Finally going back....

My last visit to Ireland was in 2003, so it was about time I headed back to visit that lovely green isle! For me it felt like going home, since Ireland is a special place for me. But it was an early start today: getting up at 5.30 to pack the last things and getting ready for the trip. Checking in went smooth, flight went smooth, although the end was a bit bumpy...

the luggage was on the belt very fast, so off to Dublin with the Airlink bus. A return ticket with the Airlink costs € 10,00 and it takes about 30 minutes for the Airlink 747 to reach O'Connell street. The 747 goes from the Airport to O'Connell and Busaras/main busstation. Ther's another Airlink line, the 748, that takes another route, but I don't know how long that one takes.

...

Our hotel, the Best Western Premier Academy Plaza Hotel, was just of O'Connell, and the Airlink stopped right around the corner! Perfect! A lot of busses also stop at O'Connell. The hotelroom wasn't overwhelmingly big, but had a very nice bed (2x2m) with good matrasses and pillows and a nice bathroom, with thermostate shower; so always the same temperature while taking a shower! There are 3 restaurants in the hotel: a breakfast restaurant, which serves a full Irish breakfast, plus cereals, bread, ypghurt etc.; Harry's bar and bistro, where you can have a fancy variation of a Pub meal; and Abacus, an Oriental restaurant.

After checking in, we were off to the Zoo in Phoenix Park, since according to weather forecasts saturday would be a very rainy day. From O'Connell we walked to the Zoo, following the river Liffey, passing the GPO and Jameson Distillery.

Dublin Zoo is middelsized zoo, you can see the whole park in about 2.5-3 hours. Nice thing about this zoo is that, if you follow the outer walk ways, you'll see the entire zoo. The habitats are large and natural...so a lot of animal searching...

After that is was time for some booze, or a visit to the Jameson Distillery. There were different tours going on, and ours was lead by Neil, a witty man with typical Irish humour. My boyfriend was invited to a whiskey tasting, so he was a happy camper! And, I may say, I really like Irish Whiskey. We also did some browsing around in the Jameson shop, eyeing out the expensive whiskey's (like the Middleton collection for 5.500 euro!).

And then we went bakc to the hotel, for a nice diner at Harry's Bistro; I had a lovely Irish salmon, mmmm. And into bed it was, since I was very tired.