The prison Kilmainham Goal (or Kilmainham Jail) was opened in 1796 and extended during the following years constantly. Beside the GPO (general post office) Kilmainham Jail is the most important scene of the Irish struggle for independence - with a guidance the visitor gets a great insight into Irish history. Except O'Connel and the IRA leader Michael Collins here were locked up all leaders of the Irish struggle for independence and the Easter uprising of 1916 here in Kilmainham Goal. Prices : Adult about EUR 5.00

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After driving in Ireland for the past five days Angie and I were ready to be stationary for the next two days before flying home.  Driving in Ireland can be very stressful and being stuck in a car day after day can make you stir crazy even though the views are fabulous.  I am hyper; I can’t sit still for long!  So I was ready for Dublin!

But before we could get to our hotel, we had to drop off our rental car.  That was a fiasco as the traffic to Dublin on the M50 was a mess.  I realize most cities at rush hour are bad, but the M50 was under construction in parts and everything was at a crawl.  I had been warned that would happen, but I had my doubts.  I live in NYC, now that is traffic.  I was wrong!  Dublin isn’t the largest city, but it has the traffic of one.

We ended up getting lost 5 times trying to find the Atlas Car Rental drop off site and were happy to find it after looking for an hour.  It was finally time to ditch the vehicle.  So with suitcases in had we headed onto bus 41 to O’Connell Street.

As we got off of the bus we were happy to see that the sun was burning brightly and that we were right next to the Information Center.  From there, we grabbed a map and headed to Bloom’s Hotel in the Temple Bar District. 

As we were crossing the Liffey, I was excited to see that Dublin was a very attractive city, though a lot smaller than I had expected.  From what I could see this wasn’t a city of skyscrapers and gaudy neon signs, in fact many of Europe’s major cities don’t appear to be into skyscrapers as they have so many historical buildings they don’t need anything like that.

After about a 7 minute jaunt, we were at Temple Bar and I have to say it was pretty sweet.  It reminded me a lot of the Village in NYC with a lot of young hip types hanging out in coffee bars and cafes, with lots of interesting restaurants and shops here and there.  From what I understand Temple Bar District is the medieval section of Dublin and has the cobblestone to prove it!  I love cobblestone, but with suitcases and narrow sidewalks, it was an adventure.  Still I was happy that we had chosen this locale.

While researching our trip Angie and I had decided that we didn’t really care about being in a great hotel as we knew we would hardly even be there.  So online we spotted a good deal at Bloom’s Hotel.  Bloom’s Hotel wasn’t bad as it was clean, though the room was a little dark as there wasn’t a lot of lighting and one of the light bulbs had burned out.  The shower was a decent size which is hard to find in Ireland, so it was all good.

After checking in, we grabbed some much needed coffee and were ready to check out Dublin.  I know it is touristy but we decided to try out the Hop and Stop.  The reason was, it wasn’t badly priced and you could stop at all the main attractions in Dublin and get a history lesson to boot.  I have never done this before, but I was strangely looking forward to it as they have them in NYC and I always find myself waving at the people on top of the buses from the street.

The barker saw us reading the sign and cut us a deal if we got on at that time.  An even better price!  So we agreed and hopped on.  A side note.  Half of the tours are going to audio tours and they suck.  Half the time the sound doesn’t even work.  My advice is wait until there is a live tour guide as they have better information and add a lot of humor; Irish style.  The guy we had originally was named Edward and he was joking around the whole time.  I didn’t learn as much as I did the next day with the women tour guide, but he made me laugh.  I really hope Dublin doesn’t end up getting rid of all the live tour guides as that is what makes the trip.

Angie was really excited about seeing the Guinness Store.  I don’t drink beer myself and am more of a fan of the historical sites and parks, but I am a team player, so I figured, why not?  So we hopped off at the lucky number thirteen stop (along with half the bus) and we were off.  The line getting in was crazy!  I can’t believe this many people were interested in the history of Guinness.  Also, I was surprised to see that the price was pretty high to get in and even worse if you are on the US Dollar.  I ended up paying $21.00 for the tour.  Again, I hate beer!  Yikes!

After we purchased our tickets, we were greeted by a tour guide who gave us the general information about Guinness and how he built the company and what we would find within the building.  After that introduction, he disappeared, it turned out that there are no tour guides at Guinness and you are on your own.

