We had packed and repacked our bags the night before trying to get our trinkets and clothes to fit just snug enough that nothing would move around too much. Luckily, we had carried an empty suitcase all throughout our trip. At this point, it was filled to the brim with various gifts... including Christmas pine cones that I was sure would not make it home as anything more than Christmas potpourri.
After packing the rest of our clothes, we checked over the room and made our way towards the attached restaurant/lounge for our final Irish breakfast. Now, to get a complete picture of what ensued, I must take you back to Galway when we were going to the car to leave the city on Day 8:
The night before (Day 7), the receptionist at the hotel gave us instructions on how to park the car and get our ticket validated to ensure the lower rate for hotel guests. I think Kristy and I both pride ourselves on our listening abilities, but we had a knack for hearing different things on this trip. She swore that she heard the receptionist say that in order to pay for our parking, we needed to go to the check-in counter of the hotel that actually owns the ramp. I swore that I heard her say that we need to pay at the security office of the parking ramp that was on the second level. After discussing it, I capitulated to her memory, but would not do the talking in the hotel lobby. She agreed confident that she was going to prove me wrong. We walked into the lobby of the adjoining hotel and Kristy asked how she could pay for the parking spot. The receptionist looked rather confused as Kristy explained that the employee at the Skeffington Arms said to pay at this hotel. Eventually, she understood and told us to pay at the security office. I asked, probably too proudly, if it was located on the second level of the ramp and she answered affirmatively. Kristy and I laughed the situation off as nothing but a fun memory to have of our time in Galway.
Back to our morning in Mullingar- going to breakfast. We walked into the lobby, checked out and left our bags at the check-in desk so we did not have to drag them into the restaurant. The receptionist told us where the restaurant was and we walked towards it. Kristy swore that she heard the receptionist say that we needed to turn right and walk up the stairs. I swore that she said turn left and go down the stairs. We had gotten the instructions not a minute earlier, but we were both adamant about what we heard. I, again surrendered to Kristy. We turned right and walked up the stairs to find two hotel workers cleaning the bar. Without a word, we turned back and walked in the direction that I had wanted. Suddenly, we were standing in the beautiful restaurant. Kristy and I are usually on the same page, but she self-admittedly struggled with directions on this trip and it is the first time that she worried about her ability to listen. More importantly though, we will always remember how we laughed so hard every time we followed her memory of directions in Ireland- especially in Galway and Mullingar. My moment of glory was forth coming...
We sat down and ordered- Full for me and Irish pancakes for Kristy. She was, though, starting to get nervous for our flight and did not eat much. I, on the other hand, wanted to eat all of my last Irish breakfast. I even tried the black pudding, which I had poked around at, but never earnestly tried before. We finished breakfast again leaving almost the entire loaf of toast untouched.
We next went to our car to look at the result of the Winter Weather Warning that had gone on throughout the night and continued into the morning. It was awesome: our car had a thin layer of frost on it. It was nothing major and the parking lot and roads were not slippery at all, but our car... oh, our car. What were we going to do?!? We turned it on and began the defrosting process and I slid my hand down each of the windows to remove the product of the treacherous winter weather. No scraper for me! (Well, we did not have a scraper in the car or I would have considered using it).
We hopped on the dual carriageway towards Dublin. It was amazingly wide open and we got up to speed as quickly as the other Irish drivers. As we drove, the sun began to peek out over the horizon, giving us our second Irish sunrise. There were spots of frost on the fields that we passed, but it was very slight and melted away as soon as the sun began to rise. In no time, we were on the major highway around Dublin and began looking for our exit.
I had printed Google Map instructions to get to the cemetery, but I wisely decided to only get them from the airport, or the exact opposite direction from that which we were traveling. Despite this, we found the exit and tried to inverse the directions in our head as we drove. We both failed pretty terribly and ended up all over the northern suburbs of Dublin and at one point driving for about 10-minutes on some highway into the next county.
