Mastering the phrase “Hit the Ground Running”….

(Click on the image below to see our picasa album of Dublin!)

Dublin

After a somewhat crazed day of packing and repacking the suitcase, our friend (and neighbor!), Justin, drove us to the airport where we enjoyed a nice meal at Macaroni Grill and cleared security and rode the tram to our gate in less than eight minutes. Boarding was simple and we found ourselves in a center aisle row – but a row of three! Perfecto! And so our journey truly began…

First I must say a few things about our flight and flying in general. Daniel, Emily, and I have all agreed that after you have weathered the 15+ hour cross-Pacific flights (which are often paired with an additional five hours from LA to the East coast), a flight announced to be seven hours and ten minutes is not really very daunting. But that doesn’t mean that it’s fun. --Second, I have decided that flying when you cannot fall asleep or get comfortable and really would like to/need to is the ultimate purgatory/first or second level of Dante’s hell.

Highlights of the flight? We were served an Irish dinner – which was delicious and only made us more excited about where we were headed. Two – this was definitely Daniel’s time zone transition – a 7 pm flight where you really should go right to sleep? Getting up really early? Perfect for him. Emily and I cursed him many a time. Third – we arrived 45 minutes early – unheard of for many flights…and very unfortunate in this case, because instead of landing at 8 am Ireland time and THREE am Florida time…we arrived at 2:15 am East coast time after sleeping for maybe an hour and a half. Ouch.

My favorite part of the trip? I was desperately trying to get comfy to go to sleep. And so I hit the recline button on the arm of the seat that housed my controls for my in-flight entertainment. Evidently, albeit illogically, that was Daniel’s button and the sound asleep lucky one experienced the sensation of falling and was jerked out of sleep looking incredibly flustered and startled…the look on his face was…priceless. :)

After landing we cleared customs and reclaimed bags with ease and were quickly waiting in line for our rental car paperwork. We were then whisked in a shuttle van to the rental car parking lot with a driver that had a knack for making fifty pound bags go flying. We picked up our rental car – laughed as Daniel struggled to adjust his mirrors, seat, and realized that his boots were going to make it very hard to distinguish between the clutch, brake, and gas pedals. We arrived at our hotel without incident but were then struck with the struggle of finding somewhere to park. Our options were hoping to get lucky and score a Sunday spot on the road or paying 35 euros for parking (for one night!)… Thankfully at the last second we managed to get the first of those. We dropped our bags at the desk and were off to tour the city!

First stop: the Guinness Brewery. This was a wise choice for us for many reasons. By hitting it early we avoided the crowds. We enjoyed a fun self-guided tour of the brewing process and marketing campaigns through the ages and then enjoyed a very tasty “free” brew from the Gravity Bar on the seventh story of the building – which is the tallest building in Dublin and offers an awesome 360 degree view of the city. Very cool. And, then we were hungry for lunch and were able to go down to the Guiness restaurant and enjoy Guinuess influenced creations – extremely yummy.

Recharged, we set out to explore the city and see more than we did on our initial walk towards the brewery. We each had a problem. Emily didn’t pack a real coat and spent the afternoon searching for them on the main shopping drags. For me, the combination of my mutation (the extra bone in my foot), swelling from the plane ride, and being on my feet all of last week meant that my right foot turned into a full blown swollen mess – major kankles – the worst my foot has hurt since I’ve gotten my orthotics, so I was being conservative with my paces. By the time we got back I was disturbingly swollen. And then Daniel. Who chose not to pack two pairs of shoes like I asked him to,...so of course his eight year old pair of Timberland boots disintegrated mid-multi mile trek. With the sole of one of his shoes detaching two-thirds of the way….and Mr. Stubborn doesn’t want to buy a new pair of shoes… The broken shoe is currently tied together with many linked together hair ties I graciously supplied Daniel with…but this cannot be a permanent solution. Emily and I are fighting him hard.

Despite all of our adversities, the motley Hals crew stuck it out and still put in a full day in Dublin. After the Guinness tour we shopped on Grafton Street, checked out the Dublin Castle, and visited my mom’s recommendation – the historic Book of Kells, which is housed in Trinity College and is a phenomenal medieval monastic manuscript of the four Gospels dated back to around 800 CE – it’s known for being one of the most ornately beautiful, amazingly detailed documents of its time. We also got to see the Long Hall – a twenty + floor to ceiling library of beautifully old, treasured books. Ahh, the nerd in me loved the smell of old books.

We checked into the hotel and crashed for a bit and then ventured out for dinner. We managed to find a wonderfully delicious restaurant called “Kate’s Cottage” where I found amazing Beef and Guinness stew served on sourdough bread. Daniel got his standard order for Meg O’Malley’s from back home and affirmed that Bangers and Mash really are better in Ireland.

Overall we had a great day – despite some of our challenges. :) We are off to Killarney in the morning and are hoping for decent weather and that the flooding in the lowlands doesn’t interfere with our plans. We’ll see – it’s hard to tell.
But so far, we are loving this beautiful country!

Cheers!

-Beth, Daniel, & Emily