I don’t really recall much that grabbed me about the Guinness Tour, except that the beer waterfall was pretty cool and served as a wishing well of sorts.  I am always up for a good wish, but realized the lowest coin I had was a 1 Euro piece.  That puppy wasn’t going anywhere, so Angie and I pulled out one American penny apiece and made a wish and flipped it into the waterfall.  A wish is a wish no matter what currency you use, but I know someone would be hating on us later when they were collecting the money.

In fact I think Guinness was hating us now, because every floor we were on we would run in to the is group of older women who were just mean vile people.  They would bump into people, sneer, get in the way of people’s photos and glare at the person taking the photo as if it was there fault and just acted plain rude.  They were acting as if they were royalty and the rest if us mere peons.  Try as we might to avoid these women we couldn’t!

We got to the 3^rd or 4^th floor and I was happy to see they had shot glasses full of Guinness beer to tide you over until the Gravity Bar.  I had never had Guinness before, as again, I hate beer!  Why?  I had a bad experience once that even 20 years of counseling could never erase.  Most people have a tequila story they tell you to explain why they can’t ever drink it again.  Mine is a beer story and just as tragic.  But after spotting the vile women again (who again were causing a scene), I decided I needed some liquor; stat.

So up to the counter I went to sample my first Guinness.  Angie will drink beer and she downed it.  I stared at the head of foam and thick black beer in horror for a few moments.  This wasn’t a drink; this was a meal, one that I don’t think I wanted to sample.  Finally I took the plunge!  Okay, it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, but it was still yucky for a non beer drinker.  The foam was thick like whipped cream, but not as happy.  Angie laughed as I grimaced to get it down.  I quickly grabbed a stick of gum to clean my palette and we were on our way.  But not before we ran into the women again!  How was this possible, they had 5 minutes on us!

We finally found some solace in the interactive room, which wasn’t that great anyway as it tells you the effect that liquor has on all of your major organs, what a deal breaker!  Yes, I know liquor isn’t good for you, but I don’t need to hear and see in detail that it can kill every organ in your body in a horrific way!  What a buzz kill this was as we hadn’t even hit the Gravity Bar yet.

But that would soon change as we decided that Gravity Bar would be our next stop.  Angie turned in her ticket to get her “free” Guinness.  I on the other hand passed as my first experience was less than stellar.  I wanted a juice, but the closest thing they have is an Orange Fanta.  I don’t really drink soda, especially anything orange flavor, but ended up with a coke anyway as they didn’t have anything else but beer and soda. 

The Gravity bar is pretty cool as it is an all glass observation deck that gives you a nice view of Dublin.  There isn’t a lot of seating, so we stood by the window and took a few cheesy photos.  We were laughing and having a great time until we turned and were face to face with the vile women.  They were shoving people to get into seats and forcing people out.  VILE!  Many people turned to look over at them in disgust, we weren’t the only ones, trust me. After spending 30 minutes in the Gravity Bar, we knew this was an omen and we needed to leave.

But first it was time to hit the Ladies Room before we continued exploring Dublin.  We both exited our stall only to find the Vile Women had come in and taken over the whole sink counter with their makeup and hairspray and were screeching at each other.  Both Angie and I stared at each other in disbelief, no way!  They wouldn’t move their stuff and were piling on the make up.  I was not leaving without washing my hands and forced my way in.  After we were done, Angie and I ran to the stairwell and booked down the stairs as fast as we could laughing the whole way, the experience was so wrong that it was right!  I think I might have broken the world record for sprinting! 

As we hit the back door we took a deep breath and began the journey back to the Temple Bar District.  It was a beautiful day, just perfect for exploring and the best part was we were free from the Vile Women!

After checking out some various sites such at the Dublina, Angie and I headed out to find somewhere to eat that was relatively cheap but not scary.  We settled on an India restaurant that had a fixed meal.  The food was really great!  The only thing was that it was extremely hot!  I would take a few bites and then down water.  At least I hit my 8 glass water quota for the day…

After dinner, I realized that I was coming down with something as my throat was sore and I had a slight stomach problem (this was prior to the Indian meal mind you). We had a free entrance to Club M as it is attached to the Bloom’s Hotel and all guests of the hotel get free admission.  Angie was concerned that I should stay in for the night as it would probably be dead since it was a Sunday night.  But I told her that drinking would probably kick it right out, if it didn’t explode my heart first (thanks, Guinness tour)!

