Day 2
Dublin, March 10
What an awesome day! Watching out the window of the plane as we landed, I saw my first castle! Okay, it was a smallish stone building with a tower and turrets. I think it’s a castle. Anyway, it is a stone building! We landed just a bit early, I got through Customs with no problem, and went to pick up the one suitcase that I’d checked way back in Anchorage. And waited. And waited. Til the monitor finally changed and my flight was no longer listed. Almost immediately a line formed behind me at the lost baggage counter, and about ten or fifteen people filled out forms and showed off their luggage tags to the clerk right after I did.It was going to be noon before my bag showed up; it was supposedly coming from Charles de Gaulle Airport, where ever that is. I went to check on the rental car, and my reservation was in order, so I told the clerk-Jenny, a super sweet woman!-what was going on and that I’d pick the car up later. I hopped on the Dublin city center bus to find lunch and a little coffee while I waited for the bag to arrive.
Dublin is a big city that looks like a small town, at least to me. Lots and lots of tiny grocery stores, butcher shops, pubs, and take aways. In my very short sortie downtown I only saw one department store. Most of the houses that lined the road to the city center were stuccoed, and had brick chimneys. I later found out that they burned coal mostly, but sometimes peat in the fireplaces; although that’s not very common now. Lots of nice front yards with flowering daffodils. The trees haven’t leafed out yet, but I saw some Scotch broom flowering, and another tree with red blossoms. It is most definitely springtime here.
I wandered around just a bit, looking for something not too expensive but more interesting than McDonald’s or BurgerKing, and ended up at a cafeteria-like café. Awesome vegetable soup! Along with scrambled eggs, sausage, a roll, and coffee, my stomach was happy and I was ready to explore a little more. I wandered a bit further, up and down several streets. The camera store I stopped in gave me directions to an electronics store where I could get a converter for my plugs, but I couldn’t find it. Probably didn’t go far enough, or so I thought at the time. Now I know that Dublin is an incredible rabbit’s warren of side streets, alleys, bus-only lanes, and maniacal two way streets with three lanes. Or four lanes, or only two lanes. The key word being “maniacal”.
On the bus ride back to the airport, I saw Ken’s Trimmings; all kinds of trims for sewing. I bought a bus pass with a three hour limit on it; I could go where ever I wanted in three hours, and my time was almost up, otherwise I probably would’ve jumped off the bus for an impromptu sewing stop. When I got to the airport, my suitcase was still not at the lost luggage counter, so I opted to complete the paper work and pick up my rental car. I strongly advise booking your car through an Irish website; otherwise you will choke when you find out how much car insurance is. Your car is NOT covered by your U.S. insurance company, nor does your Visa card provide any insurance despite what the Visa card representative will tell you. Apparently this is due to the high ratio of accidents in Ireland; I just hope I don’t change the stats.
Driving on the wrong side of the road isn’t at all difficult it turns out; the hardest part has been remembering that the windshield wipers are on the left and the turn signals are on the right. And the gears are a little farther over than my old Justy. Other than that, I didn’t have any trouble with the driving.
I parked the car, and went into the airport to find a place to stay in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery), via the tourist center, which didn’t work out. Instead I made a reservation in Dublin. By then my bag was ready, so I went backwards through security with the aid of an airline employee and picked up my bag. Easily found the car again, and went to pay for my parking. Luckily someone else had gotten a ticket stuck in the machine, so I got out for free! And that was the last bit of luck I had for most of the rest of the day.
I looked for the Leeson hotel for four long, frustrating hours, until I was to the point of tears. It was getting dark, I was exhausted from the lack of sleep (I slept maybe for three of the six hour Atlanta-Dublin flight, and less than three hours on the Anchorage-Seattle, Seattle-Atlanta legs), and I could NOT find 26-27 Leeson Street. I did find the Leeson Bridge B&B, which I thought was the Leeson Hotel. After a rather tearful request for help in parking the car, which I’d left down the street to continue my search on foot, it turned out I was at the wrong hotel.
The clerk called Leeson Hotel and Collum flew down the street to help me out. Holey cow do those Irishmen drive fast! I could no more tell you how I got to the hotel than how to fly to the moon! No wonder everyone was beeping at me all afternoon, as I stared at street signs-once I found out just where the street signs are located. Some streets are signed on the corners of buildings. Not all of them are signed, and sometimes you can only see the sign from one direction. And then there are those little alleyways. Or the pedestrian-only streets. Which, yes, I did drive partway down a pedestrian-only street. I only did one wrong-way drive test, and fortunately the guy in the lane of the road I tried to go down the wrong way was very patient and waited while I backed up and went down the correct side of the street. And that was before I was all wigged out trying to find my hotel!
Collum parked my car, tossed me the keys, and hightailed it down the road in his own car. He was obviously dressed for some sort of event that required a coat and tie, but frankly I was just grateful that I was at my destination. I checked in, gave the reception clerk my car keys, and started unpacking and barely noted said accoutrements. A very unpleasant surprise awaited me when I opened my suitcase, and took out the damp sheet that Lael gave me for my youth hostel sleep sheet. Damp sheet… why was the sheet damp? I started feeling around and it wasn’t just the sheet, it was also both batteries (one for the camera and one for the computer), a box of drawing pens, a box of drawing pencils, almost all of my clothing (no jammies for me tonight!), the bath towel I threw in at the last moment, the chatelaine and baseball cap pieces I’d prepped for crazy quilting, and of course the brand new box of envelopes is useless. The suitcase is wet through to the bottom. Obviously my checked bag was no more at De Gaulle airport than I was; it spent the day sitting out on the tarmac where it fell off the baggage cart.
I called the lost baggage office yet again, and got through on the second call (and kicked myself for not following up on the impulse to check the bag at the airport). The clerk was very helpful, although she told me it is up to Delta Airlines to reimburse me or not. It’s possible that the travel insurance I purchased by accident may cover my claim instead. Or not, as the travel imps see fit! The only wet items I’m really upset about are the extra batteries for the camera and computer, because of course the battery in the computer is nearly drained, but I don’t dare switch batteries. And until I found the room heater, I was missing those jammies too!
Now my luck improves, and after I shut the laptop off, I went through the hotel book. Lo and behold, they will loan guests an adapter! So off I went to beg for an adapter. Ten euros lighter and 45 minutes later, the computer is more than half charged. The deposit for the adapter will pay for my breakfast in the morning. I know I’ll be starving in the morning, so I’m going for the Irish breakfast tomorrow! And that will be the start of tomorrow’s story!
Goodnight all!
Daily link log:
Dublin Markets
Dublin Rambler Pass
Getting around Dublin
Dublin Pass
Visit Dublin
Temple Bar, Dublin’s cultural center
Leeson Hotel 26-27 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
