Or why I'm never flying Ryanair again. Originally Emma and Meredith had planned to go to Dublin together however after purchasing their plane tickets Emma found out that her boyfriend was coming over to see her for their anniversary. Emma and Mere were discussing canceling their tickets when I volunteered to take over Emma's and go with Mere. We also invited Mark and Andy to come with; Mark agreed, Andy hesitated. With the addition of Mark to our travel group we decided to change our travel plans a bit from just staying in Dublin to also traveling to Belfast. The Johnstons were also kind enough to give us a place to stay while in Northern Ireland. Emma helped us book a cheap Bed and Breakfast on O'Connell St. and a hostel not too far from downtown Dublin as well as laid out a general travel itinerary for our time in Dublin. Mark wasn't really that interested in seeing Dublin so he was going to catch a bus to Belfast as soon as we arrived in Dublin Airport and we were to meet him a few days later.
With our plans in place, all we had left to was leave for Ireland. In order to catch the bus from Frankfurt (Hahn) (hereafter referred to as NOT ANYWHERE NEAR FRANKFURT), we had to catch the first train out of Bamberg at 5am. Jen, Mark, Emma, Mere, Andy and I stayed up all night the night we left for Ireland and at 4:30am we hurried to the train station. Unsure about where exactly we should buy our train tickets to because there was no Frankfurt (Hahn) train stop, we just bought tickets to Frankfurt. That makes sense, right? On the train we figured out that in order to catch the bus to the airport, we needed to stop in Mainz which is two train stops past Frankfurt. Due to a delay in changing the engine in Frankfurt we missed our bus, so we had to wait an hour for the next one.
The bus ride took an hour and ten minutes and upon arriving at the Hahn airport (NOT ANYWHERE NEAR FRANKFURT) we were informed that checkin had closed and that the next flight to Dublin was in 11 hours. We didn't really have an option since we had already booked our lodgings in Dublin, so we paid the 60 Euro fee to change our flight to the one at 10pm and then we sat... and sat... The Trinidad and Tobago national soccer team was for some reason also in Hahn and Meredith got her picture taken with
Dwight Yorke. When we finally made it to Dublin, we took a bus to
O'Connell St walked around a bit, saw the
Spire of Dublin, the
General Post Office (which served as the headquarters for the leaders of
the Easter Rising of 1916) and then checked into our "Budget Bed and Breakfast."
The next morning we saw Mark off to the bus station and then Mere and I checked into our Hostel on Aungier Street,
the Avalon house. It turned out to be one of the nicest hostel experiences I've had to date, and I would recommend it to anyone staying in Dublin. We dropped our luggage off and headed over to
St. Patrick's Cathedral. After that we took a tour of
Dublin Castle and then went to grab a bite to eat. We then shopped until the stores closed at an unreasonably early hour and took a walk through
St. Stephens Green. That evening Mere and I went to the
Temple Bar area for a couple pints of Guinness and Harp. Our entertainment that evening was provided by the myriad of "
Hen Parties" taking place that evening, each of which had some kind of matching attire and plenty of really drunk women.
The next morning Mere and I ate our gourmet complimentary breakfast of stale bread and watered down orange juice and then schlepped our luggage over to the Bus station and threw it in a locker. We made our way to
Trinity College and waited in line to see the
Book of Kells. After the Book, the college had a
Samuel Beckett exhibit set up in the Long Room in their library. Next we wanted to check out the
Guinness Storehouse, but I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone and had to walk all the way back to the hostel to get it. There was some kind of Harri Krishna march making its way through O'Connell Street that day, so that provided us with some amusement. The weather was overcast and rainy so Mere and I decided that it would be okay to just go ahead and take the bus to Belfast.
Labels: Castle, Dublin, Germany, Log, Mark, Meredith, Photos, Ryanair, Trinity-College
Our bus from Dublin to Belfast was delayed by an hour and shortly after the bus departing it hit a parked van. The ride was comfortable and scenic. Mark met Mere and I at the bus station/mall and he took us for a short walk around Belfast. We saw the most bombed hotel in Europe, and then went to Tesco. That evening we grabbed some food and then went to Bangor and wandered around and looked at the tall ships and watched the sunset... at 11:30pm. That night we stayed at Marks place because Mark's mom and sister were kind enough to give Meredith and I a place to sleep. The next morning we took the bus tour of Belfast where we learned about the invention of air conditioning and saw where the titanic was built. We also rode through the protestant and catholic neighborhoods and heard about just how bad things got during the troubles. We then grabbed a quick lunch in the largest thatched roofed restaurant in Europe or something like that, it was tasty. The rest of my day sucked, and Mark and Meredith are truly saints for helping me. I am very thankful to have them as friends. That evening we watched some TV and I called it an early night. The next morning we went to Carrick Fergus castle and looked at stuff. Before leaving to head back to Dublin we made a last stop in at Tesco and bought a box of Mr. Brain's Pork Faggots, Ambrosia creamed custard, and a tin of Spotted Dick. I also made sure that Mark brought back his Tesco uniform for Andy to try on.