So after getting dressed up, Angie and I threw on an overcoat and were on our way to experience Dublin night life.  Temple Bar District is known for it partying, but we had decided to only stay out until 2AM.  When we left it was 11PM and pretty quiet.  There were some street performers and tourists taking their photos, a nice scene.  But when we turned the corner the next thing I knew, it was pure chaos!  We heard yelling and people slamming their fists on the glass of the pub above us.  We looked up to see two guys with beers pretending to lick the glass and were motioning for us to come up.  Uh, no…

We hurried off only to be accosted by a man who may have been homeless. He started hooting and hollering and trying to hit on us.  It didn’t stop there, we walked back into our hotel to get away from him and he came in and tried to follow us back into the lobby, screaming that he loved the ladies.  Uh, okay…maybe I should be flattered, but I was a little confused as these incidents had happened within the span of 60 seconds.  One of the guys at the hotel had to throw the guy out into the street.  I want to clarify that both Angie and I were completely covered, there was no skin showing as it was very chilly!

We sat down for a moment and looked at each other and laughed.  I have lived in NYC for a few years and I have never seen anything like this happen; ever.  Yes, you get weirdos, please it is New York City, it breeds them, but they don’t normally swarm in the span of one minute.  So we waited for five minutes before we ventured back out to head to Club M.

Club M looked like a standard club, it was a decent set up and there was a decent amount of people there for a Sunday night.  We were pretty stoked to find a table near the dance floor and were even more stoked to know that the drinks were 3.00 Euro all night!  It pays to drink on Sunday!

The music was not really my type.  Techno is pretty popular in Europe and so I wasn’t shocked to hear it being played.  I have to say I have never been a huge fan of techno music as it doesn’t have enough substance for me.  But apparently it wasn’t just us as, nobody was dancing at all, except for a guy and girl that were trying to “pop” to the music.  For those who don’t know, popping is a form of street dance that began in California.  Street dance is popular in NYC and you can see it at the 42^nd Street stop day and night and in the summer street performers are performing it everywhere so I am use to seeing a lot of levels of street dance.  Many of them are amazing and fun to watch as you pass by.

Well, when these two hit the floor people seemed confused and kept staring at them.  I kept staring because they were executing the moves incorrectly as they were very sloppy.  I will give them kudos for being confident and performing by themselves as nobody else would dance, but their moves needed serious work.

After an hour and three vodkas Angie and I scoped the room again, it was really filling up, but hardly anybody was dancing.  I think it was because the music was so bad!  I told Angie after number five I was hitting the floor no matter what was playing as I had to dance the liquor off.  She agreed.  But before we met that goal, we met a local from Dublin.  From what I could tell he wasn’t much of a dancer though he liked to drink.  I think he was a bit tipsy but very funny.  He tried to convince is he was older and played for the Saints, an American Football team, yet 20 minutes later he admitted he had never been to America.  Also, some of his facts on Football were off.  I think he figured as a woman I wouldn’t know much about football, he was wrong.

He also discussed American stereotypes and how many were true.  It was interesting as many of them are not true or are by region, but he had a bit too much to drink and wasn’t really getting what I was saying.  Still he was a very funny nice guy so we enjoyed talking to him.  Finally Angie and I were getting ready to dance but as soon as we stood up, the lights went on.  Apparently the club closes early on Sunday so after another half an hour we were forced out and hit the street.  By the time we got to bed it was around 4:30AM, so much for an early night.

We decided before we went to bed that we would get up around 11AM to go sightseeing.  That dream was dashed as were greeted with the sound of construction from the room under us.  Yep, full on demolition at 9AM after drinking the night before.  Beautiful!  Well, at least we would be getting an early start to seeing Dublin.

Our main goal for the day was to see the Kilmainham Gaol a prison located in Inchicore, Dublin.  This is a very historic jail as it housed many leaders of Irish rebellions and many were executed here, including the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916.  Kilmainham Gaol was built in 1796 to replace the old jail.  Men, women and children were all put into cells together as there was no segregation within the jail.  During the Potato Famine, many people committed petty crimes so that they could get in to the Gaol as they would be guaranteed at least a little to eat rather than starve.

