LANIGAN'S TRAVELS

June...........  

Dublin, Ireland  - Day 1 in Ireland

Arrived in Ireland on Saturday morning.  The flight was uneventful.  We watched a couple episodes of American Horror to pass the time on the plane. Finally, we land!

Driving from the airport to the hotel was an experience.  Sitting on the wrong side of the car, driving on the wrong side of the road... all quite different.

We had to wait a couple hours for our room to be ready so we just sat in the lobby and looked at brochures.  We were both terribly exhausted at this point.  We get our room around 12:30. :-)  Jim set the alarm for us to take a two hour nap.  We slept for 3 hours instead.  My allergies have been horrible and between the travel and all the drugs I've been taking, I needed it!

We got up, showered and headed out to check out Dublin.  The Guinness Brewery closed at 5:00 pm but we were able to find it and figure out where to park the next day when we came back.

We had heard about the Temple Bar area and decided to go check it out.  Insane!  Bar after bar.  Wall to wall people.  The later it got, the younger the crowd got.  Everyone in the streets, drinking, smoking and stumbling. :-)

We ran into a live Irish street band playing outdoors and stopped to listen to them for a while.  Our first authentic Irish music from an Irish band........... in Ireland!

We decided we needed some food so we started looking for a restaurant.  We found an authentic Irish meal at The Exchequer.  Lovely waitress that had just moved from London three days prior....... because of a boy.   We had sampler plates and ordered entirely too  much.  However, we had potatoes!

Driving through the Temple Bar area was even more interesting than the highway.  People are everywhere and walk out right in front of you.  With their beer!

The people are absolutely wonderful though.  Everyone is so polite and kind.  The parking garage attendant went out of his way to help us figure out how to pay to get out of the garage. The buses even say "Sorry, we are not in service" if they are not working.

While driving through Dublin, we saw a lot of the "Doors of Dublin".  I was only able to get a photo of two black doors but there are many beautiful colors.

New terms we have learned so far:
- "Lifts" are elevators
- "Chemists" are pharmacists
- When someone gets a busy signal on a phone they are said to be "Engaged"

Things Jim found most memorable while driving:
- Making sure he stayed on the "wrong" side of the road
- Learning where the road signs were located and what they meant

Miscellaneous things learned:
- A "Black and Tan" is very much an American thing and not to be ordered in Ireland!

Successful first day in Ireland!