Failte… Welcome to Dublin ..Part 2 of 3 of the Irish roam

August 23, 2023

Failte… Welcome to Dublin ..Part 2 of 3 of the Irish roam

In my previous blog I shared the terrible, horrible, no good travel experience that United Airlines and Newark put my family and I, and thousands others, through. However, the idea of a family vacation, which had been so carefully planned, so looked forward to by all 4 of us gave us hope. In retrospect maybe it is somewhat fitting, the Irish themselves have struggled with so much, so much more than a terrible airport experience, and yet they seem to have something too many others do not .. they exude hope.

Our plane, delayed the 2nd day by many hours, was finally in the air. I breathed, I smiled, I believed finally that yes, yes we were going to actually get to our vacation, our long awaited family trip. The flight was smooth, the landing fine and the luggage .. lost. That was not going to deter us from taking a deep breath, after all we had not expected United to get this right, and think what might we do. We had no luggage to take to a hotel, so we called an Uber, which is actually a taxi in Dublin and decided to see if we might salvage some of our tours. We headed to the Guinness factory, 3 hours later than our ticket reservations. The first sign that we had landed in a place that was going to welcome us was the taxi driver. An immigrant to Ireland, who had been there for many years, whose pride in the many things around us as we drove was not boastful but content. Best line “The people are here are great, sure we have some assholes, but everyone has assholes, we just don’t let the assholes speak for us”.

The houses in Dublin are quaint, our taxi explained that they are small, expensive and that Dublin like every other city is hard to afford but impossible to not be attracted to living in. They reminded me of Boston, New York neighborhoods and it made sense. The Irish who landed in the US brought with them masonry skills and recreated many a brick house that would remind them of home, as immigrants it took a while to actually own them. When I say small, well that one might think is a matter of perspective (New Yorkers in particular see a bargain on a small place that a Mid-Westerner in the US would think of as a garage at a third of price). These are small, one to two bedrooms tops. Yet they carry big price tags, much like many cities.

The next thing was to get used to driving on the “wrong side” which I am not going to say, they drive on the opposite side, in a 6city with plenty of very narrow streets, by US standards, and the universal traffic. All of that not an issue, we were late already, we were being entertained and given a “tour” by the taxi driver anyway.

The Guinness Storehouse is massive, it’s old, not like Ancient Greek/Italian/Egyptian old, but more like 1902 old, opened and renovated in 2000. It’s entrance brings to mind Dickens stories, large stone pillars with huge gates. I apologetically held out our Guinness tickets, explained our airplane delay (condensed version) and with a smile the young woman replied that of course we could still use our tickets. This would be a theme, the Irish are just the most welcoming people we have ever encountered. Many others in places we traveled to have been friendly, pleasant, fun but the Irish really bring a special warmth to everyone who lands on their shores.

The Guinness Storehouse is the first recommendation in Dublin. It does not matter if you drink, drink Guinness or not. It is well designed, you learn the history of the family and their endeavor which is now a worldwide phenomenon. As you make your way to and you the top you end up in a gorgeous bar with a beautiful 360 degree view of Dublin. If you choose to partake in the complimentary pint, it will taste different than the ones in the States in a good way and if you had stopped and learned how to actually drink it you will also note it is not “bitter” as you may have experienced before. Once we popped out of there, with some very “I AM A TOURIST” merch, because after all I needed a sweater (yes in July, but not a jacket so do not eye roll) and our clothes were currently someplace, just not our place.

We are a let’s make the best of it type of family, we will moan and groan (because we are also that family) amongst ourselves, but vacations or time off are appreciated more than the moaning. We look up and see that we have a hop on / hop off bus stop right in front of the Storehouse entrance, logical, and we have a ticket for that and it will take us toward our hotel. Now I know, I am a NYC native, you see those buses, you feel like a bit of a zoo attraction as the people on it take pics and point and then you realize that 1) tourists are good for the economy of the place they visit 2) you should be ok with them being excited about what they are seeing and even a little giddy cause you get to live in wherever this is happening and 3) you will do it potentially so judge not. This particular ride was really great due to our bus driver, who as we get by Kilmainham Gaol explains the struggle of the people who were incarcerated in there whose crimes were the desire to have an Ireland free of it’s British rule. We did not have time to visit, though added to our “when we come back list”, but it does stir something in most of us, this desire to be ourselves, to be untethered to a constrictive government that does not respect the rights of all it’s people, not just those in power or of a certain belief system. She also told us the story of a beautiful song called “Grace”, if you have not heard it do yourself the favor and listen, which she then proceeded to sing, in a beautiful voice. NOW .. how cool is that ???