You only get to see a little bit of the Gaol as it is very old and some areas are not in the best of shape.  Also, it does get very chilly so unless it is summer, you may want to bring a sweater or coat.

This was defiantly one of my favorite spots in Dublin.  The history and structure of the Gaol is amazing and worth seeing for sure.  Also, it is pretty cheap (5 Euros) and very informative.  I would recommend Kilmainham to anyone who enjoys history and the culture of Dublin.

After the Gaol, we were happy to see that the weather was still fantastic and decided to take in more of Dublin by foot.  Angie wanted to stop by Jameson as her father is into it, so she wanted gifts for him.  Luckily we weren’t going to tour it, I like whiskey; I like it a lot, but not enough to take a tour.  I was ready to hit a few parks and churches because the weather was so amazing, but first we needed to grab a bite to eat.

I know it is wrong, but while in Dublin we opted to eat fresh while we were there.  That could only mean one thing; Subway.  Now, I know it’s wrong to eat at an American franchise while overseas, but after renting a car, getting fuel and eating every meal out the exchange rate was killing us slowly and Subway was reasonable and everywhere.

While in Subway we learned three things, in Ireland it is SOOB-wey not Sub-wey.   Also, wearing a t-shirt with a certain four letter word that starts with an F in large letters is more than acceptable and loved by many.  Lastly, everything is the same as it is in America except that that they don’t use deli mustard.  In fact, they don’t really use mustard at all!  I am a huge fan of mustard as I am not a fan of mayo.  The first Subway we ate at had honey mustard that was more honey than anything and was way too sweet for a sandwich.  The second Subway actually had French’s Mustard which is big in the US.  I was shocked!  When I asked for it the women making my sandwich she looked confused.  Apparently, nobody asks for it, but let me tell you I was thrilled!

Another interesting side not: The Irish love “garlic” on their fries or sandwiches in Dublin.  This confused me at first as I would never think of garlic as a condiment, but I would be wrong. It turns out garlic is a sauce consisting of mayo with garlic and possibly salt.  By the end of the trip, I did try it on fries just to see what the hype was.  It wasn’t really for me, but at least I tried it.

After lunch, we decided to check out the Trinity College and its ground.  It was very pretty, though the brick area gave me flashbacks to Madrid, but on a smaller less crowded scale.  It really looked like the Plaza Mayor, though the rest of the structure was completely different.  Also, the grounds were beautiful!  Near the library was an emerald green lawn that had a maze pattern in it.  That kept me amused for a good ten minutes!  Surrounding the lawns are large buildings painted bright primary colors.  This place was amazing!

After about an hour exploring this area, Angie and I headed to some stores to buy a few trinkets.  When we got to the shopping area, we were surprised to see that everything was starting to close and it was only 6PM!  That is crazy talk!  So unfortunately, I was disappointed not to get anything from this trip.  I usually like to get a ring, necklace or piece of clothing, but the only clothing shops that were open didn’t have what I was looking for.  Still the main shopping area had a cool vibe to it and I enjoyed my time there regardless

It was starting to get late, but we both wanted to see St. Stephen’s Green, before we left as we had been told it was the most beautiful park in the city.  You know, it really was!  Because it was spring, there were bright flowers everywhere!  The weekend before I came to Ireland I had visited Central Park in NYC to get some nature and let me tell you, there was no comparison.  St. Stephen’s is so clean it is unreal.  What I like about Dublin is that people respect their parks and don’t litter and destroy it.  There were people of all ages and types partaking in the great weather and sitting on benches and lawns reading or talking to friends.

Angie and I ended up next to an older Irish gentleman.  What I love about the Irish, especially the older generation is that they love to get to know people.  At first our accents got in the way, but we both slowed down and it was smooth sailing from there.  He was very curious about America and how the different regions varied from each other.  He then mentioned how he wanted to visit Texas.  I found that odd as most people would rather visit New York, Florida or California, though I encourage people to see the other areas as well.  He asked me if I had ever been there and I told him that I hadn’t but it was on my list.  The reason he waned to know was because he had recently bought the Dallas DVD set.  I was confused at first. 

“Dallas the city?”

