After a wonderful breakfast at the Driftwood, we were ready to blast back across the country to Dublin. This was the only day we had a set time to be somewhere and it is crazy how much that affects everything. Frankly, it sucks. It’s far nicer to travel and arrive when you arrive rather than attempting to schedule everything around trying to be somewhere at 4:45...but that’s where we were.
As we left, Ash decided it was time to take the wheel. It was a bit nerve wracking for us all while she got settled into it. Not that she did a bad job, but, as with all things, when something new happens, there are a few moments of uncertainty, right? Once she got comfy, we all got comfy and we were off to the races!
We stopped in town briefly to visit the Yeats museum. I would have walked through it but there was a small fee and even though it was a very small fee I decided to skip it. Sara walked through it and said it was well done. The rest of us looked around outside. Sligo is a very cute, clean town.
Next, we wanted to see a Gaelic cemetery just outside of Sligo, so we set off to find it. Apparently, GPS is unaware of it so we made a couple of laps trying to figure it all out. Before long, we were there! It was not what I imagined — I was thinking of our cemetaries and thought perhaps we’d see cool old Gaelic cross headstones and the like. Oh no. This was far more interesting. More like ancient stone and rock piles over areas where they’d found mass grave sites. We enjoyed walking around through it. Wasn’t a long visit, but an interesting one!
Now we were ready to blow over just north of Dublin to another ancient burial area called Newgrange. I was getting slightly antsy over timing because the Airbnb host we were supposed to meet that night seemed super stressed about the timing and kept asking me to check in. Chill out, dude!! We still needed to get the Newgrange, look around, get to Dublin airport, return the van, get a taxi to the house and check in. Also, lunch. By my calculations, we were going to be about 2 hours late. I ran this by Sara and she thought we could make it. Ok, let’s give it a try!
We got to Newgrange through a series of the tiniest little roads we’d seen yet, only to find out we’d really done it wrong. You are supposed to go into a nearby town, buy a ticket and take a shuttle bus there. Because they didn’t have much parking. Of course, there we were and we parked. But they wouldn’t sell us a ticket. Poop. At this point, we realized we really didn’t have time to go to the city and come back on the shuttle bus. So, we looked around and then just had to bail. Newgrange looked like the world’s largest rice cake from the outside! It was crazy looking!!
So, we set off for the airport to return the van. It felt so weird to return to such a big city after many days enjoying the quiet countryside. We made it to the car return but were unable to text or call our taxi driver. Good grief we tried every which way you can think of, which led to some HILARIOUS quotes while we tried to make one of 2 phones work. So, finally we asked the Enterprise guy to call us a cab. He said he could but it would take 25 minutes and we could just take their free shuttle to terminal one and grab a taxi there. Bam!
So, we went to get on the free shuttle. Which took 25 minutes. LOL. He dropped us off at a taxi stand which then took another 10-15 minutes. Again, we aren’t used to lines of people waiting for cabs. We’re used to lines of cabs waiting for people. So interesting. Anyway, finally underway, and keeping in close contact with my nervous airbnb host, we looked like we might only be a few minutes late.
As we arrived, we waited by the car park sign for the host to meet us and walk us into the complex. Before long, he arrived and showed us around. Nice place! A walk up style townhouse with three stories. 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. Wow! Cool! We asked him if the pub nearby was good because we were hungry and tired and didn’t need a lot of effort to get dinner;) He said yes so we were off to Beggar’s Bush Pub.
As we walk up, a man was standing by the front door and sees us and says, “Ah, feckin’ Americans!” Mom and I laughed and said, “How did you know?” Apparently (we didn’t see this because we walked on in) he then pretended to shoot the rest of us. Um. Ok. We didn’t see any seats inside so we sat outside. We quickly realized they didn’t have food. Dang it. We had a round of drinks and Sara looked for possible dinner places nearby. It was her last night so we told her to choose what sounded good. She found a place only a block or so away so once we finished our drinks we cruised over to the Chophouse for dinner.
Man - what a great find! Lovely little local place. Great wine list and delicious food. We got California Chardonnay, which tasted like heaven! Everyone really enjoyed the meal. A quick walk home and a little bit of hanging out and talking was all that was left before bed. Sara had to be up and out early for her flight so we hugged goodbye. I didn’t figure I’d be up early enough to see her in the morning. Sad to see the trip fly by so darn fast!
So, we set off for the airport to return the van. It felt so weird to return to such a big city after many days enjoying the quiet countryside. We made it to the car return but were unable to text or call our taxi driver. Good grief we tried every which way you can think of, which led to some HILARIOUS quotes while we tried to make one of 2 phones work. So, finally we asked the Enterprise guy to call us a cab. He said he could but it would take 25 minutes and we could just take their free shuttle to terminal one and grab a taxi there. Bam!
So, we went to get on the free shuttle. Which took 25 minutes. LOL. He dropped us off at a taxi stand which then took another 10-15 minutes. Again, we aren’t used to lines of people waiting for cabs. We’re used to lines of cabs waiting for people. So interesting. Anyway, finally underway, and keeping in close contact with my nervous airbnb host, we looked like we might only be a few minutes late.
As we arrived, we waited by the car park sign for the host to meet us and walk us into the complex. Before long, he arrived and showed us around. Nice place! A walk up style townhouse with three stories. 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. Wow! Cool! We asked him if the pub nearby was good because we were hungry and tired and didn’t need a lot of effort to get dinner;) He said yes so we were off to Beggar’s Bush Pub.
As we walk up, a man was standing by the front door and sees us and says, “Ah, feckin’ Americans!” Mom and I laughed and said, “How did you know?” Apparently (we didn’t see this because we walked on in) he then pretended to shoot the rest of us. Um. Ok. We didn’t see any seats inside so we sat outside. We quickly realized they didn’t have food. Dang it. We had a round of drinks and Sara looked for possible dinner places nearby. It was her last night so we told her to choose what sounded good. She found a place only a block or so away so once we finished our drinks we cruised over to the Chophouse for dinner.
Man - what a great find! Lovely little local place. Great wine list and delicious food. We got California Chardonnay, which tasted like heaven! Everyone really enjoyed the meal. A quick walk home and a little bit of hanging out and talking was all that was left before bed. Sara had to be up and out early for her flight so we hugged goodbye. I didn’t figure I’d be up early enough to see her in the morning. Sad to see the trip fly by so darn fast!
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