Dublin, Ireland - 15-19 March, 2009
At first, this trip seemed doomed.
Anthony couldn't get the time off and only managed to do so after much persuading (whining?).
Then Shawnelle lost her passport.
She found out it was missing when she was supposed to leave for Mallorca with Marcie and Lydia. Shawnelle hunted everywhere for it, but to no avail.
A trip to the US embassy in Munich wasn't much help--the passport would be ready on the 16th. The day after she needed it.
A plan was devised to get Shawnelle an emergency passport; her grandma was very ill and might not make it through the weekend. Shawnelle called the embassy with this "information" and the lady on the phone told Shawnelle it would be no problem and to come up to Munich and they would have it done that afternoon.
Shawnelle, Anthony and I headed to Munich 9an hour and a half by train, FYI). Unfortunately, when we got to the embassy they said she had to have a doctor's note or proof of her grandma's illness, or a flight itinerary. Of course we had neither.
Leaving empty-handed we went to an internet cafe and tried to get as many of Shawnelle's reservations canceled as we could.
Then we went to the Augustiner for some starkbier-yay!
15 March, Sunday
Anthony and I had picked up the rental car the day before, so on Sunday we got up and were off to Frankfurt to catch our flight.
The directions said it would take about 5 hours so we left at 0915 to give us plenty of time (we had to turn in the car by 1400).
Well, due to road construction and a stau, we ended up getting in about 1530. Luckily the Europecar guy was cool and let it slide.
Anthony wants me to note that he was a good driver--he's not used to driving a stick!
Sat around the airport for a bit, then caught out flight.
Blah, Blah, got to Ireland, checked in to our hotel, and then went out for a beer!
We, of course, got Guinnes.
While we were sitting at the bar (our table was outside) we were tempted by the restaurant next door: Gourmet Burger Kitchen.
Hells yes.
Giant avocado-bacon burgers later we were stuffed.
Anthony's note: With fried egg and fries and milkshake (oreo)
We pretty much called it a night after that. It had been a long day.
16 March, Monday
Woke up and headed off for breakfast. We found delicious bacon, sausage, and eggs on toast sandwiches. Yum! I've eaten more meat on the trip already than I have in the past month!
Then we walked nearly a million miles to the Guinness factory.
The factory turned out to be pretty interesting. We learned how Guinness is made and Anthony got to push a button to start the next brew.
A 9,000 year lease? Wot?
Anthony wants me to think he's going to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day so I don't make out with an Irish guy--Which is pretty much my goal in life.
I need my coffee. Even in the Guinness factory.
A group of Irish stepdancers came in--Some of them were wearing big bells so when we heard them Anthony and I both thought, "Agh! Krampus monsters!"
But they weren't hitting anyone with whips so we were okay.
Anthony was excited to pour his own beer. I pour beer all the time at work, so I let them pour beer for me.
You probably don't care to know, but we made a lot of restroom stops because neither of us had pooped since the trip started. No luck through.
The view from the top of the Guinness tower was pretty cool.
On the way back to to hotel we popped in a church. Not too impressed; I've seen much crazier churches before (e.g. in Prague). Then we stopped in a cool grocery store bought apples, pomegranates, bread, olives, and Irish cheddar. When we got back to the hotel we promptly ate our purchases.
We pretty much just lounged around the rest of the evening and got pomegranate juice all over the bed.
Drank tea.
Good day.
17 March, St. Patrick's Day!
Of course we didn't have the same hotel for all three days, so today we had to move to our other hotel.
We started off a bit late... We wanted to use the bathroom, but still no luck in that area.
Finally, we set off for the other hotel. But by the time we left everyone was lining up for the parade. It was nearly impossible to get through the crowds with our backpacks and everything. Eventually we did make it though, and stuck our stuff in our room (which was about as far from the lobby as you could get and was really awkward to get to).
The parade was RIGHT OUTSIDE the front door of the hotel, but we couldn't see it due to the crowds. Instead, we ended up watching it on the TV in the hotel bar even though it was less than 100 feet away.
After the parade we got Chinese food. They stuck us in the basement with far too many other people crammed in the karaoke room. It was really awkward and rather uncomfortable but the food was exactly what I was hoping for.
We ate too much and went back to the hotel to lay down.
I won't go into details, but the Chinese food was exactly what the doctor ordered and my bathroom problems were solved.
Once we were felling better we headed off to the Temple Bar area to see what was going on.
Along the way we got drinks at the Bank Bar. Rather interesting place.
Then we continued on and poked our heads in a pretty busy bar. We weren't feeling it though, and left without getting a drink.
It was crazy around Temple Bar! But honestly we weren't too interested in the craziness. I got an Irish coffee and we hung out for a while but decided that this really wasn't for us (we're getting old!) and took off to find a restaurant we'd read about.
The Farm is a cool organic/free range/etc. restaurant--and totally delicious to boot.
And I got lamb!
It's always a good day when I get lamb.
So after an awesome dinner we meandered through crazy drunks back to our hotel and called it a night.
18 March, Wednesday
Our last day in Dublin already?! And still so much to see!
For breakfast we had coffee/hot chocolate and scones at The Reading Room, which was another place we'd read about. This particular place was situated inside a bookstore, which is pretty nifty.
Then we went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Those scribes have much better handwriting than I do. =P
We decided to hop non a tour bus so we could see more of Dublin and get rides to St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Jameson distillery.
We actually didn't go all the way inside St. Patrick's Cathedral because, well, it looked boring compared to a lot of churches I've already seen seen and we didn't want to pay the entrance fee. We did hand out in the park next to the church though.
The Jameson Distillery was our next stop. It was okay, but I hate whiskey and the Guinness brewery was more interesting.
We rode the bus a bit more, then hopped off at Grafton Street to do some souvenir shopping.
Then, dinner!
Back to Gourmet Burger Kitchen because it's just so good! (And hey, we live in Germany, we don't get burgers very often!)
This time I got a blue cheese burger and added bacon. I'm just that much of a fatass.
But hey, I'm on vacation!
We also decided to treat ourselves to a movie. Once again, we live in Germany, movies in English are a big deal! So we watched Watchmen which was good, but the theatre was SO HOT!
Went back to our hotel where we were storing our luggage, grabbed everything, and then hopped on the bus to the airport.
Wish we could have slept on that bus all night! We asked, but the driver said no.
At the airport we ended up sleeping at Starbucks. There were a ton of other people sleeping as well.
Despite taking sleeping pills, I really didn't sleep. We went to "bed" (or "chair", really) about 0100, but were awoken by airport security yelling and shaking our chairs at 0345. They said the space was needed for customers, but no one moved so it's not like them waking us up did any good. People just stayed where they were, and one group even broke out guitars and started playing.
I did get a drink (yum, Starbucks!) and eventually we boarded our flight.
Anthony slept, I didn't.
Picked up our car in Frankfurt--But Jake (the Europecar guy in Garmisch) had booked it at the wrong airport and the girl helping us couldn't do the VAT form so it took forever.
Then Anthony drove home and I got to sleep.
That's about it! Very fun trip. I'd recommend it!