“No, the one with J.R. Ewing.” 

“Oh, the show from the 80’s?”  I asked confused

“Yes, do you like it?” 

I had to be honest with the guy I had never seen it before, though it is on Soap Network late at night, I think.  “No, but I think someone shot J.R.  Right?"  I really don't know anything about this show, so I couldn't help him out.  At least I wouldn't be spoiling anything for him.

The gentleman was very excited because both of the actors, J.R and his TV wife would be visiting Dublin in a couple weeks and tickets were very hard to get but he had friends who might be able to get some.  I loved this guy; I was smiling the whole time I was talking to him.  I asked if he had ever been to the US and he told me he hadn’t. In fact, he had lived in Dublin his whole life and had only left twice, the first time when he was 45 to visit Paris.  I asked if he had liked it and he told me he did, but after two days he couldn’t wait to get back to Dublin.

He had also been to England as well, but the longer he was away from it the more he wanted to come back to Dublin.  

“Dublin is like that you know, you can’t leave for long.”

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This hotel was so great and accomodating! My boyfriend and I arrived in Dublin at the crack of dawn, hoping to just check out the hotel and stash our bags until check in time. They had a room ready and we were more than happy to take advantage of it and get comfortable. We were traveling around Ireland for 2 weeks, with 1 week planned in Dublin. We stayed at ATL the first 3 days of our trip, ran around, came back, ran around, came back. Every time the front desk was about to accomodate us and give us great suggestions for Dublin as well as some of the other places we were heading. We were in Dublin over St. Patricks (how wonderfully cliche). They gave us a room overlooking the parade so we could sit and drink beers 3 stories above the parade and have a great view. The in hotel restaurant/bar was also really accomodating. The last few days we stayed there we got an even better upgrade. If traveling in Dublin and looking for a good hotel I'd highly recommend Adams Trinity.

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Got back late last night from a splendid weekend in Dublin, Ireland. My travel partners were two of my girlfriends from my program here in Barcelona, Stefanie and Kerry. As it turns out, they both go to IU too but none of us knew each other before the trip. They were great travel buddies though- both up for an adventure (or two, or five), but

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...Ah the emerald isle, we really did come up to Dublin to check out the pubs. I mean really, to have our travelin beer-fest on the road we had to come up here. And it was well worth it. Blake liked that we could communicate with the Irish easier than with the Germans, yet there was getting use to.

DRINKING GUINNESS

In this world we have beer drinkers that hate dark beer. They think that dark beer tastes nasty..okay...i think. But Blake is one of them and I cannot explain how much we discussed the importance of Guinness to the Irish and non-Irish that can drink like one! For me, how can we not come to Ireland and not drink Guinness unless you dont drink alcohol at all. thats understandable..but Blake had a tattoo done in Dublin of his family name to 'honor' his heritage, why he refused to drink a pint of guinness..i had to call him out on that one, how can you claim Irish ancestory and not have a pint of Guinness...that irratated him a lot..!!!! Of course no one can deny he can not out-drink me..very few people can..i have tolerance for beer, it's like water to me..so the motto for alcoholics everywhere, (im a liquer gal, Crown Royal type)

Going to the Guinness Storehouse was one of the highlights of our trip, it was interesting.

TEMPLE BAR AREA

I liked goin to the Hard Rock Cafe in Dublin but the drinks was expensive and it was really close to closing and there wasnt a seat we could find. Farringtons was nice too, it was the weekend! I remember going to one where we stuck out like a sore-thumb but it was alright, we were left alone and i had tried the one like apple cider...cant remember the name

I remember walking around a lot though Temple Bar and walking back to O'Connell bridge.

OUR NEW FRIEND, PLUTO

Course we always make friends where we go and finding Pluto, the Tattoo artist guy, was the highlight of our trip. I don't know his real name nor do I care. He gave us a good time, like drunken bums...we tried to get into bars at closing time but they looked at him and Blake and wouldnt let us in! But we found one, it was cool! Me and Blake had a flight tomorrow morning, heaven forbid we miss it.

AER LINGUS FLIGHT

yes we drank on the flight too back to Amsterdam...

