Ok, this may be the longest post in board history, but here goes the Ireland story. This first part is as much for my personal journal as to share details with you all, so bear with me. I will post another post to ONLY talk about the trip from the relationship perspective. Skip to that if you don't want all the boring details of my trip.
Day 1 - Thursday/Friday - Florida to Dublin
It was REALLY hard to leave the boys. This was the first time we have ever left them for this long but in the end, it was ok because the prospect of all the fun to be had made us feel better.
As for the flight to Dublin, we flew Continental and I hate to say it, but I would NOT recommend them for international travel. Having flown British Airways and Virgin before, this experience was pretty bad and mostly just because the planes were tiny.
So, we flew out of Ft. Lauderdale. It was at our first airport that the first adventure happened because our connecting city of Newark NJ was having some terrible weather and everything was delayed. It meant that we had to take an earlier flight, one that was almost done boarding when we got to the ticket counter. We literally had to run through the airport to make the plane. We were the last ones on. My SIL, who was supposed to be on the same flight but she ended up on a different one. We hardly saw her for the rest of the trip after that. Oh well Other than having trouble sleeping, the flight over was fine.
When we landed, it was about 8:00am Dublin time. We got a cab after standing in the longest taxi queue EVER and made our way through the massive amount of construction on the outskirts of Dublin. Finally we made it to our first hotel/B&B. It was in a PERFECT location, right in the middle of all the shopping/pubs. If you ever go to Dublin, the place is called the Grafton Guest House. The service is a little spotty, but the room was VERY cool with two skylights and a great bed.
We spent the first day shopping in the BITTER cold. We thought we were ready for that, but we were not.
We walked a lot and just explored the part of the city we were in. Not much else. We did have our first pub lunch that was VERY good.
In the late afternoon we went back to the hotel to take a nap and then went to dinner and drinks in the Temple Bar area of Dublin (kinda like SOHO I guess, but never been to NY so...). We had a sandwich at a restaurant and stuck around for a guy to play 2 songs and then leave the bar for some reason...We ended up at a traditional Irish pub for some traditional Irish music. We didn't stay long because the experience compounded a feeling my W and I both had about Dublin/Ireland. It is the whitest place we have ever been. My W, who is darkish and Indian was ALWAYS the darkest person we ever say, anywhere. Don't get me wrong, the people never treated us anything but decent, but it was a little disconcerting when neither of us have ever been in that situation before. For the most part it never bothered us, and when it did, it was in our own heads.
Sleep came soon after.
Day 2 - Saturday - Dublin
This was our day to do a little sight seeing and more shopping. My W always feels the need to buy something for everyone we know whenever we go anywhere so there was a lot to do, not to mention all the stuff we wanted to shop for ourselves. We went to the major shopping areas of Grafton St. and Henry St in addition Temple Bar again to look for a fashion market that ended up SUCKING. We also wandered into the Irish National Photographic Gallery and saw some great photography. That was really cool and inspiring.
Funny, I managed to keep my cameras put away for the entire first day we were there. This was deliberate because I tend to only be in "photo" mode when I am shooting and I wanted to make sure I was experiencing things with my W fully on day one. Day two, they came out (she asked me to) and I took a few shots of Dublin. I didn't do as much as I thought I would, but it was fun.
We shopped, sight see'd and met her sister for a pint at a pub (the only time we saw her in Ireland) and went back to the room to freshen. It was snowing when we went back out again! Very cool for this Florida boy!
That night we went in search of live music again (not traditional Irish) and found a great bar with a local band that was REALLY good. We stayed for a few drinks and then went in search of more to do. We ended up walking too far and my W was getting annoyed. I said I knew a place to go from a magazine. I guess I didn't know as much as I thought but I did NOT get upset or frustrated. I just insisted we get a cab and she agreed. The cabbie was REALLY nice and took us the rest of the way (we were going the right way lol) for free. The club we went to was PACKED. My W had a couple glasses of wine and then the dance floor upstairs opened up. She asked me if I wanted to go up and I said SURE!. We ended up dancing for a couple hours. Now you have to understand that I DON'T DANCE! I never have, and it's a problem for my W because she loves to dance. Well, needless to say, she REALLY liked the fact I danced with her. She was a little tipsy by then of the night (ok, I had to carry her to a cab) but we had a GREAT time. For the first time in a LONG time, she touched me in a way that was NOT just friendly. She was putting her arms around me and initiating a lot of contact. It stopped short of anything more than dancing, but for me it was like $ex. When we got back to the room, I actually thought there might be something more to come. I helped her undress (she needed help and didn't protest at all) gave her a back rub and proceeded to have her pass out asleep. Oh well. Maybe another night. Oh, and my $100 jacket got stolen at the club so I had to go the rest of the night with only a thin shirt in the freezing weather. It was worth it though.