Eventually, we got back to where we thought the cemetery was. It ended up being a residential street and as we were turning around, we asked a local man walking along the road where the cemetery was. As the cemetery is the most famous in all of Ireland, he knew exactly what we were talking about and gave us directions going in the opposite direction. We thanked him and he told us that we could not miss it along the road. He was not joking, because as we followed his directions, suddenly a huge stone wall ran along the road for over a mile. Somewhere near the middle of the most tremendous cemetery we had ever seen, we found the entrance. We walked in and were amazed at the beauty of the place and the amazing mix of grandeur and peace.
One reason we were there was to find where Michael Collins was laid to rest. I walked into the office located just inside the iron gate and asked for directions. Man, I could have used Kristy there, because I left sure of where it was located but could not find it in the maze of graves and monuments. The woman had said something like go down the first path until it ends and take a right. I did that and found nothing except thousands and thousands of headstones and Celtic monuments tightly pressed against each other, without any green space between them. So, I went back to the office while Kristy took what became her favorite pictures of our trip of the gravestones with the sun rising behind them. The woman in the office looked a tad annoyed as I asked for directions again. Her answer was exactly the same even as I asked for clarification. So, off I went once again.
Kristy and I decided to split up and walk the parallel paths that I thought could be the area. Then, I stumbled into it. It was a simple and understated cross that was covered with fresh flowers. I called for Kristy and looked around: Michael Collins was buried probably 50-feet behind the office building along the stone fence, all alone. We thought of many ways to make the directions better, but understood how easy it would be to find if you know where it is and difficult to describe the location to someone else. Anyways, we took some pictures and walked around for a few minutes and could not believe the incredible size of the cemetery.
We got back into the car and headed for the Enterprise drop off location. On our way it hit us: neither of us remembered exactly where it was located. Hmm... not too big of a problem I thought as we together came up with a general location and landmarks that we remembered from six days before. Well, it turns out airports pretty much look the same on all sides except for the the front. In addition, our landmarks could not help us too much as a construction project had begun that severely changed the traffic patterns around the airport. In fact, only one lane was allowed to pass through the three exit roundabout at a time while the cars in the other directions were forced to wait.
We did not recognize the construction but we did recognize some of the landmarks, so we tried all of the streets at that roundabout, except one that I did not think was right. Time was running so quickly and we got more and more confused the more we drove in circles on all sides of the airport. We needed to return the car by 11:30 and it was already after 11:oo. Feeling the urgency of the situation, we stopped at Europcar's drop off site (a competitor rental agency) near the main terminal to ask for directions. I was in the car sitting in a security zone hoping that they would not make me leave before Kristy returned with directions. If I had to leave, it would probably be more than 1/2 hour before I could make the loop and pick her up. Without cellphones, this was not a good prospect. Luckily, she ran back with directions to Enterprise. It happened to be on the street that I had disregarded . . .
We began in that direction and got stopped at the construction. 5-minutes passed before we got through the roundabout. When we did, we drove down the road about 1/2 mile and pulled into the Enterprise lot 4-minutes before 11:30. VICTORY!
Back to our morning in Mullingar- going to breakfast. We walked into the lobby, checked out and left our bags at the check-in desk so we did not have to drag them into the restaurant. The receptionist told us where the restaurant was and we walked towards it. Kristy swore that she heard the receptionist say that we needed to turn right and walk up the stairs. I swore that she said turn left and go down the stairs. We had gotten the instructions not a minute earlier, but we were both adamant about what we heard. I, again surrendered to Kristy. We turned right and walked up the stairs to find two hotel workers cleaning the bar. Without a word, we turned back and walked in the direction that I had wanted. Suddenly, we were standing in the beautiful restaurant. Kristy and I are usually on the same page, but she self-admittedly struggled with directions on this trip and it is the first time that she worried about her ability to listen. More importantly though, we will always remember how we laughed so hard every time we followed her memory of directions in Ireland- especially in Galway and Mullingar. My moment of glory was forth coming...
We sat down and ordered- Full for me and Irish pancakes for Kristy. She was, though, starting to get nervous for our flight and did not eat much. I, on the other hand, wanted to eat all of my last Irish breakfast. I even tried the black pudding, which I had poked around at, but never earnestly tried before. We finished breakfast again leaving almost the entire loaf of toast untouched.