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Stayed here about 12 months ago and found it very good value and in a perfect location as I was in town to visit the local Collins Baracks Museum and then across the river to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. Easy to get to and they have a very cheap (€10 for 24 hours) by Dublin city centre standards car park to the rear of the hotel. One quibble that is so common in Irish hotels is I couldn't find anyone with local knowledge or very good english language skills and my LUAS tram info request remains unclarified to this day. Worth a visit. I'm returning in June so maybe that is a recommendation in itself.

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Here I am eating breakfast in Dublin, Ireland. This is my first time here in this place. The breakfast was delightful. I think i had the best croissants in my entire life ( sorry Germany ). The morning was good, Blake is still asleep but I told him I would wake him up at 10. Not too sure what to do today. I'm not even sure if I will attend mass. When we're on a short schedule like this, there is soo much you want  to see not regret! I can hear the wind blowing hard outside my window, I think I want to buy more acessories-clothing wise!

There's soo much I wanna see on this island,  I know Dublin is not the WHOLE Ireland experiance but if there is ever another oppurtunity later in my lifetime, at the least I can re-call some places. I think this is the biggest Island I've been on!!!! sadly its not tropical...

There are a bunch of differences to way of life here and back home in the States, the obvious being roads. I'll be culturally sensitive to say the Irish don't drive on the 'wrong' side of the road, nor do the Americans or Germans. The Irish aren't 'right'---'er they stay left side!!! You guys know wut I mean, jus be fucked up somewhere where theres narrow roads and have traffic both ways with crazy drivers, thats all!!!!

The hotel room we are staying is probably the best we have stayed for the price we paid, 1 room has a doublebed, the other has a kitchenette, table and couch. Also i'm thinking about the Irishman who delivered my breakfast...he was cute!!! lol

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Reliable service, as soon as we got off the airport we decided to go with Days as they had faster pick up service than the other shuttle vans. Situated along the Ballymon, trashy apartments which will tear down soon as the locals have told me. Food served at Rueben's restaurant was decent. Has 2 computers near the bar there. Really liked the room service, the guy who brought it up was courteous and cute! They offer laundry service, wireless internet and free shuttle to the airport To get to the nearest shopping mall, they have printed directions on how to get to the Omni To get to City Centre there is a busline, it is cheaper than say spending 20 euro by taxi!!!

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i wont tell a whole narrative but i do want to share a funny story.

Me and my buddy Blake got in Dublin during Easter weekend and Blake really wants to get a tattoo here since he found his Family's name crest on a keychain at a souvenior shop. So what the kid did was instead of but it took a pic of it and then he found a tat shop and showed the dude what he wanted and they arranged a time the following day.

30 sum hours later I was in our hotel room, bored outta my mind cuz I was waiting on Blake to get back and then we would go for drinks. my cellphone rings. I answer.

" hAllo is Jessica there " Irish voice

Me disgruntled from waking up - 'yeah this is her'

" Ah Jessica, i got your number off the bathroom wall, it says to call here for a good time"

- - - - With mix emotions I thought i was gonna kill Blake but before i do why in the hell would someonw call me international for a 'good time'

" What the F*ck, are ya that f*ckin desperate!!!

*laughter on the other end*......" Jessica honey, im f*ckin wit you, i have Blake here, this is Pluto...

 Alright not only am i still pissed about the prank call now Blake is already drinking..WTF. Anyways they wanted me to come over to the Pub they were at, so I braved walking thro the Ballymon to take a bus to Upper Dorset. I was looking for Maye's. I found it after searching relentlessly from side to side of the double decker bus.

I met up with them and of course Pluto, the tattoo artist guy was very impressed with my looks, i get it a lot. I'm half Asian and African American.  He said buy me a drink, i said Guiness and he was impressed wit my drinking ability actually me and him went head-to-head, i had 6 pints of Guiness at Mayes and then we went bar-hoppin thro Temple Bar area. Man....fast forward later...at the last bar

" Jessie Baby, marry me"

"dont u have a girlfriend"

"oh u cant leave me"

" yea i can, i leave tomorrow"

"come on, i'll buy u another drink"

ok, i'll take another, but im not marrying you : )

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Finally a trip of a lifetime for the fifth or sixth time in my life!  Look, anytime I travel I get excited, but I have to say that for Ireland I was pretty stoked.  My friend Angie and I had decided that hanging out in Dublin wasn’t enough for these two blooming adventurers.  We decided we were going to go all Lewis and Clark and drive all around the Southern area of Ireland; it would be a lot of fun and a great way to see the countryside.  Well, yes and no.  Anyone who has driven in Ireland understands what we went through, but I am getting ahead of myself.