Day 3 - Sunday - Dublin to Waterford
This was car rental day and we spent the first part of the day doing a little walking but mainly we just packed up and made our way in a taxi to the Avis rental place. Our car was a nice Renault and it didn't take me any time at all to get the hang of driving on the "wrong" side of the road.
This entire day was spent on the TINY winding roads of Ireland on our way to Waterford to spend the night before continuing on to Killarny and the Ring of Kerry.
The drive was REALLY scenic and fun except for the hundreds of close calls with the side of the road and other cars. I really tried to drive so that my W was not scared the whole time, but she ended up really stressed. I felt bad, but there wasn't much I could do.
Waterford SUCKED. Sorry, other than the Crystal factory we went to on the way out the next day, this town was terrible. Our hotel, the Bridge Hotel was HORRIBLE. The bartender at the pub we ate in said it was the worst in town and we believe him.
This was the night of the big R talk which I will get into in Part 2. We finished the night off casually in a bar and drove back to the hotel.
Day 4 - Monday - Waterford to Killarny
At the Waterford Crystal factory we got another taste of Irish hospitality (they really are nice people) when the engraver who'd worked there 40 years doing engravings for tourists, told us to change our plans of driving to Killarny and then trying to do the Ring of Kerry scenic drive all in one day. He told us to drive, stay the night and then do the drive. He was right.
We drove about 3 hours, stopped off in a little town to have lunch with the locals, who made it a point to be friendly with us,and then off to Killarny and arrived around 4:00pm. We spent the rest of the day exploring the shops and found a hotel to stay in. This town and the hotel (Best Western International Hotel) were GREAT, a total contrast to Waterford.
We ended up eating another pub dinner and on the recommendation of the staff at the hotel, ended up at a pub for some drinks and music. It started as some good Irish traditional and ended with a late night jam with a cover band that was actually really good. We danced and sang until we ended up in the dance club behind the pub for a little more dirty dancing. It was good. Very good night.
Day 5 - Tuesday - Ring of Kerry
Well, other than the bit of snow on Saturday, the weather up to this point was BEAUTIFUL! Of course, now that we were to the scenic, photographic part of the trip the weather went to crap, and I mean CRAP. It was miserable, cold and rainy the rest of our time in Ireland. Despite this we ended up taking the bus tour (I was going to drive, but not in that weather) of the ~170 mile Ring of Kerry. The drive takes you into the mountains and along spectacular coastline (or so they tell me, we couldn't see much). It was a LONG trip (10:30-5:30). It was ok, but not near what it could have been. This was the time the blow up happened over the ring and also the comment about me keeping tabs on the W. Again, more on that later.
The day finished up with more shopping, and some Indian food, the best we've ever had, and that's saying a lot considering my W's family cooks it, and we eat it all the time out. We went to a traditional pub again and heard the best music of the trip. Again, it ended well.
Day 6 - Wednesday - Killarny to Dublin
We were planning to drive back after the tour on Tuesday but the thought of driving at night on those roads made us cringe so we stayed the night in Killarny and drove in the morning. It took the entire day to go across the country to Dublin (Killarny is in the extreme south west, Dublin is on the east coast). We got into Dublin around 4:00 and only had 2 hours to return some things and finish up shopping before we left at 9:00am the next day.
Like I said, we did not get along well near the end of this day. Between the traffic and confusion of driving in Dublin and getting mixed up on what hotel we booked with, it was not a pleasant evening. Oh, and did I mention that our car got towed? We made the LONG walk back from shopping to find our rental gone. We ended up finding a cop and asking what to do. We already figured out that it was probably towed, not stolen and he confirmed it. We parked in a place that was illegal after 4:00. $100 and about a 3 mile walk later we had our car back. Trust me, that didn't help.
Again, it ended fine, but we were tired and just packed to leave at 6:15am for the airport.
Day 7 - Thursday - Return
Well, other than the luggage carrosel getting stuck in NJ, our return trip was ok. It was VERY emotional for me, and again, more on that later.
We were greeted by my FIL and the kids at the airport and it was GREAT to see them again.
Overall, the trip was GREAT! We got to relax, shop, eat, sight see and just be free for a week. It was wonderful and definitely went better than I expected.
Again, sorry for the long post. I will post the relationship/feelings part next.
