Finally it was time to move on and we continued south to the capital city of the Republic - Dublin. After having spent my entire trip in nature, coastlines, fields, and seeing so much green green green - I really had to switch gears upon entering the city and hitting the modern and inconvenience of... traffic. Dublin was full of people - tourists, students, immigrants from all over - it was bustling with activity. I liked it, though. Not as much as our days, drives and hikes through Nature, but it was a welcome change. Since I had planned and organized everything for our trip to Peru last October, and this is P's native country, after all, I had left all planning to him. Of course, he didn't book a hotel. We were not sure where we were going or what we were doing most of the time so we ended up really walking around a lot. We didn't go in anything, but I could see there was definitely some fun window shopping and I enjoyed the people-watching, that can be sure! It was extremely expensive and a lunch of a personal pizza and spaghetti (without even any bread)and 1 coke set us back more than $50 - YIKES! But what can you do?
As I previously mentioned, brilliantly, Patrick hadn't booked a hotel for us - and we realized walking around and inquiring on a Friday late afternoon was becoming ludicrous since everything was booked and the few things vacant were ridiculously expensive. We were starting to really tire and got caught in the rain when finally we saw a tourist center. We dashed in and grabbed the next ticket to be called - the place was closing in 10 minutes and we were fearful they would turn us away. I prayed as I watched the light board ticker count the numbers towards ours as one by one people were called up to get help. At the last minute it called our number - what a relief! A nice Spanish girl helped us inquire into hotels at about the rate of 100 euro. She knew it was last minute and we didn't quote her a great rate so she politely looked at her computer with an air of resigned helplessness. Suddenly she found one but it wasn't in the city center where we wanted to be - we didn't really want to deal with expensive cabs, traffic or walking too far late at night - when it might not be safe. P asked her if she had even heard of the place to which she replied, "No..".
What else could we do? We accepted it and she called the hotel to confirm for us and then ran the credit card for the deposit. After showing us on a city map of where it was, we set off. By this time we had been walking for a couple hours, were tired, looked pretty bad, wet, stringy hair, I was lugging my Peru hiking backpack with both our clothes and necessities as P had his special, but heavy, camera bag with his professional lenses. Let's just say we weren't looking that posh or polished. Or like we had any money whatsoever.
We finally found the hotel, the Premiere Suites, and went inside to find that it was extremely posh with metrosexual furniture and red mood lighting that I love - I mean, it looked like a "W" hotel! I couldn't believe it! We weren't expecting that at all and I must admit I felt extremely unattractive and unkempt next to the coiffed blonde, middle-aged woman with nice perfume who checked in before us with her Louis Vuitton luggage. We looked like backpackers in wet jeans and sneakers! A very nice African man checked us in as I looked around admiring the place. I saw him type in the computer and a shadow cross his face. "Oh,no!" my heart sunk as I saw it. I thought there was some mistake and we weren't staying there after all!! I mentioned before anything, "We just had the girl at the tourist center call you about a half hour ago and we ran the credit card for a deposit so there shouldn't be a problem." He then commented, "You wanted a double bed and I mistakenly put you down for 2 twin beds..." Now, evidently at this point P was so distracted by the metro sexual furniture or so tired that he didn't really understand what was going on. The receptionist continued, "Would you want the 2 twin beds?" - Again, I must point out that P, for whatever reason, didn't seem to understand what was going on and he just shook his head stating, "No, we want a single queen." Now, I at the same precise moment was opening my mouth (because I was so tired and didn't want to cause trouble NOR try to look for another place to stay) to say, "That is fine, we will take the twin beds.." but as I mentioned above P beat me to it and the man then continued on to say, "Well, I have no single queen bed rooms vacant, so I will just have to upgrade you for free" (P later said he still didn't get what was happening, but I was holding my breath when I heard the word 'upgrade') "to the......Penthouse Suite."
??!*&%$!!! Jumping Jehoshaphat! My heart leaped as I kicked P ecstatically under the desk out of sight. We got the Penthouse Suite at the top of the hotel for the rate of 100 euros!! It easily would have been 3 times as much!! I couldn't believe our luck! He asked if we needed help with our luggage - HA ! We had backpacks!! In the elevator we pressed the special button reserved for penthouse guests. Hilarious! P said as we rose, "I didn't get what was happening..." "I know!!" I replied gleefully. We walked into our suites and I was so excited by the metrosexual, minimalist interior design and decor that I started snapping pictures. Now, I must admit, that a penthouse in the USA would have even more bang but this was absolutely amazing to us when it was so unexpected and so lucky that we fell into it! It even had a kitchen, 2 flatscreen TVs, a rooftop patio and a wonderful hot bath that I promptly indulged in.