First off, we started in Dublin to pick up our rental car, that and we would be ending our Ireland adventure there so it all made sense.  Surprisingly enough customs in Dublin was relatively painless.  It was quick, efficient and the people were very nice.  Maybe we didn’t wait long because when we had landed in Dublin at the butt crack of down, still it was fast, so I was pleased.

I have to say, I was very tired, despite being excited to be there.  The flight had been one of the worst experiences of my life.  First off, I had rude people behind me who put their feet up on my chair the whole time and kept kicking it when they would move their feet.  When I tried to put my seat back to try to sleep (I can’t sleep well on planes), they pushed it back up and told me I couldn’t do that.  I made the point that they had reclines theirs, so what was their issue.  They complained they wouldn’t be able to put their feet up comfortably.  Are you kidding me?  They weren’t going to budge, so unfortunately a stewardess had to be called over for something that is common sense and common courtesy, or one would think.  She looked at them like they were on crack and told them to move their feet now.  I got a few swift kicks to the back of the seat after that.  There is a special place in hell for people like that…

Anyway, finally I was beginning to drift off to sleep when I hit the worst turbulence, ever!  I am not kidding, EVER!  It started out pretty bumpy, but got to the point where the crew had to sit down and buckle up.  Then we began to drop several feet at a time making my stomach drop.  Okay, that was bad, but I could handle it, right?  No!  The next thing I knew the plane would dip several feet and then turn on it side and then correct itself.  Not once, but several times before it would start to be thrown about and dipping again.  Everytime it would dip and roll people would have a look of horror on their face.

I couldn’t take it anymore!  You could feel the unease of the situation.  Finally the annoying people behind me took their feet off my chair and went into fetal position, at least there was one positive.  People were getting up to use that bathrooms to throw up and the guy next to me was freaking out and downing the 3 vodkas he had ordered spilling the left over ice all over my carry on.  The guy was not all there from the beginning so I was not going to yell at him, especially since we all thought we were going to die.

The good news is, we didn’t, but I won’t lie, I thought it was all over for me and I tried to sleep so I wouldn’t see death coming.  All I could think of was the show Lost and that I hoped I would be a survivor and began scanning the plane for a Sawyer look alike, but feared I would be stuck on an island with the seat kickers instead!

Yes, that was the worst and longest flight of my life, folks.  I couldn’t get off of the plane fast enough and was actually looking forward to customs for once.

After customs, we headed over to retrieve our car which ended up costing a small fortune.  Just a little FYI, when you rent a car in Ireland know that it will cost much more than it would in the states or anywhere else.  The reason for this is the roads are small and not in the greatest shape the further you get away from the major cities.  It is very easy to blow out a tire, rip off a car mirror or scratch the car, all which you will pay for dearly if you are not insured.  For us this was not an option, especially with the US Dollar as weak as it has been lately.

Do your research for rental cars and do them well.  The quotes you get online are not exactly true as there are hidden fees.  Nova is a company in Ireland that rents cars with no hidden fees.  The only reason I didn’t go through Nova was my credit cards is one of the only ones on the planet that covers car insurance in Ireland, so I lucked out.  I went through Atlas and they seemed pretty honest and let me know ahead of time the extras I would pay at the counter.  

The most expensive part of the renting cars is the ridiculous price of insurance if you don’t have any and if you can’t drive manuals.  If you have to drive an automatic you will pay twice as much.  Also the gas prices over there are crazy, especially with the exchange rate for the US Dollar.  It was worth it in the end, but it may not be for everyone.  For some it may be better to take chartered bus services as you won’t have to deal with the hassles of a rental car.

Now, actually driving the car is another matter.  It really isn’t that bad once you get the hang of it.  When you first get into the drivers seat on the opposite side from American cars, it is very strange.  I kept trying to buckle my seat the opposite way out of habit, which made Angie laugh.  That and getting used to the controls on the left threw me off more than the actual driving.  The best way to make it work is to pretend you are driving on a one way and ignore the traffic on the opposite side.  Well, imagine it being a One Way until you have to turn.  Remember, “Left” is your friend in Ireland. 

