Trip to Dublin and visitors

Well our American visitors are here safe and sound. Tuesday afternoon my husband and I drove down to Dublin. It takes about 2.5 hours to get there, well it would if you didn't get lost. We missed our exit because we did not trust our GPS or we like to call her GLADOS. (this is because we think she is out to get us). Luckily unlike Maine if you get lost you can always take the next road up and head in the same directions and eventually the roads will met up.

We stayed at R's aunt's house M and her husband X. (Yes his first name starts with the letter X.)  We got there much later then we had expected so we didn't get to hang out with the kiddos. Plus we had to get up at 4:30 in the morning so it was early to bed for us.



Breakfast cafe on the second floor



A & D arrived at 5:20 am. Of course when we got to the airport we couldn't find out which terminal they were at since they just built a new one. We parked at one and ended up having to walk almost half a mile to where they were waiting. We had planned to head into Dublin so that D could meet someone at Trinity College for his work. Now, I am going to preface this with R and I really don't like Dublin. It's too crowded, has a horrible one way system and is just like any other big city. So driving into the city at 6 in the morning with little to no sleep and getting lost was not a great start to the day. We did end up finding a parking garage, but of course it was an expensive one and off the beaten path. When we did try and walk down Grafton St to find a breakfast place it started pouring and we didn't have umbrellas.  We went into the first hotel we saw and it wasn't open and when it did open it was WAY TOO expensive. Finally we found a small cafe over a newspaper stand and got a good full breakfast for an okay price. Everything in Dublin is expensive: parking, food, and shops.  I would recommend if you ever come to Ireland, just fly into Dublin and head straight out of the city. The rest of Ireland is wonderful and beautiful. Also the people are much nicer when you get out of Dublin as well.

D was going to meet the person at 10, however, we finished breakfast at 7:30 and had nothing really to do until then. We did end up parking close to the college even though we had no idea where we were. We walked around the college and then sat down in a small coffee shop and tried to wait it out. The rain had stopped and the sun had come out, but we were really too tired to walk around the city. So by 9 am we were done. D just ended up emailing the college and explaining the situation. It was nice to leave the city. It was a quiet drive back with us getting home around 1 pm. We then all took a nap and just hung out at the house until we went to bed early.



A view of a Dublin street



One of the buildings at Trinity College

On Wednesday we went up North to the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills and Dunluce Castle. Those pictures will be coming tomorrow. Today we're headed up to Belfast to go shopping. 

oíche mhaith