairly early since we were still exhausted from not sleeping on the plane. We fell fast asleep within seconds excited to wake up early and begin our first full day in Dublin.
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