Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Honeymoon Blogs pt 3
The last leg of the trip home. Writing this from the skies over... well,
over somewhere between atlanta and austin. Two things stick in my mind
as I watch the glowing spiderwebs of cityscapes pass beneath me, one,
that relevance is a matter of perspective, and two, it's an odd thing to
be racing the setting sun in a thin metal tube.
Things that have happened since I last updated, as they often do. We
found food, a not so inexpensive Chinese place not far from the hotel. A
review of the place had described it as not bad a bad place to eat, with
the usual food and atmosphere. I have to say, who ever wrote that review
must have been quite used to pomp and circumstance. The waitstaff was
polite, and responsive, the former being much more common than the later
among dublin servers. The food was tasty, with a slightly different
selection than I would expect in the states. I had the salt and chile
chicken, and it was delicious. The wife had the green curry, and said it
was the best green curry she's had.
The night wound up with us enjoying a few pints in the bar in the
hotel with a talkative contractor from northern ireland. He told us tales
of a misspent youth, the economic troubles facing workers in the emerald
isle, and the location of a bar where the bartender's daughter poured
the perfect pint of Guinness. We closed the place out, talking of life,
drinks, and ages gone by.
The next morning found us on a bus, touring county Wiklow. Here we found
the lush beauty that had been so often described to us, the peaks and
valleys that had given birth to tales of fairies and other creatures of
magic and wonder.
Anyone you ask will describe me as a city boy, too long from the pulse,
the action, the throngs of people, and I go a little crazy. But ruins,
oh the ruins, so rich and full of history. The remains of buildings over
a millennium old, the tales of kings and queens, abbots and bishops,
saints and sinners, all laid out in the ground before us. I could spend
a year, or two, or more, wandering the Irish countryside, cataloguing
the history of this wonderful place, though I'm sure it has been done,
many times over.
We finished the tour with a stop at a little cafe in a town full of
weavers. My old hat, having been bent, battered, and misshapen from the
wind, rain, and time, was replaced with a rather smart wool cap.
The trip home was long, and sprinkled with socio-political commentary
from our driver, a jovial yet jaded man who felt the recession, and had
hope in change.
That night we wandered swords, and I found myself trying irish fajitas,
which weren't so much bad as confusing. The irish seem to have a rather
solid disdain for any dried seasonings except salt and pepper, leading
to a much different eating experience.
The next day was our last full day in this beautiful country. We decided
to turn our focus to the city we had come to visit. A hop on, hop off
tour of the city, where we got the grand tour of the cities rich
heritage, a walk through a green (park (square)), and a tour of the
Guinness brewery. Unfortunately, we're finding most beverage tours to be
the same, and, save for the free pint at the end, wasn't quite worth it.
We ended the tour in the Temple bar area, the area we tried to explore
the first night in town.
Pausing now, to fill up on airline peanuts and margarita, complements
of our previous delay. We are losing the race with the sun, only a faint
rainbow glow on the horizon. 30 min of laptop battery remain, and I hope
I can finish this before it goes.
Refreshed, I return to the tale of our last night in town. In the temple
bar area, we stumble upon a pub, if you could call it that, called the
Bank. Situated across the street from the more local Banker's lounge,
where we went the first night, the bank was a historic site, carved from
a quite obviously victorian bank. A copy of the book of kells lay on
display in the lobby, and the place was nothing if not posh.
I was finally able to have the long sought steak sandwich, cooked to
perfection, delightfully vegetable free, and served with fresh cut
fries, something that I had been missing from home.
I had my last pint of Guinness with the masterpiece of thin sliced
cow-meat, and capped the night off with a finger of the 18 year Jameson.
In case any of you are wondering why you didn't get souvenirs from this
trip, I must confess, I drank most of them away that night. And let me
tell you my friends, it was magnificent. Full of flavor, smooth, the
perfect whiskey.
All good things must sometime come to an end, and so it went that this
morning, about 18 hours ago, we woke and headed for the dublin airport.
Plagued by mechanical failures and odd customs' customs, we are drawing
near to the end of our journey. My first trip off the continent, my
first exploration of the old world, the first step of the journey into my new life.
I can tell you, my friends, it won't be my last.
Until next time, a fond farewell, kind regards, and a heartfelt cheers.
over somewhere between atlanta and austin. Two things stick in my mind
as I watch the glowing spiderwebs of cityscapes pass beneath me, one,
that relevance is a matter of perspective, and two, it's an odd thing to
be racing the setting sun in a thin metal tube.
