Parties and planesFriday night was birthday night, 4 people at Melissa's work had their birthdays in July and had decided to celebrate at the local bar and I was invited. It was a fantastic night, I met most of Mel's workmates and floated around like a social butterfly. Missy had a great time too, but she had a little trouble getting me home early, eventually we ended up at home at about 11:30pm.
I dozed to sleep I remember Missy packing 'te he he'
Beep BEEP BEEP BEEP, 5am came and Missy was up and at em, I wasn't so sprightly....
ahhh well I got their eventually and we jogged to King's Cross station, the saying running a little late came to life. After an hour of the tube and train(£34 - inc return)) we arrived at the Stansted airport ticket desk ten minutes before check-in closed. I had forgotten to print the tickets(£103 - inc return) but I had the confirmation number and my trusty laptop with the e-mail on it.
However the check-in lady said we'd need to go to the ticket desk and pay for our check in- well we weren't in a mood to argue or discuss so sixteen pounds later we got our boarding passes and headed off..... the booking lady was a bit shocked and gave us an address to get a refund, I think the check in lady was messing with us.
The flight was uneventful but it was raining when we arrived and the plane did full on slides upon landing. Missy and I found the buses and headed off to Malahide(1.50EU/each), it was easy enough but we needed the exact change for the bus as no change is given. The sun came out as we alighted from the bus and Missy couldn't wait to get to the local castle, so off we trotted.
It turned out to be a lovely wee walk and I took a few photos, we decided not to go in and instead headed back to our bed & breakfast (140EU/total). On the way back we checked out the village which had a Starbucks, park, marina and lots of places to eat. It reminded Missy of Port Macquarie and I was also reminded of Tauranga, though it was a tad bit cooler at about 15 degrees in the summer!
After a lovely 20 minute walk around the beach we arrived at the B&B, there was a lovely room and there was promise of a full Irish breakfast yum, yum. The bed was superb and we deserved a cheeky little rest so we treated ourselves, that night we went to Giovani's in town, the place was packed. It was a good meal and I couldn't help but notice the American influence on the culture in Dublin, the waiters came over about 3 times in 2 minutes to ask if we were having desert.
The next morning Missy found the showers a little cold and low on pressure however breakfast made up for this minor impasse. So we made our way into Dublin via bus, Dublin was pretty quiet on Sunday morning however as we navigated our way across town we walked into a whole load of horses. It was a little strange, I'm guessing it's Dublin's Sunday horse market, in New Zealand we have flee markets :)
The chimney look up was closed which turned out to be for the best as the Guinness factory had a beaut lookout at the top of the Guinness glass. The Guinness glass being the building of course, designed in Chicago and one of the first Dublin sky scrapers... at about 7 floors I didn't think it that much of a sky scraper.
The view and the bar at the top of the factory was good fun, everyone was having a complimentary Guinness and Missy and I nearly fell asleep at the bar.
So much travelling wears you down and it's important to just chill out, if you get the chance.
That night it was back to Malahide for dinner a romantic pizza in the park and a walk back along the coast to the B&B for an early night. There was some Irish TV on and a chef show, we had a giggle at the chef's accent three sounded like tree and woah woah weee waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah they really have a huge accent.
The following morning at 6am we were in a Taxi to the airport and made for an early check in, as I type people are standing awaiting to board the flight... I just always sit and wait till most of them are on. I figure the more time off the plane the better, speedy check-in is a con :))
The damage for a cheeky weekend in Dublin
- Flights return £103
- Trains return Stansted - £34
- Accommodation 2 nights- 140 EU
- Travel in Dublin bus & taxi - 30 EU
- Food in Dublin yum yum - 115 EU
- Attractions in Dublin Guinness factory - 30 EU
- Total £137, $315 EU