She also recommended a few restaurants that she said were not just for tourists and a few that were. We wound up choosing one of the not for tourists only ones, plenty of those in there too. Now I know ..I heard.. I may have made the cracks too based on my experience with it in the States…the food jokes about Ireland. However, I figured we all like potatoes and we all could find something on a menu in all of our travels so we were not worried.

We chose one of her recommendations for dinner. It was a bit of a walk from our hotel, but it was worth it as we got to see more of Dublin. We are New Yorkers and walkers, ok so the kids have learned to accept that I like to walk everywhere and just deal. The place was packed, we got our table, and we had an amazing meal (this would be a theme for many of our meals, the worst we could ever say about them was that since we were picking places for our selective eater in the group we chose similar fare a lot). The people .. I cannot say it enough, they are just so welcoming. A 3 man musical band started up, traditional Irish music that made you toe tap, clap along and wish you knew the words to sing along with everyone. Another theme, the Irish like to sing, and how can one not appreciate a country that tells it’s stories with song.

Our hotel was lovely, we were near Trinity College, and while we only spent one night there, I highly recommend it as well. The full Irish was awesome the next day. We asked for a pharmacy to buy some toothbrushes and they handed us ones from the hotel with individual, tiny toothpaste. You do not appreciate the small things, like having a toothbrush after a long day, or a shower, or a Guinness logo sweater to keep you from feeling chilly .. until you don’t have it.

We had connected with Aliki, who again had just been amazing through this, and asked for a later start to our next day. A driver due to pick us up, we wanted to try and see Trinity College, especially the Long Room. As we walked over from our hotel, our scheduled and paid for tickets a day old, we found yet another sympathetic person at the ticket desk. The other young woman next to her, an American studying there, shared her own mother’s travel insanity leaving from Newark at same time as us (involved 4 different stops across Europe). They not only honored our tickets they pointed us to a tour that was just starting. This is also a high recommendation, take the tour. The guides are students, ours was funny and clever and you realize the great literary tradition that Trinity has with the long list of highly regarded and well known authors. However, you will tinge green when you hear the tuition, even the non-Irish one, for one of the better colleges in the world… we are so getting robbed in the US.

The Long Room, at the Book of Kells, is something to behold, not taking away from the other stops and buildings we saw. It is a readers paradise, with copies of any book published, which is sent to them still. It is just breathtaking…you cannot touch.. but you want to. If you aren’t a reader, you still can appreciate the beauty of the room, the sheer vastness of it.

So our brief time in Dublin left us with wanting to come back, to experience things we did not, to get an even better feel for this lovely city.

John, our driver, was waiting for us after our tour to take us on to our next stop. John was a thin man, with an easy smile. We immediately liked him, all 4 of us and as our trip would go on and we would spend more time with him we just grew to like and respect him even more. A soft spoken man, who had lived in Yonkers for a while, who liked to travel and who was a great conversationalist as well as listener.

You may wonder about the driver. The idea of driving on small streets, on the opposite of the one we drive on, manual was not as appealing to us as it may be to some. Additionally this allowed us to relax and enjoy our time, it was not much more expensive than renting a car and paying for gas (which in Europe was at $6 a gallon). The pleasure of meeting someone like John also cannot be replicated with a rental car.

Next blog will be the last leg of our trip. Ending this one with the thought that I had as I was writing it. Never let the things that are out of your control ruin the control you can have to enjoy a moment, make a memory and appreciate what you do have.

Some recommendations:

CW Journeys - Aliki Weston is not a travel agent, she is Sherpa and a treasure to know.

https://www.facebook.com/CWJourneys/

Davenport Hotel - Dublin

https://www.davenporthotel.ie

Hop on Hop Off Bus - maybe you will be lucky to hear the dulcet tones of the driver

https://dodublin.ie/#GMB

Trinity College, Book of Kells

https://www.visittrinity.ie/book-of-kells/book-of-kells-tickets/

Guinness Storehouse

https://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en/home

Kilmainham Gao