Things that have happened since I last updated, as they often do. We
found food, a not so inexpensive Chinese place not far from the hotel. A
review of the place had described it as not bad a bad place to eat, with
the usual food and atmosphere. I have to say, who ever wrote that review
must have been quite used to pomp and circumstance. The waitstaff was
polite, and responsive, the former being much more common than the later
among dublin servers. The food was tasty, with a slightly different
selection than I would expect in the states. I had the salt and chile
chicken, and it was delicious. The wife had the green curry, and said it
was the best green curry she's had.
The night wound up with us enjoying a few pints in the bar in the
hotel with a talkative contractor from northern ireland. He told us tales
of a misspent youth, the economic troubles facing workers in the emerald
isle, and the location of a bar where the bartender's daughter poured
the perfect pint of Guinness. We closed the place out, talking of life,
drinks, and ages gone by.
The next morning found us on a bus, touring county Wiklow. Here we found
the lush beauty that had been so often described to us, the peaks and
valleys that had given birth to tales of fairies and other creatures of
magic and wonder.
Anyone you ask will describe me as a city boy, too long from the pulse,
the action, the throngs of people, and I go a little crazy. But ruins,
oh the ruins, so rich and full of history. The remains of buildings over
a millennium old, the tales of kings and queens, abbots and bishops,
saints and sinners, all laid out in the ground before us. I could spend
a year, or two, or more, wandering the Irish countryside, cataloguing
the history of this wonderful place, though I'm sure it has been done,
many times over.
We finished the tour with a stop at a little cafe in a town full of
weavers. My old hat, having been bent, battered, and misshapen from the
wind, rain, and time, was replaced with a rather smart wool cap.
The trip home was long, and sprinkled with socio-political commentary
from our driver, a jovial yet jaded man who felt the recession, and had
hope in change.
That night we wandered swords, and I found myself trying irish fajitas,
which weren't so much bad as confusing. The irish seem to have a rather
solid disdain for any dried seasonings except salt and pepper, leading
to a much different eating experience.
The next day was our last full day in this beautiful country. We decided
to turn our focus to the city we had come to visit. A hop on, hop off
tour of the city, where we got the grand tour of the cities rich
heritage, a walk through a green (park (square)), and a tour of the
Guinness brewery. Unfortunately, we're finding most beverage tours to be
the same, and, save for the free pint at the end, wasn't quite worth it.
We ended the tour in the Temple bar area, the area we tried to explore
the first night in town.
Pausing now, to fill up on airline peanuts and margarita, complements
of our previous delay. We are losing the race with the sun, only a faint
rainbow glow on the horizon. 30 min of laptop battery remain, and I hope
I can finish this before it goes.
Refreshed, I return to the tale of our last night in town. In the temple
bar area, we stumble upon a pub, if you could call it that, called the
Bank. Situated across the street from the more local Banker's lounge,
where we went the first night, the bank was a historic site, carved from
a quite obviously victorian bank. A copy of the book of kells lay on
display in the lobby, and the place was nothing if not posh.
I was finally able to have the long sought steak sandwich, cooked to
perfection, delightfully vegetable free, and served with fresh cut
fries, something that I had been missing from home.
I had my last pint of Guinness with the masterpiece of thin sliced
cow-meat, and capped the night off with a finger of the 18 year Jameson.
In case any of you are wondering why you didn't get souvenirs from this
trip, I must confess, I drank most of them away that night. And let me
tell you my friends, it was magnificent. Full of flavor, smooth, the
perfect whiskey.
All good things must sometime come to an end, and so it went that this
morning, about 18 hours ago, we woke and headed for the dublin airport.
Plagued by mechanical failures and odd customs' customs, we are drawing
near to the end of our journey. My first trip off the continent, my
first exploration of the old world, the first step of the journey into my new life.
I can tell you, my friends, it won't be my last.
Until next time, a fond farewell, kind regards, and a heartfelt cheers.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Honeymoon Blogs pt 2
Thur evening, 9/24
Plane ride was pretty decent. Found it hard to sleep on the
international flight, despite how easy it was to nap on the trip to
atlanta. Landed in dublin at 10am tues on less that two hours of sleep.
Delta plane food kind of sucks.
Customs was easy to get through. "Are you american? Are you staying
long?" and our baggage miraculously showed up at the same time we did.
No complaints there. However, we asked for directions to the castle from
what has been later described by other dublin residents, as the dumbest
woman in all of ireland. We got to take a bus-wide tour of the city, for
free, thanks to the fact that the bus didn't take paper money, and the
driver took pity on some poor lost americans. We wound up at a train
station, and the ticket agent there told us the proper way to get back.
After three or four vague sets of directions. "You take the lane to the
end of the way, and then a left and a right gets you right there." we
actually found ourself at the castle. The hotel staff met us with smiles
that quickly turned into furrowed brows and waved down managers.
