Our tired day in Dublin
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Does it sound just terrible to say that on our big first day in fabulous Dublin, we landed at the hotel, sloughed off luggage and yesterday’s clothes and slept for five hours? I hope not, because that’s what happened. But that’s why we gave ourselves an extra day, to get rid of some jet lag — and the mental baggage I just mentioned — and get our minds right.
Besides, it’s not like we didn’t manage to take in some local color before and after The Big Sleep. For instance …
When we arrived at the airport, we made a long, long trek from the gate to the airport. At this point, we’d been stuck into airplane seats for nine hours separated by time in cars, buses and airport gate areas, and I was feeling like a bear coming out of hiberation — slow-witted and a little inclined to growl.
But that changed when we came around the last barricade into the airport where people were lined up to greet their loved ones. A coterie of three little children had found out that one of the pillars had a curb that just barely fit all three of them. And so they were standing on it, facing out at all the arriving strangers, giggling and waving.
“Are you the official greeters?” Greg asked.
They hadn’t thought of that, and so it made them giggle more. “Yes!” shouted out the bravest one. “HELLO!” And then they all waved furiously until we were out of sight.
Our cabbie might not have been our official greeter either, but as I just said below, he had the right way to sum up our state after the long trip. And when it came to other small talk, his verbal powers didn’t fail him. He wanted to make sure that we were properly motivated to “hev a couple points a Guinness.” When I’d run out of excuses (because Guinness tastes like paint thinner to me), I switched to a neutral topic.
“The weather is beautiful,” I said brilliantly.
He looked out in mild surprise at the great arching clouds lit up by sun. “Yeh, it is,” he agreed affably. “Good ting, too. It’s been raining shite on us all week.”
So we’ll hope that that phenomenon doesn’t reoccur tomorrow. For tonight, this is the hotel we got (for less a night than we would pay to stay in a Holiday Inn):
I don’t even want to guess what the history is of this place. It looks like a manor house almost too fake to be real. And it did my little heart good that a gold Celtic cross graced its highest point:
Greg and I walked the grounds in the back as the midday light changed to afternoon. There was a wedding or some other big event going on, and one or two adults were entrusted with keeping the young set too occupied with running around the little hedges to mess up their nice clothes in other ways.
As we walked down the worn marble steps, a woman addressed some of the girls. “Are yuzz goin’ ta play wit Charlie?” They didn’t answer. “I’m serious now. If ya doan play wit Charlie, he’s goin’ ta run off.”
This is Charlie.
So everyone really got what they wanted out of the day. Both we and Charlie will rest up now so we can do more damage to Dublin tomorrow.
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5 Responses and Counting...
looks like a lovely place to spend your first day. I hope you’ll have time to blog more about your trip.
Have a brilliant trip, and I hope the weather is kind to you !
Grace! Greg!
Top ‘o the mornin’ to ya! God be blessin’ ya both now.
Grace -
I love your blog! Just saw it on FB. Dublin, how AWESOME! I’m looking forward to reading all about it and seeing more pictures.
Mary and Andrew are in France right now (for 9 months while she works for Disney Paris — I wish you’d be stopping there. They’d love to see you!!!!)
Thanks for posting your Blog on FB!
Say hi to Greg.
Unless Guinness comes from a wooden barrel slightly cooler than room temperature with a thin frothy head on it, it may as well be paint thinner.