We were leaving Raleigh at 1:30p.m. on a Thursday, and would get to Dublin, via Atlanta, at 6:50 a.m. on Friday. I was excited but also a nervous wreck, because OMG we were going to crash into the ocean and I was never going to see Patrick again. (I even got my will all in order before the trip. Granted I probably should have done that once he was born, but hey -- motivation!) Also, we had found out on Tuesday that I was pregnant, so I was coming to terms with the fact that I was not going to be able to drink while in Ireland. We dropped Patrick at daycare; they knew we were going and that my parents would be watching Patrick for the next week. We had time to eat at RDU so had Bruegger's for lunch. In Atlanta, I noticed a Caribou Coffee in the Atlanta terminal and thought that I should probably enjoy one last Campfire Mocha, but it had been a long way from our arrival gate, and I was hot so I didn't get it.
The plane disappointingly did not have individual movie screens at each seat and instead had one at each bulkhead (or whatever). I missed the beginning of whatever movie they were showing so there went that. Our in flight meal consisted of barbecue chicken with sweet potatoes which James actually liked and green beans. This was served with a side salad and brown bread with a triple chocolate brownie. I am enough of a dork that I still get a kick out of getting full meals (such as they are) on an airplane. James had hot tea on the plane with two sugars and expressed disbelief that anyone would want to put milk in their tea. (Foreshadowing!)
We did not sleep well on the plane and arrived before dawn in Dublin. I had booked us a duck tour and a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. I wanted to do a tour of Jameson as well but hadn't booked that because I didn't want to overbook us. I noticed an IKEA from the plane. We disembarked and stumbled through customs. The customs guys looked mean but let us through without a second glance. And didn't even stamp my passport. Like, I want my credit for traveling internationally! Then we went to get our bags. I don't know what I was expecting, but I thought the Dublin airport would be much more modern than it was. The baggage claim area smelled strongly of kerosene. We went over to our car rental counter. There was no one there. We called the courtesy phone, and the person on the other end said they would send a bus over, so we were out into the Dublin morning. It was cloudy and cold, but not too cold and not raining! (Rain was my big worry now that we had survived the trip over. That, and the flight back.) Our rental car bus driver was Italian. He said that driving in Dublin was a breeze. He said the only thing you had to worry about were the roundabouts, and if you knew what lane you were supposed to be in, those weren't even hard at all. And don't worry, he said, Dublin and in fact all Irish drivers were polite and never honked. (Foreshadowing!)
We got our car, which was small but adequate, and headed off to find our hotel. We promptly got lost. This was to be a trend, especially for our first few days in Ireland. And there was much honking. The drivers are not polite! They are insane! Clearly we should never drive in Italy. Eventually we made it to Dublin, but we had no idea how to find our hotel. We were basically there, but the hotel, it seemed, was not. Finally, after stopping for directions several times, we located it. It WAS there! (We had planned to rent a GPS along with our car rental, but then James said he could take his own GPS and just download an Ireland map. So I didn't rent the GPS and then it turns out he coudn't just download an Ireland map. Thus we were left relying on a paper map and me. Which was BAD BAD news.)
We checked into our hotel early then headed toward St Stephen's Green for our Viking Splash tour. We were running late but luckily it was too. So we had coffee at the Red Rose Cafe across the street. The only other people on tour with us were two Chinese guys in town from Limerick to get their visas. (They were studying abroad for a year.) The tour was amusing but a bit long as it turned out to actually be quite cold. (But not raining!) Then we were off to Guinness. In retrospect, we should have taken a cab. It was a very long walk. By the time we got there, we were cold, hungry and tired, so we ate upon arrival in the restaurant then halfheartedly took the self-guided tour. At the top of the building, you get a "free" (after you pay for the tour, so...) pint at the Sky Bar, which has glass all the way around so you get a panoramic view of Dublin. It was pretty cool, but I didn't want to drink more than a couple sips of Guinness (in my "condition") and James hates the stuff anyway. I will note that I prefer U.S. Guinness to the unfiltered Irish stuff. It wasn't much different but it tasted less refined and more bitter. Buying souvenirs took forever, both because I am horrible at deciding what to get people and because the line was slow. I wrote a postcard that supposedly would get airmailed out that evening. My mom got that postcard a few months later, in January. We speculate that it got sent to Durham, England, though I don't know how, since I did remember, even while jetlagged, to write USA in big letters at the bottom.
Then it was back to the hotel. Again, we walked, and it had started to rain by the time we made it back. It was evening by that point, starting to get dark around 5 p.m. Jameson had no chance. James was irritated because my cheapness had not allowed us to get a cab. Upon arriving back at the hotel, we promptly went to bed at 5:30. And slept until 7:30 the next morning.