Eventually they explained to us that the hotel had been overbooked for
the weekend, and, they did not have room for us on thursday, friday, or
saturday.
However, if we were willing to to move over to their sister hotel for
those nights, they would be willing to upgrade us to the honeymoon suite
for our nights at the castle, complete with a bottle of champagne, and
provide us with dinner. Additionally, they would upgrade our room at the
crowne plaza to a king, and provided us with a cab ride over there, and
a shuttle to the airport. With heavy hearts, we accepted, trying not to
skip as we headed up to hotel room that dwarfed a few of the apartments
that I lived in.
Once up there, reunited with the contact solution for the first time in
three days, I effectively blinded my self, and we took a short nap (that
turned into 4 hours) before heading down to temple bar area in search of
the elusive steak sandwich.
After a bit of wandering and a fair amount of being quite lost, we
stumbled into the recommended pub, the Banker's something or other, only
to be told that their chef had the night off, and that we should try
back another night, but that we could have a pint and some bacon crisps
before we go.
A well meaning couple at the pub pointed us in the direction of
Darwin's, a full fledged steakhouse. It was good, though a bit pricier
than the steak sandwich. Legs tired, we decided to call it a night.
The next morning found us on our way to Howth (rhymes with both) and we
ate at the Bloody Stream. (Named after a battle that left the stream
blood red for quite a while, not for any other reason you might be
thinking) Had a bacon cheese burger there. The irish interpretation of
bacon is interesting, to say the least. It's more like thin ham steak
with a lot of salt.
We wandered to docks, looking at all the restaurants and shops, watched
a fat seal fight with seagulls over the fish that the tourists were
tossing at them. we walked along the edge of the ocean, stood under a
lighthouse or two, and photographed an island in the distance.
That night we took advantage of our complimentary dinner, and it was
quite good. The sheer number of ways that steak can be prepared is
astounding. Topped that off with a night at the hotel's bar, reaffirmed
the knowledge that Irish Guinness is the best beer I've ever had. Found
that the american exports seem to exclusively be budweiser and coors
light. Not sure why we're exporting only the worst beer we have, maybe
we just want to keep the good stuff for ourselves. After all, if people
drink that piss they call Budwiser, I can't imagine how fast they would
down a good bach, like shiner, or any of the texas microbrews.
Caught up to this morning, where we awoke and headed down to O'Connel
street for some shopping. Department stores seem to be a universal maze
that traps the unwary male with his new wife. Having struggled free an
hour or so later, with nothing actually purchased, we made our way to
another pub, where I finally got my long sought steak sandwich, and
another two pints of the good stuff.
A little more shopping, and we began the process of finding our way
home, took the taxi from the castle to the new hotel ( the new room is
nice, in a very businessy sense, but no honeymoon suite) and now I sit
writing this.
Feeling quite caught up, it's now time to search for some more food, and
a pint or two, before calling it a night.
Plane ride was pretty decent. Found it hard to sleep on the
international flight, despite how easy it was to nap on the trip to
atlanta. Landed in dublin at 10am tues on less that two hours of sleep.
Delta plane food kind of sucks.
Customs was easy to get through. "Are you american? Are you staying
long?" and our baggage miraculously showed up at the same time we did.
No complaints there. However, we asked for directions to the castle from
what has been later described by other dublin residents, as the dumbest
woman in all of ireland. We got to take a bus-wide tour of the city, for
free, thanks to the fact that the bus didn't take paper money, and the
driver took pity on some poor lost americans. We wound up at a train
station, and the ticket agent there told us the proper way to get back.
After three or four vague sets of directions. "You take the lane to the
end of the way, and then a left and a right gets you right there." we
actually found ourself at the castle. The hotel staff met us with smiles
that quickly turned into furrowed brows and waved down managers.
Eventually they explained to us that the hotel had been overbooked for
the weekend, and, they did not have room for us on thursday, friday, or
saturday.
However, if we were willing to to move over to their sister hotel for
those nights, they would be willing to upgrade us to the honeymoon suite
for our nights at the castle, complete with a bottle of champagne, and
provide us with dinner. Additionally, they would upgrade our room at the
crowne plaza to a king, and provided us with a cab ride over there, and
a shuttle to the airport. With heavy hearts, we accepted, trying not to
skip as we headed up to hotel room that dwarfed a few of the apartments
that I lived in.
Once up there, reunited with the contact solution for the first time in
three days, I effectively blinded my self, and we took a short nap (that
turned into 4 hours) before heading down to temple bar area in search of
the elusive steak sandwich.
After a bit of wandering and a fair amount of being quite lost, we
stumbled into the recommended pub, the Banker's something or other, only
to be told that their chef had the night off, and that we should try
back another night, but that we could have a pint and some bacon crisps
before we go.