When we pulled out of the airport and began our first jaunt in the car my first impression of Dublin was that it was pretty small and not city like at all!  The traffic stunk, as it was rush hour, but nothing like NYC.  In fact it was very suburban like more than city.  It didn’t look anything like the photos I had seen online and I was concerned we wouldn’t find a lot to do when we returned. It turned out that we had somehow gotten off the M50 and were taking an alternative road that was away from downtown.  Ah, now it was making sense.  I still don’t know where we were, but in the long run, we skipped the toll on the M50, so life was good!

Our trip was now underway and we were getting comfortable so we flipped on the radio and got onto the N1.  Our first stop Kilkenny!

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On our way back to Dublin, we ended up staying in Athlone as that seemed to be the most populous town on the route we were taking.  Driving and parking in the downtown area was a nightmare, so we went outside of the downtown area and found a B&B that was connected to a pub.  The place was a little weathered, but the woman who ran it was the best!  I don’t know how she did it, but she ran the pub and cooked for the guests in the morning.  When does she sleep?

We had to get up very early the next morning to get the car to the rental car agency on time.  The drive was pretty easy as it was 6AM and nobody was on the road.  That is until we hit the Dublin city limits.  What a mess?!?  People weren’t kidding about the M50.  We had gone around it when we left Dublin for the road trip, but this time there was no way around it.  It was bad! 

There are just too many vehicles for a city that grew way too quickly, or so it appeared.  We were in a small economy car and kept getting in between huge semis.  Scary!  There were a lot of motorcycles and none of them believed in staying in one lane.  In fact, they just drove down the middle of the yellow line and cut everyone off.  Lovely!

Finding the rental car office was a nightmare and took us a good hour, though we got to see the lovely town of Sword (sigh).  I have to say that we were both relieved to be done with the car.  We felt as if we had lived in that thing and the driving in Ireland can be extremely stressful.  Though I would recommend people do drive there, just be patient and don’t let people pressure you to go faster than you feel comfortable with (that line felt like a bad after school special)!

I was very excited to be getting to Dublin as we would have our hub in the Temple Bar District and would be able to plan our day without worrying about a place to stay and hitting certain sites.  This would be the relaxing part.

I have decided to put Dublin in a separate blog then the road trip part.  Why?  Because I thought it would be more user friendly in the long run for people who just wanted their Dublin fix (who doesn’t)?

All and all it was a crazy trip, but so worth it.  The scenery was amazing and the people were even better, so kind and sincere.  I lived many years in the northwest part of the US as a kid and I can tell you, you haven’t seen green until you have seen Ireland.  The sites were incredible and the views were everywhere; on the side of the road in the form of beautiful lakes, cliffs and emerald rolling green hills.  

Take it from me, once you visit Ireland, you will want to go back to see more of it!

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the four courts was fun. fat-boy slim played continuously in the hallways, there's a huge spiral staircase with fun cartoon fact murals on the wall as you head up/down it, a big kitchen, big areas to hang out, a pool table, and helpful staff. first hostel i ever stayed in europe and it was a great one. would definitely stay again.

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well being on a plane for 10 hours straight...is not a lot of fun! then we hopped on another plane for an hour to transfer to dublin...sucked too-but well worth it! it was pouring in london, sunny in dublin but still very, very cold-we're so spoiled by living in california.  however long the travels, it doesn't matter because of where we're headed.  and we couldn't wait! 

our hostel's, the four courts, is cool-fat boy slim plays continuously in the hallways and it's full of funny wall murals.

pictures to come when we figure out how to transfer them to the computer...and spent! will return sometime soon after some sleep.

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visited the guinness factory today...you get a free pint of guinness at the end of your tour. blake got the guinness, i got coca-cola. i still stand by it-guinness tastes like motor oil.

however they do draw a four leaf clover in the foam on top of the free guinness.  makes it all worth it. 

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belfast is so much more americanized than the republic.  i think i prefer the south.  there are huge shopping areas up in belfast, but i think they can get very shady at night.

we slept in on the first therefore missing the black cab tour.  oops.  headed back to dublin to end the tour, stopping at mainister bhuithe (monasterboice) on the way.

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