Day 8 – Friday Oct 10 – Kilkenny to Dublin
Call time was at 8:00 for breakfast this morning. The dining hall was a tall room, with dark trimmings and bad light. Kindof depressing. Unfortunately, I have also picked up the cold that has plagued more than 50% of the bus all week. I am thankful it came on later in the week though, and hopefully won't be as bad as it was for some. We finished up a hit the road about 8:30. There were no stops planned – just straight to Dublin.
We arrived in downtown Dublin about 11:30 and the bus was to pick us up at 4:15. This was a very long time. There was an optional tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells, which I had not signed up for. So, I ended up on my own. I toured Dublin Castle, walked around a good bit, and then spent a couple hours watching people in the street from inside a Burger King. How American of me!
We got to the hotel about 4:30 (same hotel as the first night). At 6:45 the bus picked some of us up again to go to the optional Poughboy Dinner and Music Show. Dinner was excellent: goat cheese appetizers, chicken and potato with burnease sauce for the main course, and a plate of several goodies for dessert. The after dinner, and group of four guys sung and played some traditional Irish songs. They were a bit slower than the songs the night before, but still entertaining. Even more entertaining was the dancing that followed. Three girls and two boys danced for probably half and hour or more – very impressive.
About 11:00, the show ended and we went back to the hotel. I joined my friends for one last drink at the bar next door, and gave out contact info. Who knows if I’ll keep up with them or not. There’s a facebook group commited to the trip, so hopefully I’ll be able to find it.
Photo 1: Dublin Castle
Photo 2: One of the many statues found walking through Dublin
Day 9 – Saturday Oct 11 – Dublin to Raleigh
Not much to talk about on this day. I woke up at 6:45, and got to the airport gate about 9:45. It was interesting that US immigration happened in Dublin instead of the US. The outgoing immigration agent was from Durham, funny enough. The flight to PHL was long, of course, but they showed us three movies, helping quite a bit. The flight from PHL to RDU was pretty miserable, mostly because of back pain - but who wants to hear about all that. I got home around 6:30, and fell asleep at 8:00 for a good night's sleep.
This shall conclude my 2008 trip to Ireland. Overall, I'd say a good experience. I met some good people and got to see a lot in 8 days. Probably half of the tour was from Australia or New Zealand. Another large number of Canadians, and four Americans. This tour was part of a larger tour that started in London and ran through Scotland, so half the bus already new each other. Negatives would be the roommate issue, and time in the bus. Having renting a car in Scotland before, I longed for the freedom to stop whenever I wanted and leave whenever I wanted. If you don't like driving, then I would certainly suggest a tour like this, though. If I were to do a tour again, I would upgrade to have my own room.
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