A well meaning couple at the pub pointed us in the direction of
Darwin's, a full fledged steakhouse. It was good, though a bit pricier
than the steak sandwich. Legs tired, we decided to call it a night.
The next morning found us on our way to Howth (rhymes with both) and we
ate at the Bloody Stream. (Named after a battle that left the stream
blood red for quite a while, not for any other reason you might be
thinking) Had a bacon cheese burger there. The irish interpretation of
bacon is interesting, to say the least. It's more like thin ham steak
with a lot of salt.
We wandered to docks, looking at all the restaurants and shops, watched
a fat seal fight with seagulls over the fish that the tourists were
tossing at them. we walked along the edge of the ocean, stood under a
lighthouse or two, and photographed an island in the distance.
That night we took advantage of our complimentary dinner, and it was
quite good. The sheer number of ways that steak can be prepared is
astounding. Topped that off with a night at the hotel's bar, reaffirmed
the knowledge that Irish Guinness is the best beer I've ever had. Found
that the american exports seem to exclusively be budweiser and coors
light. Not sure why we're exporting only the worst beer we have, maybe
we just want to keep the good stuff for ourselves. After all, if people
drink that piss they call Budwiser, I can't imagine how fast they would
down a good bach, like shiner, or any of the texas microbrews.
Caught up to this morning, where we awoke and headed down to O'Connel
street for some shopping. Department stores seem to be a universal maze
that traps the unwary male with his new wife. Having struggled free an
hour or so later, with nothing actually purchased, we made our way to
another pub, where I finally got my long sought steak sandwich, and
another two pints of the good stuff.
A little more shopping, and we began the process of finding our way
home, took the taxi from the castle to the new hotel ( the new room is
nice, in a very businessy sense, but no honeymoon suite) and now I sit
writing this.
Feeling quite caught up, it's now time to search for some more food, and
a pint or two, before calling it a night.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Honeymoon Blogs pt 1
Trip notes, evening, 9/21:
For those that don't know, our plane from austin, delayed on the ground
and in the air, instead of landing the 45 min before the dublin plane
left, like it was supposed to, landed just in time for us to run across
half the airport, and skid to a stop in front of the gate to be told by
the gate attended that we had missed it by just about 8 min.
The delta customer service was, contrary to most reports, was friendly
and as helpful as regulations allowed them to be, though a little worn
from having about 15% of the air travelers for the day yell at them.
Storm season is a bad time to work in airline customer service.
We got a discounted hotel room, and a couple of tickets for free drinks,
and were rebooked for the next flight to dublin. Unfortunately, we had
not counted on exactly how rare flights from georgia to dublin actually
are, so the earliest was a flight boards 8:25 tonight, a full 24 hours
after our previous plane left. We had lost a day in Ireland, and were
both frazzled and upset.
A little food and a good night's sleep later, we were able to consider
the upsides. Atlanta, despite the fact that we really didn't want to be
here, did have a pretty wide range of cool things to see and do, and a
comprehensive mass transit system that could get us there.
We made it out to five points, the atlanta underground, and the
coca-cola museum. We were thinking of heading to the aquarium and a
movie, but time and weather worked against us.
We made it back to the airport, checked in, and changed currency, and
are now waiting outside the gate for boarding. Looks like we'll be
waiting another half hour or so.
For those that don't know, our plane from austin, delayed on the ground
and in the air, instead of landing the 45 min before the dublin plane
left, like it was supposed to, landed just in time for us to run across
half the airport, and skid to a stop in front of the gate to be told by
the gate attended that we had missed it by just about 8 min.
The delta customer service was, contrary to most reports, was friendly
and as helpful as regulations allowed them to be, though a little worn
from having about 15% of the air travelers for the day yell at them.
Storm season is a bad time to work in airline customer service.
We got a discounted hotel room, and a couple of tickets for free drinks,
and were rebooked for the next flight to dublin. Unfortunately, we had
not counted on exactly how rare flights from georgia to dublin actually
are, so the earliest was a flight boards 8:25 tonight, a full 24 hours
after our previous plane left. We had lost a day in Ireland, and were
both frazzled and upset.
A little food and a good night's sleep later, we were able to consider
the upsides. Atlanta, despite the fact that we really didn't want to be
here, did have a pretty wide range of cool things to see and do, and a
comprehensive mass transit system that could get us there.
We made it out to five points, the atlanta underground, and the
coca-cola museum. We were thinking of heading to the aquarium and a
movie, but time and weather worked against us.
We made it back to the airport, checked in, and changed currency, and
are now waiting outside the gate for boarding. Looks like we'll be
waiting another half hour or so.
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