We next went to our car to look at the result of the Winter Weather Warning that had gone on throughout the night and continued into the morning. It was awesome: our car had a thin layer of frost on it. It was nothing major and the parking lot and roads were not slippery at all, but our car... oh, our car. What were we going to do?!? We turned it on and began the defrosting process and I slid my hand down each of the windows to remove the product of the treacherous winter weather. No scraper for me! (Well, we did not have a scraper in the car or I would have considered using it).
We hopped on the dual carriageway towards Dublin. It was amazingly wide open and we got up to speed as quickly as the other Irish drivers. As we drove, the sun began to peek out over the horizon, giving us our second Irish sunrise. There were spots of frost on the fields that we passed, but it was very slight and melted away as soon as the sun began to rise. In no time, we were on the major highway around Dublin and began looking for our exit.
I had printed Google Map instructions to get to the cemetery, but I wisely decided to only get them from the airport, or the exact opposite direction from that which we were traveling. Despite this, we found the exit and tried to inverse the directions in our head as we drove. We both failed pretty terribly and ended up all over the northern suburbs of Dublin and at one point driving for about 10-minutes on some highway into the next county.
Eventually, we got back to where we thought the cemetery was. It ended up being a residential street and as we were turning around, we asked a local man walking along the road where the cemetery was. As the cemetery is the most famous in all of Ireland, he knew exactly what we were talking about and gave us directions going in the opposite direction. We thanked him and he told us that we could not miss it along the road. He was not joking, because as we followed his directions, suddenly a huge stone wall ran along the road for over a mile. Somewhere near the middle of the most tremendous cemetery we had ever seen, we found the entrance. We walked in and were amazed at the beauty of the place and the amazing mix of grandeur and peace.
One reason we were there was to find where Michael Collins was laid to rest. I walked into the office located just inside the iron gate and asked for directions. Man, I could have used Kristy there, because I left sure of where it was located but could not find it in the maze of graves and monuments. The woman had said something like go down the first path until it ends and take a right. I did that and found nothing except thousands and thousands of headstones and Celtic monuments tightly pressed against each other, without any green space between them. So, I went back to the office while Kristy took what became her favorite pictures of our trip of the gravestones with the sun rising behind them. The woman in the office looked a tad annoyed as I asked for directions again. Her answer was exactly the same even as I asked for clarification. So, off I went once again.
Kristy and I decided to split up and walk the parallel paths that I thought could be the area. Then, I stumbled into it. It was a simple and understated cross that was covered with fresh flowers. I called for Kristy and looked around: Michael Collins was buried probably 50-feet behind the office building along the stone fence, all alone. We thought of many ways to make the directions better, but understood how easy it would be to find if you know where it is and difficult to describe the location to someone else. Anyways, we took some pictures and walked around for a few minutes and could not believe the incredible size of the cemetery.
We got back into the car and headed for the Enterprise drop off location. On our way it hit us: neither of us remembered exactly where it was located. Hmm... not too big of a problem I thought as we together came up with a general location and landmarks that we remembered from six days before. Well, it turns out airports pretty much look the same on all sides except for the the front. In addition, our landmarks could not help us too much as a construction project had begun that severely changed the traffic patterns around the airport. In fact, only one lane was allowed to pass through the three exit roundabout at a time while the cars in the other directions were forced to wait.
We did not recognize the construction but we did recognize some of the landmarks, so we tried all of the streets at that roundabout, except one that I did not think was right. Time was running so quickly and we got more and more confused the more we drove in circles on all sides of the airport. We needed to return the car by 11:30 and it was already after 11:oo. Feeling the urgency of the situation, we stopped at Europcar's drop off site (a competitor rental agency) near the main terminal to ask for directions. I was in the car sitting in a security zone hoping that they would not make me leave before Kristy returned with directions. If I had to leave, it would probably be more than 1/2 hour before I could make the loop and pick her up. Without cellphones, this was not a good prospect. Luckily, she ran back with directions to Enterprise. It happened to be on the street that I had disregarded . . .
We began in that direction and got stopped at the construction. 5-minutes passed before we got through the roundabout. When we did, we drove down the road about 1/2 mile and pulled into the Enterprise lot 4-minutes before 11:30. VICTORY!