Dubai to Dublin

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After our late dinner, which was almost a midnight snack, we both managed to sleep (doze) for quite a bit of the Melbourne to Dubai leg of our journey. This was despite having our overhead vents open to gale force to try to create a germ-free zone around us?? I HATE sitting in a draft but prepared to suffer it if I can arrive in Europe without picking up a bug. Only time will tell if it was worth it. To combat the cold draft we both wore beanies for much of the flight so looked like real weirdos. Fellow traveller, Steve, spotted our head wear and said that we looked like a couple of criminals hunched in our seats. We actually found that the Beanies doubled up well as eye masks if we pulled the fronts down over our foreheads. Very daggy indeed!

At some point during our 14-hour flight Bernie watched ‘The Painter’ and another entirely unmemorable movie. I watched ‘Barbie’ which probably wasn’t as vacuous as I anticipated it might be, followed by two episodes of the new Frasier. Still getting to know the other characters (Frasier’s son and nephew and his son’s friend’s widow with child) my initial impression is that it’s not as good as the original. What is it anyway? A spin-off or a spin-off??

Despite leaving Melbourne with our pilot anticipating an early arrival, we arrived on time at 5.15am. With our luggage checked through to Dublin it was only a matter of getting ourselves from Gate 10 to … Gate 11 … via a circuitous route that took us through security screening again! The stupid plastic belt I am wearing has toothy things that click into the catch on the opposite end of the belt. What a pain those a proving to be trying to re-thread my belt repeatedly after the security palaver! Thinking more and more seriously about pants with an elasticized waist for future trips. To go with my in-flight beanie of course!!

When we reached Gate 11 we had some time to sit and wait for boarding to commence. Bernie checked our emails and discovered an email advising that the ‘Book of Kells Experience’ booked for tomorrow (Wednesday) has been cancelled due to a student protest. No prizes for guessing what the protest is about since university students around the world are holding similar demonstrations.

There was much discussion about when we could fit the experience into our itinerary. Bernie checked and it is, of course, booked out right through the rest of this week. We can probably schedule it for our return to Dublin in early June BUT then we have to try to fit it around a visit to Kilmainham Jail and the Guinness Brewery which were the activities planned for early June in Dublin. We have discovered so many activities that need to be pre-booked on this trip and have to be alert to going online the date that bookings open to get our tix as they all seem to book out very quickly.

After barely two hours on the ground, it was time to board the 777-300ER for the next leg of our journey to Dublin. Groan, another eight hours cooped up on a plane. With it now daytime in Europe we tried not to sleep/doze too much more. Bernie watched a sci-fi movie about artificial intelligence taking over (he can’t recall the name of it!) and I binge watched the entire first season of ‘The Tourist’. This is something I have wanted to watch for ages but just never seemed to get around to it. It stars Irish actor Jamie Dornan as a man who has a car crash in outback Australia and cannot remember who he is when he wakes up in the hospital. It also stars our favourite Icelandic actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as one of the villains. It was intriguing watching the story of who he is and why people are out to kill him unfold.

Bernie didn’t have such a good flight having orange juice spilt all down his left side when the meal service was being collected. All they offered him was a few serviettes to mop up. Couldn’t they have found one of those hot face washers to enable a more thorough wiping up of the sticky juice?? Fortunately, I had some disinfectant wipes that he was able to finish off with.

Then, as we waiting to de-plane (landed on time but it seemed to take ages before we started filing out to the air bridge) he had a tooth fall out! Well, maybe a tooth-like filling that has been fitted at some stage as it appeared to have a pin in it??? Not great on day one of our holiday, but he claimed it doesn’t hurt, it has just created a gap in his mouth that feels … different. Hopefully he can manage until we return home and won’t deteriorate to a point where it requires emergency dental work with an unknown dentist. Fingers crossed on that one.

Even though it took ages to get out of the plane it took even longer for our luggage to be unloaded and transferred to the the baggage carousel. We passed quickly through immigration and then settled in for a long wait before our luggage plopped out onto the carousel. All four bags arrived together so they must’ve been all together in the container that came through from Melbourne. Always great to have your bags arrive at your final destination when you’ve had a relatively short transit time through another airport/country.

The driver we had booked to take us to our hotel was ready and waiting for us. Always another positive! David drove us into the city to our accommodation at the Staycity Aparthotels Dublin Castle. He gave us quite a few hints and tips for things to do and places to eat near to our hotel.

Although we arrived about an hour ahead of the scheduled check-in time of 3.00pm we were able to be checked-in straight away. That is yet another HUGE positive coming off a full day of travelling! We went up to our rooms and agreed to meet up at 4.00pm after we had all freshened up. The rooms are compact but have all we will need for our four nights in Dublin’s fair city.

Feeling so much better after showering and cleaning our teeth we headed out for a walk to and around the nearby St Stephen’s Green Park. The weather was fine but cool which did not stop the park from being FULL of people. So many people lounging around on the grass after work, after uni? Some of the people in the park did appear to be tourists like us but the vast majority seemed to be locals. It’s a beautiful park and I guess after a long, cold winter the Dubliners thought it was a near perfect spring afternoon for enjoying their park.

On our way back to the hotel we purchased some breakfast supplies from the Lidl supermarket which is also located quite close. It’s much more economical to do self-catered breakfasts while we are here.

All starting to flag we headed to the Bull and Castle pub which was recommended by David. We managed to get through a light meal without falling asleep on our plates! Bernie and Steve enjoyed their first Guinnesses of the holiday. Both fans of a stout beer I’m sure they will be the first of many.

Back at the hotel I managed only a few words for the blog before I had to admit defeat and climb into bed just after 8.00pm. I tried to read a couple of pages of my book, but my brain was too tired to manage it. I reckon I was asleep before 8.30pm. Bernie tells me he wasn’t far behind climbing into bed about 9.00pm. I was dead to the world and didn’t notice.



Steps: 11,371 (7.61kms)

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Comments

[Wade]

Poor Bernie
Well guys, this sounds like a really amazing trip. We have seen the book Kells, was really wonderful. Have a great time and keep Bernie out of trouble.By the way, Business Class is worth every dollar....specially at our age.