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Published: February 7th 2010
Coffee
Coffee in Europe is fabulous. This Americano is considered a normal coffee!We arrived in Dublin yesterday. Our flight left from the Gatwick airport at 6pm, so we had the morning to explore London a bit more. One tube stop away from us was Notting Hill Gate, so we headed over and went to the Portabello Road Market. It was soooo busy - apparently what everyone does on a Saturday! The market was huge - blocks upon blocks of antique dealers, with everything from silverware to books to cameras and jewelry. We didn't want to spend money though, so we wented to the V&A museum, which feature Medieval and Renaissance works. We saw a replica of David and a variety of other amazing pieces - humongous pillars, Japanese history from the Edo period, one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks... lots of amazing history. We just don't have that kind of stuff in North America!
We had to get to Victoria station to catch the train to Gatwick, which took us a couple of transfers since the Circle line was out of order for maintenance on the weekend. We got in line for the Gatwick Express, which was supposed to be non-stop service to the airport, but found out we could save 10
On the Liffey
our apartment building is the white building with the windows on the left corner. pounds if we took the normal train, which we did. The normal train was supposed to take 40 min, and the Express train was supposed to take 30 min. We bought our tickets 10 min before the train was supposed to leave, so we grabbed our tickets and went in the direction of the platforms, realizing that the platform number wasn't on our ticket. We ended up finding out the platform of our train about 45 seconds before the train left, so we ran and jumped on with about 10 seconds to spare.
The train ended up taking only 20 min, so we were really glad that we didn't pay for the express train! We arrived before Ryanair even opened to check in, so we sat in a pub until check in time. We were a bit nervous about checking in, since we were carrying on our backpacks to save money (there's a 15 euro charge for your first piece of checked luggage) and knew that Ryanair was very strict about the weight and size of the carry-ons. They could weigh no more than 10 kg and the size was restricted to 55 x 40 x 20 cm. We
were good for length and width; it was the depth we were a bit worried about. They weighed our backpacks when we checked in (Tim's weighed 8.4 and mine was 9.6), so we were good to go there. We went through security and got in line at our gate, and realized as we were going through that some people were having to 'prove' that their bags were small enough by stuffing it in the carry-on luggage measuring thingy. We were SO NERVOUS.... but we weren't asked to prove our bags. Ryanair was a success, and an hour and 10 min later, we arrived in Dublin.
Side note: Security was hilarious. I had a jar of jam in my bag, not realizing that it's considered a gel so it had to be under 100 ml, which it wasn't. The lady asked me if I had anything sharp in my bag, which I didn't, and then mentioned it looked like I had glass or a jar. I told her she could take the jam, that it wasn't a big deal, and she started telling me that a lot of people come through with jam that they bought from Harrods as gift
and she had to take the jam. I told her mine didn't matter, and she said, “I know, it's Tesco.” (Tesco is a really cheap grocery store). It was pretty funny.
Another side note: Police were walking around with giant rifles. I know that happens, I just didn't realize that it happens in England.
We took the bus downtown London and found our apartment, which is amazing by the way. We went from a room the size of our living room in Edmonton to a two bedroom apartment the size of our apartment! We have a couch! A tv with more than one chanel! Two bedrooms with a double bed (not two twin beds pushed together)! There's even a washing machine. Heaven! We had stopped by the tourist centre in the airport and the guy had recommended a pub near our apartment, so we went to find it. It took a bit of time, since most streets aren't actually marked with street names apparently, but we eventually found it.
Now, when people talk about the Irish, they talk about how much they can drink. I can tell you, from personal experience, that this is absolutely true. Cobblestones
was PACKED. By packed I mean standing room only, and we barely got in the door. The temperature must have been 25 degrees. It was stuffy, and smelled like beer. People were yelling and cheersing and walking around with two pints each. A fiddler was in the corner, and all you could hear was an accordion. It was awesome. We didn't stay because we really needed food, but hope to go back at some point this week.
Last night's sleep was the first solid sleep we have had since Europe... London was awesome, but it was quite loud and two single beds mean there's a crack which is no fun to wake up in. Last night was so quiet and dark! Part of the apartment booking was a free breakfast the first morning of our stay, so we went down and enjoyed a delicious Irish breakfast, which is a lot of meat. One egg, two sausages, back bacon, 'pudding' (which was a hashbrown/meat/cakey thing) and beans. We then spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon researching what to do in London, which was really nice. It's much more relaxed here.
We decided to go out and tour the
Kilmainham Gaol. Again, hard to find, because of the lack of street signs, but found it after asking a local for help and walking through a beautiful walkway through the Art Museum (we'll go back to check out the insides later). The jail was amazing. We learned so much about Ireland's history. The tour is going to be a blog post of itself...
Random moments of note:
- drinking a Guiness in Ireland
- hearing U2 on the radio in Ireland
- trying to understand Irish people can be challenging, to say the least.
The end. Kilmainham blog coming soon.
S.
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deleted_49612
Ah, those photos bring back memories. I lived in that area in Dublin for 7 years. I have to laugh at the coffee being great comment, on the photo. There used to be so many complains about the coffee in Ireland, that experts were sent around to bars and cafes to teach those who work there how to make it properly. Looks like the lessons payed off. :D