Our trip to Ireland began in Philly, of all places. As it turns out, it was a great way to get the trip started. We’re a few days in now so I have hindsight on my side, which is always helpful.
But, let’s start at the beginning.
So, 5 of us are meeting up in Ireland. Me, my husband, my mom, our friend Ashley and my friend Sara. 4 of us are flying to Philly to spend a few days and then flying together over the pond. Sara will meet us at the airport — she’s flying in from Saudi Arabia where she works.
And why? Well, about 2 months ago I was out in San Jose working and got a text one morning. It was Sara. She said, “Do you want to go to Ireland?” I said, “yes.” Turns out, most people say yes to that question so here we all are.
We started looking for plane tickets and the proverbial poo hit the fan. We like to fly on miles but, as anyone who has ever flown on miles can tell you, it ain’t easy. In fact, it ended up not working at all. The prices were sky high and it started to look like the whole trip might be in jeopardy. Mom threw out a high end cap and we got serious about hunting for airfare under that, still in business class.
Next thing you know, we’re all heading to Philly. We ended up spending the weekend there because we realized non of us had ever been there before. What a crazy fun town! We went full tourist and did all the things — including the double decker bus all around town and eating cheesesteaks at the tourist places. It was great. Such a walkable city. Clean. Easy to navigate. Lots to see. Beautiful architecture. Amazing history. We all just really enjoyed our time there.
And, later we realized the true greatness of it was we had a small decompression window before the big trip began. We let work shake off. We stopped being stressed and hurried and worried. We started just enjoying time. We did what we wanted when we wanted and let go of the rest. What’s better than that?
We stayed at the Embassy Suites right in the middle of the museum area, which was awesome. We had 2 rooms next door to each other and made good use of the free breakfasts and happy hours. The weather was perfect. Such a treat to have cool nights with no mosquitos!!
The days flew by and it was finally time to head back to the airport and get on our long flight. All of us but poor Ash were flying business and were looking forward to a meal, wine and a lay flat seat. We got to hang out in the British Airways lounge ahead of the flight — it was really tiny. I was surprised. We’re used to the giant American Airlines lounges. But, the food and drinks were free and the chairs were comfy so we killed the time pre-flight in there. There was good people watching — including a Russian lady who power chugged 4 straight espressos and an old man who came to get a cappuccino but pulled his coffee mug away after just the milk and let the espresso run all over.
On board, we found our seats. They were pretty cool. Great privacy— I felt like I was in my own little suite...unless I sat up and lowered the privacy glass and then I was staring right at Jason;) Mom was a few rows behind us so I went to make sure she was all set. The service was impeccable— really amazing. The only negative was that the plane stayed really uncomfortably warm all night long. I was sweating and having to fan myself. I’m not sure how Jason survived, as he is always hot. The flight went by so fast. Almost too fast — I found myself oddly wishing it had been a bit longer because I didn’t get much time to sleep. By the time the run the drinks and dinner service and you get the bed made and relax, there were only about 4 hours max to sleep. That’s a decent nap but not a good night’s sleep.
We woke up coming in to land in England. We had to go through passport checks and security again and change terminals. We didn’t have to claim and recheck bags at least. Security was a bit of a whip but we ended up making it to our gates with time to spare. We were pretty tired but hanging in there. The flight to Dublin was super short — something like 50 minutes. We barely got our water and we were landing. The plane was weird. We were in first class but it was 3 and 3 with the middle seat blocked out by a custom tray table...so we were only seated 2 per row. But there was no additional leg room. It was odd! But whatever. The flight was too short to care.
Once on the ground in Dublin, we were stoked! Tired but happy. Then, mom’s luggage didn’t come off the plane. Crap! She went to file a claim. I was trying to contact the driver who was supposed to come get us so he wouldn’t leave us but I couldn’t get through. I could tell Sara’s plane was going to be late. Finally, just as mom made it up to the counter to file her claim, someone came by and said there was still some luggage on the belt in the back. He fired it up, and here came her bag! Wow! So cool. We went through customs and pretty quickly found our driver. He seemed in a hurry but I told him we were still missing Sara and he waited. About 15 minutes later, out she came! BAM! Party TIME!
SO, we take off for the van trying to run after the driver who is walking crazy fast through the rain and never looking back to see if we’re following. I was second in line and made it my goal in life to just not lose him. We all get there, get loaded up and in the van and then, we see our first fist fight in Ireland.
Damn, I love this country.
So, we watch two cars ahead of us in line to get out of the car park start to get mad at each other. Finally, one gets out and walks up to the door of the other. They start fighting. And then our driver warms up! I said, ‘man, is this normal? Should we expect this?” And he said, “I hope so!” And then, “You should always punch them in the face. But really, he should have just killed him.” And for the next 40 minutes drive or so he had us all laughing. He was really a character. At some point he learned that mom just turned 70 and he told her she was, “quite fresh for 70!” He got a big kick out of mom trying to tell him our address and pronouncing a common word, “quay” as “kway” rather than “key”.
Our apartment wasn’t quite ready, so we dropped our bags at the office and went off about the streets of Dublin for fish n chips and the grocery store. So happy to be reunited with brown sauce for fish! A love of mine from the Oxford days. A couple hours later, we were ready for the apartment and the driver took us over to Hanover Quay — on the grand canal. A lovely area right near the Google campus and the U2 studios. We were too worn out to want to go exploring so we stayed in and had a dinner of cheese and crackers and wine.
The apartment was awesome — 3 bedrooms and 2 baths on the ground floor. A large living room, kitchen and dining room on the second floor. We had lots of room to spread out and get comfy. We were also able to do laundry — which was perfect timing! We only brought 4-5 days worth of clothes an the short Philly stay had run through most of them.
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