After relaxing a bit, eating the cookies left for us and watching some TV we left the hotel to go on the Literary Pub Crawl. Well, doesn't that make us sound both refined and touristy all at once? hehehe. It is a pub crawl visiting the bars that were frequented by the famous Irish writers: Yeats, Shaw, Beckett, Joyce and Swift (that is all I can remember anyway). We arrived at the bar The Duke for the the beginning of the crawl. Crammed into a smaller backroom, we paid our entry and everyone got their drinks and watched as 2 professional actors (a man and a woman) welcomed us with some witty lines, an overview of the evening to come, a famous Irish drinking song (we all heartily joined in the chorus with my classically-trained voice leading the way) and then enjoyed a few minutes of playwright Samuel Beckett's fabulously absurd, "Waiting for Godot". We were informed that we would be attending 4 different pubs (where each time we'd grab a drink for about a half hour before moving on). But we also learned that some of the skits and performances and history would also be given outside in stops between the pubs (for example: Trinity College). Okay, my native San Diegan warm blood aside: it was a FREEZING night - with major icy winds and some rain - as a matter of fact - the hotel people as well as the actors commented it was unusually cold and windy for Dublin. Well, let me tell you: it was BLOODY cold!!! We only had jeans and a lighter jacket, others had coats, hats, scarves, gloves and umbrellas. I actually HAD to drink to get buzzed so I wouldn't feel my pain!! By the time we hit about 1.5 hours it was pretty miserable - but the 2 actors were wonderfully talented and I truly enjoyed their performances and told P how I felt their pain - struggling for work and having to take a job like this - performing for drunk tourists (albeit an older, more intelligent crowd), straining their voices in the cold night air and noisy bars - I really felt for my fellow thespians and the sacrifices we must do for our art. (Was that dramatic enough for you???)
We met up at the last bar of the crawl with some lovely bright young American (from Washington DC) women in their late 20s whom we invited to join us at our next bar since P knew which bars to go to. After talking a lot to them about being liberal (ha ha P), the worry of teens today in America, acting, their jobs as journalists and our travels, one of them finally felt comfortable enough to point out, "I noticed you 2 right away at The Duke." "Really?" I felt flattered, "Was it because I was laughing and applauding so loudly for the actors?" "No..." she answered, "It was because you were the only one not drinking a pint!" I looked down at my pitiful vodka and orange juice - "I don't drink beer," I replied suddenly un poco self-conscious. As a matter of fact, it took me 6 drinks (a record for me) the whole evening to get a buzz - 6 drinks for a lightweight like me is insane! I should have been pulled off the floor and dumped into an ambulance for that many drinks!!! But in Ireland those stingy bastards measure out the smallest shot of hard liquor in their drinks for the few of us who don't drink beer that I felt nothing for so long. AND those weak, wimpy drinks, by the way, STILL ran us about $10 each!! Holy Frijoles!!
I must admit that by the end of the night I felt a little loopy and we said our goodbyes as the pubs close at 11:30 or so - a HUGE surprise to me! I never would have expected that. P was in a rush to get back to the hotel - not only for the freezing wind but as he warned, "In a few minutes hundreds of people will be spilling out of the pubs, drunk, and with nothing better to do than to pick a fight." "Let them try.." I giggled dizzily making fists and 'putting up my dukes'. Thus back to our penthouse with a quick stop for some late night snacks and some TV before hitting the hay exhausted.
The next day we stopped at a bagle bar another overpriced breakfast served by some nice Polish girls. Them we bought tickets for the uber-touristy double decker bus. With 21 stops (we only did about half) our driver was very funny and it is a great way to hear the history of the city and certain buildings and areas. One can get off at any stop for another bus will come along every few minutes. Time was running out on us (and thank GOD P had previously been to the Guinness Brewery so we didn't have to go - besides the line was huge). We got off and walked through Temple Bar - pity we didn't get to go to the bars in that area the previous night. We saw a couple bachelor parties going from pub to pub with the lucky man wearing a dress and freezing his arse off. (By the way - these were starting as early as 11am or so and would go on drinking the rest of the day). Since we were not going to be drinking anymore or shopping and we were leaving back the USA early the next morning we went back to the car and drove back north to County Down for our last dinner and tea before heading out the next morning to the airport.
And with this last Quote I finish narrating my first of many trips to Ireland :)
From Brandon (The Protestant), a drinking buddy of Patrick's dad:
"Have you had a Guinness yet, Elsa?" he inquired my 2nd day over lunch.
"I actually don't plan on having any. I don't like beer," I replied as
politely as possible.
"Guinness..." he breathed in, replying slowly so that I coudl really be affected, "is not a beer..."
Click on slideshow below:
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| Ireland - Day 8 - Dublin |
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