Saturday, September 27, 2014

A party without a cake is really just a meeting!

I saw this posted in a bake shop window as we passed by on the bus. The buses are all double-deckers and I knew my Grandchildren would be disappointed in me if we didn’t sit upstairs. On one of our rides we were even able to sit up top and at the very front.

The Irish people we have met so far have been very friendly and helpful. Right off the plane we were trying to decide which bus to take from the airport to the hotel – one that left in five minutes and got us “close”, or one that left in an hour and got us right to the hotel. A woman stepped up and asked which hotel we were staying at and it turned out she and her daughters were at the same hotel (and how cool was it that one of her daughters was named Sinead). She was taking the first bus which stopped in Donnybrook (where she grew up) and said we could walk along with them to the hotel.

The bus/train/DART systems have been explored – it wasn’t easy to sort them all out. We have a Smart Card that we can reload for all the City buses and trains. The bus stop to central Dublin is right outside the hotel and is served by about four routes. The train station is only about two blocks away and we’ve been past there a few times already – and held back waiting for trains. We know where the main bus station is located – the one we will use to travel between towns. We are expecting to use the bus systems more than the trains.

We have decided a 3-day Discover Ireland pass will be economical for all the places we want to see in Dublin. We’ll purchase it tomorrow and get started seeing more of the sites. We walked down O’Connell Street today but we’ll pass through there several more times in the days to come.

The hotel we are staying in is lovely – quite “posh” actually; many of the embassies are located in the area. We walked down the major street in the area and found a spot for dinner. After dinner we wandered through a more residential area and found a great local pub; two ladies in the corner were discussing the week’s news and everyone seemed to know everyone else. There was no music, unless you count the two lads singing “It’s a long way to Tipperary” as they went out for a smoke! Over a pint of Guinness we made plans for the next few days.

We are slowly getting used to crossing the streets and watching for cars coming from the “wrong” direction. Many of the crosswalks have signs painted on the pavement – Look Left or Look Right. So far we have avoided getting hit, and Pat is glad he decided not to rent a vehicle.