You Have to Love the Sheep
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.
You Can Rent This Place Out. Only $2500 Euros for a Week
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.
We Survived Driving in Ireland
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!
The Blog to the Dublin Adventure à http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/32423
